“No one can beat G2 10 times in a row,” huNter- said happily after lifting the trophy on stage.
malbsMd and Snax lifted the trophy for the first time with G2
G2 became the champions of BLAST Premier Fall Final after overcoming Natus Vincere 3-1 in the final, ending a 0-9 losing streak against a team led by Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen to won the first trophy with Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski and Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa.
This is G2's second trophy this year, following their victory at IEM Dallas, where Jake "Stewie2K" Yip shined in his magical journey to the championship.
The team has been consistently in the playoffs all year and remains in the title race after adding malbsMd and Snax during the tournament break. However, G2 was troubled by a series of consecutive losses against Natus Vincere, which ruined G2's debut at the Esports World Cup and ESL Pro League Season 20.
Aleksib's team holds a 9-0 record against G2 since internationalization in July 2023 and also defeated G2 2-0 in the Fall Final group stage. However, as Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač said right after G2 lifted the trophy, "No one can beat G2 10 times in a row."
Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov's outstanding performance, especially in the first three maps, was decisive in G2's victory. With a rating of 1.42 in the series and six clutch situations, the Russian sniper had a great influence on the course of the match, in stark contrast to his opponent Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov, who finished the match at the bottom of the table with a rating of 0.87.
This is Snax's first trophy since ESL One New York 2018 and also his first win as official captain, although doubts about his leadership and form still exist. throughout the tournament, including after the final. However, G2's overall strength was enough to make a difference, especially when malbsMd shined on the Inferno map to help the team take the throne and win the first trophy of their career.
Things started when G2 started well on the CT side of the Ancient map, winning the pistol and 2v2 phase in the first gun round to take a 4-0 lead. Natus Vincere made a mistake after winning the first round, but gradually regained form in the second half with the score tied thanks to an impressive performance from Aleksib with K-D 13-7 and ADR 117.
However, NAVI could not maintain their form in the second half, as a double knife kill from malbsMd helped G2 lift their spirits and win four consecutive rounds to reach double-digit points. Although NAVI held out for a while thanks to a quad kill from Aleksib, they were ultimately unable to withstand a powerful attack from Nikola "NiKo" Kovač as G2 finished 13-9.
NAVI made a bit of a comeback on Dust2, producing a tense round with many highlights after starting 4-1.
But poor handling in the gun rounds from NAVI helped G2 turn the situation around with a score of 10-8. Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy was especially unable to make a big impact.
NAVI exploited Snax and huNter-'s B defense, but were stopped thanks to multi-kills from m0NESY and malbsMd, helping G2 win 13-11.
It looked like Natus Vincere would completely collapse on Mirage as G2 took a 9-1 lead with late saves.
However, a lucky bullet from w0nderful to win a 1v2 situation became the turning point, helping NAVI win the last two rounds of the first half. An excellent performance from Mihai "iM" Ivan in the Connector region helped NAVI maintain momentum and win the map with a score of 13-11.
The break between the third and fourth maps didn't help NAVI, as G2 completely dominated Inferno to win the series.
A few rounds from Justinas "jL" Lekavicius at Banana were NAVI's only significant moments on this map. malbsMd, the Guatemalan shooter, penetrated NAVI's defense multiple times in the first half and combined with m0NESY and huNter- in the second half to quickly end the series with a score of 13-7.