The second set of matches in Stockholm saw Mirage played twice, with the duel between G2 and TYLOO being the headliner as it featured the return of Kenny “kennyS” Schrub to the French-Balkan roster.
The “stand-in AWPer” of the squad took the spot of Nemanja “nexa” Isaković, who was unable to make it to the event due to visa issues, and posted a 0.96 rating in his first official match in 9 months. kennyS admits he was “a bit stressed” to compete again after such a long time, and said that overconfidence and miscommunication allowed TYLOO to get back into the game after G2 was up 12-3.
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kennyS to step in for G2 at IEM Winter as nexa faces visa issues
Meanwhile, “dead team” Liquid held their ground against the lineup ranked 15th in the world, OG. Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen‘s squad missed out on recent premier tournaments such as the PGL Major and the BLAST Premier Fall Final, and were hoping to leave a better impression at IEM Winter – but are now one BO3 away from elimination.
kennyS is back in G2, but NiKo was the star of the show
YuLun “Summer” Cai and Zhenghao “DANK1NG” Lv turned around a 2v4 in the pistol to give TYLOO the early lead, but it was a short-lived one. A mixed-buy from G2 in round 3 allowed them to establish dominance and take over the half, 12-3. YuanZhang “Attacker” Sheng‘s 1v4 in the second pistol was the lifeline the Chinese team needed, inspiring a comeback as TYLOO put up a solid CT side. Failing to convert clutches hurt the French-Balkan team, but they managed to break into sites and closed out the match just as things started looking dangerous
With their opponents having a slow start to the defensive side of Mirage, OG swiftly assumed the lead on the map, 7-2. It was the North American star duo Keith “NAF” Markovic and Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski that led the comeback as Liquid.
They finished the CT side on a high note (five out of six rounds won) and took over that momentum to the offense, grabbing the lead in no time. Aleksib‘s team went down with a loss as they mustered just 4 rounds on the defense, while the IGL topped the charts for kills despite posting a 0-6 record in opening duels.
Following these results, Liquid will face G2 in a game that decided a spot in the playoffs, while OG will have to take down TYLOO to continue their run in the tournament.
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Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/32899/g2-defeat-tyloo-in-kennys-return-liquid-overcome-og