FURIA advance to the semifinals following huge comeback against G2
FURIA have booked their spot in the semifinals of IEM Dallas after taking down G2 in the first tier-one game on stage in North America since 2019. Despite seemingly being on the brink of elimination on Vertigo, the Brazilians fought all the way back from an 11-3 deficit before closing it out on Mirage. This victory sets up a date with a red-hot ENCE tomorrow in the semifinals.
The series kicked off on G2's pick of Inferno, a map the international squad has been dominant recently, not dropping the map against any opponent over the past three months. FURIA got off to a nice start on their CT-side by securing the first pistol round, followed up with the subsequent two rounds. G2 rallied back with four rounds to claim the lead, but FURIA put up four rounds of their own after a 1v2 from Rafael "saffee" Costa" broke G2's streak. The Brazilian's defense stalled out in the latter portion of the half, with G2's Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen leading by example with a 1v3 clutch to narrow FURIA's lead to 8-7 at halftime.
FURIA distanced themselves from G2 with another pistol win in the second half, followed up by snatching the next two rounds to stretch their lead to 11-7. Once guns were in G2's hands, their CT-side was just about unstoppable, as G2 shut out FURIA in eight of the next nine rounds, stealing away the lead with a score of 15-12. FURIA squeaked out another round, scrambling for a shot at reaching overtime, but G2 quickly shut down FURIA's efforts, closing out the map 16-13 to maintain their streak on Inferno.
Heading into FURIA's map pick of Vertigo, the Brazilians started off similar to Inferno, securing the pistol and two follow-up rounds on their T-side. G2 found their feet by converting a 3v4 retake without losing a player to stop FURIA's momentum. The Europeans seemed to have an answer to the aggression of Andrei "arT" Piovezan, shutting him down consistently before Yuri "yuurih" Santos very nearly threw a wrench into the works, being denied an ace clutch by the formidable Bosnian, Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, in the 1v1. G2 dominated after their early 0-3 deficit, taking the next 11 rounds without response before FURIA eventually found a round, denying Audric "JACKZ" Jug his third 1v2 of the half.
The second half would start off with the same pattern as the first, with FURIA winning the pistol and following it up with two round wins yet again before G2 claimed the fourth. G2 did not appear to be in any sort of real danger following the string of FURIA rounds, storming to within an arm's reach of match point at 14-7. FURIA would postpone G2's march to match point, taking several comfortable rounds on their CT-side before G2 eventually found match point at 15-12, despite saffee bringing a 2v4 retake down to a 1v1. FURIA refused to die, however, clawing it all the way back to overtime despite the 11-4 deficit they faced at halftime.
G2 continued their flat T-side once in overtime, struggling to take A control without having crippling casualties inflicted upon them in the first three rounds of overtime. G2 would finally respond after swapping to the CT-side, stalling FURIA on A in the first, before shutting down a rapid B-split in the second. FURIA would close it out 19-17 in classic FURIA fashion, with a quick A hit sending the series to Mirage.
G2 seemingly forgot how to win a pistol round this series, with FURIA extending their pistol round record to 5-0 this series on the opening round of Mirage. FURIA also continued in the same way that they did on Vertigo, winning the two follow-up rounds, before continuing their dominance into an early 5-0 lead. G2 would respond with two round wins before FURIA re-asserted themselves, making it 7-2 while also resetting the G2 economy. G2 just couldn't find an answer on their defensive side, with arT and co. not appearing flustered despite some heroics from Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov in the final round of the half, as FURIA took an 11-4 lead heading into the second half.
6-0 on pistol rounds for the series for FURIA and a 12-4 lead appeared to be the nail in the coffin for G2 in Dallas. G2 would finally deny FURIA on a follow-up, however, their joy was short-lived as FURIA forced back and convincingly reset G2 before putting themselves within touching distance of the semifinals at 14-5. FURIA would not falter as G2 did on Vertigo, convincingly securing the map 16-5.
G2FURIA| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
65 - 60 | +5 | 95.5 | 73.3% | 1.26 |
| Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač |
61 - 59 | +2 | 83.3 | 66.3% | 1.07 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
46 - 63 | -17 | 69.0 | 68.6% | 0.88 |
 Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov |
55 - 62 | -7 | 57.6 | 64.0% | 0.86 |
 Audric 'JACKZ' Jug |
44 - 59 | -15 | 52.6 | 62.8% | 0.79 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
76 - 58 | +18 | 103.8 | 79.1% | 1.40 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
55 - 46 | +9 | 63.4 | 79.1% | 1.13 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
59 - 55 | +4 | 70.9 | 74.4% | 1.06 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
57 - 51 | +6 | 69.0 | 75.6% | 1.05 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
55 - 61 | -6 | 72.7 | 67.4% | 0.97 |
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, the sole North American in the playoffs in Dallas kicks off his playoff campaign with FaZe against Cloud9 at 06:00PM. Meanwhile, FURIA will be tussling with ENCE tomorrow at 12:00PM.
