Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen's men performed well in the Challengers Stage, but felt flat on their faces in the second week of play. fnatic defeated G2 2-1 in a back-and-forth elimination series, knocking out Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and company from the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. The victorious side will go into the last day of the Legends Stage fighting for the last chance to claim a playoff spot in the 2-2 elimination series. The defeat means NiKo, one of the greatest riflers ever seen in Global Offensive, will end the game's cycle without a Major title to his name. The Bosnian superstar attended a total of 12 Majors, falling just short on two soul-crushing occasions at LEAGUE Boston 2018 and PGL Stockholm 2021, where he finished in second place. The series started well for G2 as they came back from a 4-11 deficit on Inferno (19-16) to steal the map away from fnatic courtesy of fantastic performances from Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov and NiKo. Jan "Swani" Müller's team then conceded early leads on Ancient (11-16) and Vertigo (13-16), but were unable to repeat their heroics from Inferno as fnatic closed both maps to secure the series. William "mezii" Merriman was the best performer for fnatic, but moments of magic from Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi late in the series proved crucial for the team's victory in the match. On the other side, Justin "jks" Savage topped the charts across the series with a 1.30 rating to claim the top spot on the leaderboard despite G2's eventual loss. G2 will be left wondering what went wrong in the Legends Stage after a dominant performance in the first Swiss group, which saw the European combine cruise through with an immaculate 3-0 record. A disastrous start to the competition's second stage resulted in losses narrow 13-16 to Vitality and Bad News Eagles, relegating G2 to the 0-2 pool in the first day of play. A win over a struggling FURIA just delayed the inevitable as fnatic eliminated them in the following round. fnatic will face Into the Breach for tournament survival on Sunday no matter the outcome in the match between GamerLegion and Apeks. It will be the last chance for mezii's men to stay alive in Paris and claim their second consecutive appearance in Major playoffs.fnatic
Matchpage 2 1 15th May 2023
G2 16Inferno 19 16Ancient 11 16Vertigo 13
fnatic
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii
66 - 57 +9 75.7 1.12 Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidinicoodoz
66 - 53 +13 68.3 1.09 Fredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenroeJ
62 - 62 0 74.9 1.03 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ
58 - 62 -4 67.9 1.02 Dion 'FASHR' DerksenFASHR
52 - 65 -13 70.6 0.96 G2
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Justin 'jks' Savagejks
78 - 59 +19 88.2 1.30 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo
58 - 59 -1 75.7 1.07 Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipovm0NESY
56 - 60 -4 73.1 1.06 Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-
68 - 63 +5 74.8 1.06 Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenHooXi
36 - 65 -29 50.6 0.76 HEROIC
Vitality
3W - 1L
Monte
Liquid
2W - 1L
Apeks
GamerLegion
2W - 2L
Ninjas in Pyjamas
fnatic
Into the Breach
FaZe
Natus Vincere
1W - 3L
G2
Bad News Eagles
ENCE
0W - 3L
9INE
FURIA
FURIA #9
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Rafael 'saffee' Costa
André 'drop' Abreu
Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira
fnatic #15
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson
Dion 'FASHR' Derksen
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen
William 'mezii' Merriman
Jamie 'keita' Hall
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi
Age: 22 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 859 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.61
Jan 'Swani' Müller
Age: 28 Team: G2C
Justin 'jks' Savage
Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1284 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.63
Apeks #19
Martin 'STYKO' Styk
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad
Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyński
Bad News Eagles #21
Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi
Sener 'SENER1' Mahmuti
Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi
Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budeci
Genc 'gxx-' Kolgeci
Jonatan 'Devilwalk' Lundberg
Into the Breach #28
Karol 'rallen' Rodowicz
Joey 'CRUC1AL' Steusel
Thomas 'Thomas' Utting
Cai 'CYPHER' Watson
Sebastian 'volt' Maloș
Gustavo 'Juve' Alexandre
Vitality #1
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen
Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 0.86 Maps played: 901 KPR: 0.57 DPR: 0.68
GamerLegion #22
Frederik 'acoR' Gyldstrand
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Nicolas 'Keoz' Dgus
Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek
Isak 'isak' Fahlén
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Age: 26 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 1728 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.67
William 'mezii' Merriman
Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 654 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Age: 18 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 366 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.59
G2 #6
Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Justin 'jks' Savage
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Jan 'Swani' Müller