G2 send FURIA to BLAST Premier Global Final lower bracket

Lucas "⁠honda⁠" Cano impressed on his debut, but Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač was too much of a difference-maker in this series.

G2 are through to the upper bracket semi-finals stage of the BLAST Premier Global Final following a hard-fought 2-1 victory over FURIA. The Brazilians scrapped to a 16-14 victory on Mirage after losing their map pick of Inferno, but they could not complete the reverse sweep as the European side ran out comfortable winners on Nuke.

With this victory, G2 will set up an exciting clash with current world No.1 Astralis in the next stage of the upper bracket. FURIA, on the other hand, will have to play an elimination series against Evil Geniuses, one of their main rivals in North America.

NiKo had a massive impact on all of the maps

honda lit up the server in the opening stages of the series with aces in the second and fourth rounds of Inferno, the first one consisting of four Desert Eagle kills while defending the B site solo. G2 eventually recovered and secured most of the final rounds of the half, bringing the deficit to a solitary round before the break.

G2 were far more dominant once they switched to the CT side and the full-buy rounds started, going on a 10-1 run to lock down the map.

Mirage began with G2 claiming the pistol round and the following three for a 4-0 start. The Brazilians broke that streak with a much-needed force buy in the fifth round and saw Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato secure a 1v3 clutch right after. The rest of the half was highly contested, with G2 coming out on top by the narrowest of margins as NiKo beat Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan in a 1v1 duel in the final round.

The back-and-forth battle continued in the second half of Mirage, and even though Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač had a great game, redeeming himself from a disappointing performance in Inferno, it was honda who shined when it mattered the most. The youngster won a 1v2 clutch to tie the game 14-14 and break G2's economy, paving the way for FURIA to win the map.

The series moved on to Nuke, where honda claimed his third ace, this time in the first pistol round, with five Glock headshots when FURIA were on a 3v5 after-plant. The Brazilians set themselves up for a 4-0 lead, but G2 hit back and went into the break up 8-7.

Despite losing another pistol and the force buy, G2 showed their best T side in the whole series and overcame FURIA's relentless aggression as crunch time began. Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub and NiKo hammered the final nail into the Brazilians' coffin in the 25th round with a 2v4 clutch that left the CT side with limited resources and unable to stop the onslaught.

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020Best of 3 G2Matchpage 2 1 19th January 2021 FURIA 16Inferno 12 14Mirage 16 16Nuke 10

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	70 - 50	+20	93.7	1.31
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS	58 - 46	+12	74.6	1.19
Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovićnexa	59 - 58	+1	72.4	1.06
François 'amanek' Delaunayamanek	48 - 49	-1	62.6	1.00
Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-	53 - 57	-4	66.0	0.92

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	61 - 58	+3	86.8	1.14
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	56 - 47	+9	76.8	1.14
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	46 - 55	-9	63.1	0.90
Lucas 'honda' Canohonda	50 - 62	-12	59.0	0.88
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	44 - 67	-23	60.3	0.73

Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač Age: 25 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1194 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.67 Evil Geniuses #18 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif G2 #9 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković Andrei 'arT' Piovezan Age: 24 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 759 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.70 Lucas 'honda' Cano Age: 20 Team: FURIAS Rating 1.0: 0.90 Maps played: 11 KPR: 0.59 DPR: 0.72 FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoPaytyn 'junior' JohnsonKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 23 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1352 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.67 Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub Age: 25 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1818 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.63 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Age: 21 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 682 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.57