G2 are one result away from a very different tournament than the one they planned for. A 1-2 defeat to 1win in Swiss round 2 of ESL Pro League Season 24 has dropped them into the 0-2 pool, and it is their third loss in a row after a week that also included a 0-3 sweep by Legacy in the FISSURE Playground 3 final and a 0-2 defeat to Natus Vincere on Friday.
The ranking fallout followed quickly. G2 slip one place to eighth in the global VRS, while 1win jump five places to 33rd.
A Dust2 loss G2 have seen before
The veto set the tone. 1win removed Inferno, G2 removed Cache, and 1win then picked Dust2. G2 answered with Ancient, 1win removed Nuke, G2 removed Anubis, and Mirage was left as the decider.
Dust2 has been a problem map for G2, and this was another example. 1win led 8-4 at the half, G2 won the second half 7-5, and it still was not enough: 13-11 to 1win. It was G2's sixth defeat on the map in their last seven games. Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov carried the map with a 1.72 rating.
Ancient went the other way. G2 took the first half 11-1 and finished 13-1, the most lopsided result of the series and a reminder of what the map pick was supposed to do. They could not bring it into Mirage.
Mirage goes to BELCHONOKK
Andrey "BELCHONOKK" Yasinskiy decided the decider. He posted a 2.09 rating on Mirage with seven multi-kills and a +11.83% round swing as 1win won 13-8. 1win led 7-5 at the half and 6-3 in the second.
Over the whole series BELCHONOKK finished with a 1.41 rating, 52 kills to 40 deaths and 94.6 ADR, the best numbers of any player in the match.
G2's best player over the series was Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko, who went 49-40 with a 1.18 rating. All five G2 players finished at 1.00 or above, but only huNter-, MATYS and NertZ finished with a positive round swing alongside him in the table below, and HeavyGod's own swing was -1.80%.
Player | Team | K-D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BELCHONOKK | 1win | 52-40 | +4.41% | 94.6 | 71.2% | 1.41 |
| Ax1Le | 1win | 44-39 | +1.50% | 80.4 | 76.3% | 1.19 |
| HeavyGod | G2 | 49-40 | -1.80% | 82.2 | 72.9% | 1.18 |
| huNter- | G2 | 37-40 | +2.35% | 79.7 | 72.9% | 1.15 |
| MATYS | G2 | 37-37 | +1.05% | 65.9 | 72.9% | 1.08 |
| NertZ | G2 | 37-41 | +0.96% | 69.9 | 72.9% | 1.06 |
| r1nkle | G2 | 40-37 | -0.18% | 66.5 | 72.9% | 1 |
| nafany | 1win | 33-41 | -2.37% | 63.8 | 69.5% | 0.89 |
| fame | 1win | 32-43 | -2.52% | 62.1 | 69.5% | 0.82 |
| ArtFr0st | 1win | 33-38 | -3.54% | 54.9 | 72.9% | 0.75 |
The table shows how close the series was in ratings terms. G2's five players all rated higher than 1win's bottom three, yet 1win won because BELCHONOKK and Ax1Le delivered on the two maps that decided it.
"A matter of time"
1win captain Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov was measured about G2 afterward, and he put the map pool at the centre of it.
He added that G2 have a good Ancient but that Dust2 is "their great weakness," and that it is a matter of time before they fix it. "For now, we were better, I believe," he said.
Nafany, visibly emotional in the post-match interview, also used the moment to thank an HLTV user named Rancheros, who he said supports Ax1Le in every match. According to nafany, Rancheros has posted the first comment on every 1win match page since TDK. "I want to say big thanks to such people because it's really important," he said.
What it means
For 1win, the win lifts them to 33rd in the VRS and keeps them out of the 0-2 pool. For G2, it is a third consecutive loss in a week that began with the FISSURE Playground 3 final and now has them in the 0-2 pool at ESL Pro League Season 24. The Ancient scoreline showed they can still dominate when a map suits them, and the Dust2 record gives their opponents a clear point to aim at.
Counter-Strike 2
ESL Pro League Season 24
1win
G2 Esports
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