G2 send FaZe to 'group of death' lower bracket in Katowice

FaZe are now on a collision course with the winner of Cloud9 and IHC in the lower bracket while G2 look ahead to playing in the Spodek Arena.

G2 and FaZe entered their IEM Katowice Group A upper bracket semi-final bout as second and third best teams in the world while still undefeated in 2023 after the BLAST Premier Groups and their opening matches in Poland. The two also played two bouts late in 2022 at the BLAST World Final, splitting the record.

This time around it was G2, who are looking stronger and stronger by the day, who not only won the series but did so in style without dropping a map. They squeezed in-extremis through their Nuke pick, 16-14, before surprising on Ancient, a map Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and company played only once in the past trimester — a 4-16 thrashing at the hands of no other team than FaZe.

All smiles in the G2 camp as they secured a spot in the Spodek

FaZe made a statement with a clean pistol round win on the defending side of Nuke, which they followed up twice, but with guns in play G2 struck right back to get into a comfortable rhythm on the attack that led to the Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen-led squad reaching the half ahead by three, 9-6.

G2 kept their lead early on the defense, but Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and his men did good enough work to bring it to an 11-11 tie. An ice-cold Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage — proving his fine form in the beginning of 2023 is no fluke —, then turned the tides in his team’s favor with a 1vs2 clutch on a half-buy round. The home map victory didn’t come easy, though, as it ended up going down to the wire, 16-14.

Going into Ancient G2 lost the pistol round on the defense, which could make one think that they were about to struggle on a map they do not play, but it was nothing further than the truth. The team’s three star riflers, NiKo, jks and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač fired on all cylinders and put on a show as CTs despite star AWPer Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov not having much impact to secure the half by an ample 10-5.

Experts at winning forcebuys, G2 did just that after losing the second pistol round of the map. karrigan christened the first gun round with three opening kills, but NiKo and jks turned it around as the Australian won a clutch 1vs1 on six HP. FaZe then hit bottom and could not find a way out from there on out, losing out 7-16 to be sent to the lower bracket.

G2 have therefore secured a spot at the Spodek Arena, where they will play the tournament’s playoffs after figuring out their seeding in the Group A upper bracket final, while FaZe will pair up with the winner of IHC and Cloud9 in the second round of the group of death’s lower bracket.

IEM Katowice 2023Best of 3 G2Matchpage 2 0 5th February 2023 FaZe 16Nuke 14 16Ancient 7

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	47 - 26	+21	81.6	1.40
Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-	47 - 34	+13	91.7	1.25
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	41 - 34	+7	84.4	1.17
Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenHooXi	33 - 33	0	67.8	0.98
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipovm0NESY	26 - 33	-7	58.8	0.90

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	37 - 37	0	76.6	1.05
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	36 - 38	-2	71.9	1.01
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	32 - 39	-7	72.8	0.96
Helvijs 'broky' Saukantsbroky	36 - 39	-3	70.3	0.90
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	19 - 43	-24	50.8	0.61

Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 0.86 Maps played: 858 KPR: 0.58 DPR: 0.68 Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 1527 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 IHC #36 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarTengis 'sk0R' BatjargalTuvshintugs 'Annihilation' NyamdorjGaridmagnai 'bLitz' ByambasurenSodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold Erdenedalai 'maaRaa' Bayanbat Cloud9 #12 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimur 'buster' TulepovSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner Justin 'jks' Savage Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1241 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.63 FaZe #3 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 32 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 0.91 Maps played: 2088 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.69 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 25 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 1685 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.67 Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov Age: 17 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 323 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.60 G2 #2 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačJustin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Jan 'Swani' Müller