FURIA send G2 packing from Antwerp
FURIA have booked their ticket to the playoffs of the PGL Antwerp Major with a convincing showing against G2, taking down the European squad in a three-map series. This will be a big relief for Andrei "arT" Piovezan and company who are looking to do one better than their previous 5th-8th place finish at the PGL Stockholm Major last year.
FURIA and G2 paid a visit to Vertigo to kick off the elimination series where streaks of rounds by both sides paved the way for an 8-7 opening half in favor of G2. This back-and-forth nature continued at the outset of the second half, with three-round sprees seeing the game remain neck and neck. Thankfully for Brazilian fans, FURIA's defense became stalwart after these opening duals, going on to win six of the final seven rounds to take their pick of Vertigo 16-12 and go up 1-0 in the series.
The second map of the series took the two teams to Inferno where, once again, both sides were near-inseparable for the entirety of the opening half, though this time it was the Brazilian quintet who were just one round ahead by the time the two teams switched sides. G2 appeared to wake up once on their CT-side, overcoming FURIA's pistol and second-round victory by adding five on the bounce to take the lead for the first time in the game. The remainder of the half descended into the stalemate seen for the majority of the series thus far, with G2 barely closing out the game 16-14 to tie the series up, much to the dismay of Brazilians everywhere.
Looking to book their spot in the playoffs, G2 came out of the gate swinging on Ancient, dismantling the Brazilians repeatedly as they drummed up a strong 10-5 lead by the end of their defensive effort. However, FURIA really turned it up a notch when it was their time to defend, going on an absolute tear as they found eleven of the twelve rounds on offer to blitz their way to victory, taking Ancient 16-11 and booking their place in the playoffs in the process.
G2FURIA| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov |
60 - 51 | +9 | 75.9 | 70.6% | 1.16 |
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
58 - 59 | -1 | 74.8 | 70.6% | 1.08 |
 Audric 'JACKZ' Jug |
57 - 56 | +1 | 81.3 | 76.5% | 1.07 |
| Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač |
63 - 58 | +5 | 76.0 | 60.0% | 1.02 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
44 - 55 | -11 | 59.2 | 71.8% | 0.86 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
63 - 54 | +9 | 80.5 | 65.9% | 1.16 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
60 - 50 | +10 | 77.0 | 71.8% | 1.13 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
48 - 63 | -15 | 73.5 | 67.1% | 0.96 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
50 - 56 | -6 | 62.9 | 67.1% | 0.92 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
57 - 60 | -3 | 61.5 | 67.1% | 0.89 |
With FURIA's victory over G2, they now wait to see who they will be facing in their first quarterfinal matchup, with their opponents being either Spirit or NAVI depending on the outcome of Imperial's game versus Copenhagen Flames.
