Team SMG vs G2 Gozen VCT Game Changers Championship 2023: G2 makes Map 3 look easy to win the series

The first Upper Semifinals game is here at the VCT Game Changers Championship 2023. We are given a series of Team SMG vs G2 Gozen that could go either way. The best-of-three match will decide who remains unbeaten in the tournament and heads on to the Upper Final.

Team SMG is coming off of a huge win against the #1 NA Seed. They bested Evil Geniuses with a wild four Duelist display on map one. This keeps their win streak alive, but that's not good enough. Team SMG wants to battle their way to a championship.

A brick wall could potentially be waiting, however, in the form of G2 Gozen. The 2022 champions started their title defense with a victory over hometown favorite Team Liquid. If you ask them, they have no intention of slowing down on their way to consecutive trophies.

Only one team can keep their winning ways intact. And it truly feels like a game that cannot be predicted. Team SMG vs G2 Gozen could see an upset, it could be close, or we could see yet another beatdown at the GC Championship tournament. Let's find out how it unfolds.

As always, you can watch any of the VCT Game Changers Championship 2023 on the official VALORANT channels. Team SMG vs G2 Gozen will be live on VALORANT's Twitch and YouTube. There are also plenty of co-streams to tune into. Why not make it easy, though? Just watch along with us in the stream above!

G2 was not going to let Team SMG steamroll them like the APAC reps did to EG. On the flip side, SMG was not going to go down without a fight. They proved why they've won so many matches in a row, keeping even with G2 Gozen and eventually taking a solid lead. G2 fought back, though, thanks to big plays from Petra. SMG stayed ahead before the half with seven rounds to their name.

That lead was extended early into the second half. SMG showed their aggression that dominated EG, giving them the pistol. A speedy ninth round victory soon followed. It wasn't enough to push them too far ahead, however. G2 Gozen and their championship prowess showed as they battled back into it. Eventually, Team SMG had enough. They punished A Site over and over for round after round to take map one over the defending champs.

The first appearance of Split at the VCT Game Changers Championship 2023 started in favor of Team SMG. G2 responded in the bonus to get on the board early. Glance then took out three SMG players in order to tie it up. It looked as if G2 would pile on rounds with the economy going their way, and they came out of their defensive side with a decent lead. The gap would be extended by roxi with a nasty 4k Clutch to send the teams to halftime.

G2 Gozen had a large portion of the crowd behind them in this one. Chants of "let's go G2" roared through the arena. That fired them up for two easy rounds, finding their way to double digits. With weapons in hand, though, SMG pushed back. Kohaibi locked things down as Cypher and helped SMG get their rounds up. This saw the chants for the APAC team to ring. It wasn't long until the map tied at 10 with a sick spray transfer from Kamiyu. And just like that, the teams fought their way to overtime.

Petra and enerii both snagged three kills, but G2's other players stepped up just a bit more to give them the first OT round. Roxi then put an exclamation point on the victory with a knife kill. This came after G2 easily took B Site, got the Spike down, and eliminated all of SMG to even the series.

In the only map three of the tournament thus far, we also saw the professional debut of Petra on Jett. She immediately showed off with three precision Sheriff kills. As is the trend in this series, the bonus went to the team down in rounds. That stopped any chance of G2 running away with it. It didn't stop them from keeping the lead through the half, however. A doable four-round deficit waited for SMG on the other side of halftime.

G2 made sure the doable became impossible. They had no problems reaching double digits. Keeping the pressure on Team SMG, Petra and her 4k increased the G2 Gozen lead. Shortly after that, it was map and series point for 2022's world champions. Unfortunately for Team SMG, a comeback for overtime was not in the cards like it was on Split. They're down in the Lower Bracket and G2 Gozen stays up top.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for more esports news and be sure to check out the full results for the VCT Game Changers Championship 2023.