FURIA Defeat G2; Advance To DreamHack Masters Winter Playoffs

FURIA and G2, who won their opening DreamHack Masters Winter matches 2-0 against North and Nemiga, respectively, faced off in the upper bracket semi-final for a spot in the playoffs, but the French-Serbian squad weren’t able to overcome Nicholas “⁠guerri⁠” Nogueira’s men in a three-map series that puts the Brazilians through to the next stage of the tournament, making this their fifth win in a row after their initial two losses on European soil.

A brilliant performance by Vinicius “⁠VINI⁠” Figueiredo on Inferno powered FURIA to win their map pick 16-8 despite losing both pistol rounds, as the 21-year-old ended the 32-round map with 31 kills and a 1.95 rating. A close affair on Mirage ensued, where it was Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač who shined with 33 kills to help get his team over the line, 16-13, but G2 fell off on the decider map, Nuke, where a strong CT side by FURIA gave way to a quick second half, which ended 16-6.

G2’s run at DreamHack Masters Winter isn’t over despite their loss to FURIA, however, as they have one more shot at making the next round through the Group B lower bracket, where they will have a challenging series against no other than Astralis, who are now back to playing under the leadership of Lukas “⁠gla1ve⁠” Rossander.

VINI put on a clinic on Inferno, accruing a 1.95 rating

G2 won the first pistol round of Inferno on the CT side, but FURIA were quick to take the early lead after winning the forcebuy with an explosive play on the A site. The Brazilians started to snowball up to a 7-1 lead before being cleanly swept by G2, who were reinvigorated and went on to win five of the last seven rounds to bring it to 6-9 at the half.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first, with G2 taking the pistol round but then unable to defend against Andrei “⁠arT⁠” Piovezan and company’s second round forcebuy. VINI, who tore through G2 in the first half, continued to show great form on the defense, ending the map with 31 frags in the 32 rounds played as FURIA gave up just one round after the pistol to close it out 16-8.

FURIA brought their momentum to Mirage, where they went up 4-0 before Nemanja “⁠nexa⁠” Isaković was able to win a 1vs2 to get his team on the board. The two teams then traded rounds, which broke the Brazilian squad’s economy and gave G2 an in back into the map as they brought it to a 6-6 tie before leading 8-7 at the switch.

G2 retook a 4vs2 afterplant on B to secure the second pistol round and retain their lead, but were once again unable to secure a second round win as FURIA remained on top with the economic game in their favor, 11-9, before a big three-kill play by NiKo on an A retake got his team back into the game. A 1vs1 clutch by Henrique “⁠HEN1⁠” Teles got FURIA back in the lead, 12-11, but a final push by G2 ending in a successful 2vs2 retake on match point made it 16-13.

G2 will have one more shot at making the playoffs against Astralis

FURIA took a clean pistol round on the CT side of Nuke to kick off the decider map, going up 2-0 before three entry kills gave G2 their first round as the two remaining defenders called for a save. The two teams went neck-and-neck until the eighth round, tied up 4-4, but FURIA were finally able to stabilize on the defense and started to rack rounds up, hitting double digits ahead of the switch.

The Brazilian squad won the second pistol round, following it up twice to reach 14 rounds on the board, after which a few scrappy back-and-forth rounds sufficed to get FURIA to 16 as they claimed the map and series, 16-6, to secure a spot in the playoffs.