G2 Esports

Towards the end of 2020 G2 Esports made an explosive transfer when they acquired Niko from Faze Clan, united him with his cousin huNter-, and set up some very big expectations for the team going forward.

However the squad were unable to live up to the expectations, as they had unsatisfying results in the BLAST Premier Global Finals, and afterwards finishing behind EG and Complexity in the Spring Groups. They were not able to capitalize on their star studded roster and the consensus was that something would have to change.

Coming into the Spring Showdown that change was replacing kennyS with Jackz, and giving AWP duties to Niko and eventually also Amanek depending on what side they were playing.

Coming into the arguably easier side of the bracket, there was still no expectation on G2 Esports to perform in any way during the Spring Showdown. More attention was given to teams like Astralis and Team Spirit.

Facing off in the first round against Team Endpoint, who had recently lost their star player to OG Esports, the Kovač squad were able to get out with a quick 2-0 victory, but without looking too dominating. But a win is a win, and the European roster were only 2 bo3’s away from the Spring Finals!

In the next round stood OG Esports, who with their two new roster members in flameZ and niko didn’t have a lot of playing experience together yet, but were bootcamping in Copenhagen for the tournament.

While most will probably only remember the match for the long technical/admin delays, the two teams were delivering on the server. G2 snatched the first map after TRIPLE OT and multiple match points, only to see OG turn it completely around and smash G2 in the second map. All good three mappers end on Inferno, and for G2 this was even more true as they walked away with the victory.

The final boss would be Team Spirit, a Russian team on the rise and who had looked very strong in previous tournaments – taking a top 4 finish at IEM. Spirit took off sprinting in the first match, and G2 could not keep up. Mirage was never in doubt for Spirit, and they looked poised to take the Spring Final spot. However, as we all know by the fact that you are reading about G2 right now, they were able to reset completely and get the W in the final two maps.

Since then it’s been nothing but top 4 finishes for them, but maybe Spring Final can be the tournament where they jump the rest of the way and secure a spot in the World Final!

Cheer them on in their attempt on Jun 16 when they face off against BIG Clan at 12:30 PM CEST on Twitch.tv/BLASTPremier or Youtube.com/BLASTPremier