IEM Cologne Final: G2 vs ENCE how did they get there?

IEM Cologne Final: G2 vs ENCE how did they get there?

7. August 2023 by Andrew Williams

At the IEM Cologne G2 won their semi-final against Astralis. Then G2 played ENCE in the final, who won against Vitality before. In the finale G2 took down ENCE 3:1 with a quite convincing performance. They won 16:4 on Nuke, 16:10 on Mirage and with their backs against the wall ENCE pulled one back on Anubis, taking it 16:13, the BO5 score was 2:1 already and G2 finished it by winning Ancient 16:9.

Previously G2 defeated Astralis with 2:0 (Ancient 16-12, Inferno 16-9). Also, ENCE played against Team Vitality and won 2-1. G2 then took home the massive $400,000 prize money and CS:GO glory against ENCE.

After the Final, that happened yesterday, we will of course also bring you an in-depth article about the exciting match, but here we want to talk about how the two teams made it to the final in the first place!

G2 defeats Astralis

G2 surged straight ahead on the first map and have Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov to thank for giving them a quick 10-5 lead. Benjamin “blameF” Bremer of Astralis got an ace in the second pistol round to push his team again, but it wasn’t enough to stand up to a dominant G2. G2 controlled the map once the Eco on the T-side was under control. Although Astralis fought back valiantly, G2 finished the map with a score of 16:12.

The second map was Inferno. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač was the driving force behind his team, and by the break the score was 9:6. Astralis looked good at the start of the half, but was then overtaken by G2, and it wasn’t long before G2 finished the map with a clear 16:9 to punch their ticket to the Grand Final.

ENCE dominates Vitality

ENCE won 2-1 against Vitality (16-14 Mirage, 14-16 Nuke, Vertigo 16-7). ENCE’s success depended largely on Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia, who had a rating of 1.48. The first map was Mirage and Vitality took a comfortable 9:6 lead. However, the tide turned and ENCE was able to close the gap. ENCE stepped on the gas and Snappi even made a 1vs2 clutch to help his team win the map.

The second map was Nuke and Vitality realized the gravity of the situation as the team suddenly started playing very aggressively and cornering ENCE on the T-side. However, Vitality was stopped by Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbauts and could not get ahead. At halftime, the score was 11-4.

After the change of sides SunPayus had his big appearance. The Spanish pro made a whopping 31 kills by the end of the map. But Vitality was determined not to give up and managed to end the game 16-14 in the last second to force a decider on Vertigo.

Both teams engaged in a fierce battle on Vertigo. SunPayus opened up bombsites left and right to put his team ahead 10-5. Ultimately, ENCE prevailed 16-7 to win the map. Ultimately it wasn’t enough for ENCE though, as they fell short in the Final against G2.