malbsMd topped the charts as G2 defeated Spirit in two
G2 have locked in a semi-finals berth at the BLAST Premier World Finals thanks to a win over Team Spirit. The international squad had the measure of their opponents as Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa and Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov topped the charts.
The Guatemalan in particular was instrumental in securing the win. In a post-match interview with esports.gg, malbsMd attributed the success to the team's correct prediction of the veto.
Yeah, we definitely were. We were super ready for that. We knew they were going to pick Anubis, even though I was looking that they were going to pick Ancient because we got 13-0'd on it. The boys knew that it was going to be Anubis. We were super ready for that. We prepared well, also.
When asked about G2's continued success over Spirit, now up 4-0 in series played, malbsMd explained how NiKo's reads on the CT side, combined with Snax's T-side playbook sets them up for success.
I don't know. I feel like we're really comfortable with the way they play. NiKo is really good at reading them, mostly on our CT side. And then, Snax is doing really good calls on T side as well. Things are really good and like, we win most of our duels against them as well.
BLAST Premier World Finals - G2 vs Spirit - Match Recap
- Spirit removed Inferno
- G2 removed Vertigo
- Spirit picked Anubis
- G2 picked Mirage
- Spirit removed Nuke
- G2 removed Ancient
- Dust2 was left over
G2 vs Spirit Rosters - World Finals
G2 | Spirit |
|---|---|
| Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač | Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov |
| Nikola "NiKo" Kovač | Boris "magixx" Vorobyev |
| Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov | Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotja |
| Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa | Danil "donk" Kryshkovets |
| Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski | Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov |
| Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas (C) | Sergey "hally" Shavayev (C) |
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Map 1 - Anubis - G2 outlast Spirit
Anubis kicked off with G2 on the T side. malbsMd cracked open the A site with a double kill to start the proceedings. A mid-take from G2 was thwarted thanks to zont1x's five-seven, but the international side took a 3-1 lead. Sh1ro's made the most of his round four AWP, to level out the score as a technical pause hit the server.
Once the game got back into motion it was G2 all the way. The Snax-led squad consistently broke their way into bombsites and locked the Spirit side out. That trend continued till Round 11, where sh1ro traded zont1x in a 2v1 to finally find Spirit a fourth. The half closed with G2 maintaining a minor lead at 7-5.
malbsMd and m0NESY were having a field day as they denied Spirit any control across the map to lock in a 11-5 lead. Eventually, though, donk took matters into his own hands to crack open Anubis and net his team the first T round. That kicked off a massive streak that brought the score all way to 11-10. But a 1v1 win from Snax turned the tide to ensure overtime at minimum.
Once the teams hit OT, G2's depth of firepower really showed itself. While Snax statistically continued his streak of 37 maps without a positive K-D, the team overall found more success than Spirit to close out a 16-13 win.
Map 2 - Mirage - G2
G2 brought the momentum over to Mirage, starting with a 4-0 lead. And it took a quad kill from donk to finally put Spirit on the board. Spirit would have hoped to turn that into more than just two, but NiKo was having none of it as he cracked the A site defence with his trusty Deagle. Back to back failed clutches from huNter- and malbsMd hurt G2's chances of a massive half, and the two teams walked away with six each.
G2 once again got the pistol win, but it nearly went south for them as Spirit's eco took out two defenders. In the 4v3, Snax's kit luckily shaved enough time off to allow a successful retake. donk may have been matching NiKo's output, but malbsMd and m0NESY had no equal. And it was the former to put in a final 1v2 clutch and secure a 13-10 win.
G2 have now guaranteed a semi-finals appearance at the World Finals. Spirit, meanwhile will go up against FaZe in the quarter-finals in what will be a must-watch series.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for more BLAST Premier World Finals coverage directly from Singapore.
