G2 had gone into Dreamhack Tours as favourites but struggled to reach the semi-finals. Would they finally live up to the hype?
G2 starting on T side, won the pistol round but almost lost to a force buy in the third round. Lowel managed to grab himself an ace in an unusual buy but most of the kills came once the round was already over. Still, the money gained and lost was relevant and Mousesports were able to win the first gun round quite comfortably. The Germans won the next round too, killing Shox after the time ran out and essentially handing them a third round and an equal score. Mousesports took the next round as well, forcing their opponents to eco and narrowly grabbing themselves a 5th round in a row.
G2 finally got back on the board in the following round, keeping things close and took down the next round to tie things up again at 5-5. Now Mousesports took their own eco and gave up the lead. The French team didn’t want to give it back and pushed out to an 8-5 lead, at which point Mousesports forced a risky, sub-optimal buy. It paid off and they were able take the final round of the half as well.
Still, an 8-7 T half for G2 was good news and a pistol round win on their CT half was even better. Mousesports went for an A execute with upgraded pistols, but were shut down with ease and a full eco later they were down 11-7. The first gun round went in G2’s favour as well, and at 12-7 things were getting out of hand. Mousesports called their pause but having to eco the next round left them at 13-7. With AKs and AWPs in hand the following round, they were still unable to get much done, securing just one kill. Typically, Mousesports won with upgraded pistols but that was as good as it got for them. G2 won the following two rounds in convincing fashion to end the map 16-8 in their favour.
G2 started out on the T half again and again they won the pistol, quickly going up 3-0. In the first proper gun round G2 got an early pick with the now infamous wallbang from T spawn. They pushed the advantage into a 4-0 lead, quickly made 5-0 as Mousesports were forced to eco. G2 continued to make life miserable for their opponents, pushing out to an 8-0 lead. A force buy in the 9th round ended with a 1v2 clutch win from Lowel to finally get his team on the board. The German-based team followed it up with a regular win but G2 wouldn’t let them have three in a row. Again, Mousesports won a scrappy round on the back of a near-complete eco and again they followed it up with another round, going into the last round of the half down 10-4 but with G2 finally on a sub-par buy. The lack of fire power came back to haunt the French but they still ended the half 10-5 ahead.
Mousesports took the vital second round pistol after KennyS was stuck without a kit in a 1v1. For the first time on Cache, Mouz managed to string three rounds together, but they weren’t done. The first full buy round went their way but with a saved M4 and a few pistols, G2 bit back to put themselves up 11-9. The German team still had money to buy and managed to pick up the next round after planting on the A site. A four kill round for Apex continued the trades going and kept G2 barely in the lead. Now the French team were rolling and they locked down the B site to extend their lead to 14-10 after an eco. Mousesports fired back again, though, as soon as they had rifles in their hands and kept their opponents off game match point.
Mousesports kept it close, avoiding a sticky situation at the B bomb site to make the score 14-12 and now G2 decided to take their pause. It didn’t help immediately and after another eco it was tied up at 14 rounds each. Mousesports would not be denied their comeback, however, winning the remaining two rounds to win their own map by the narrowest of margins.
G2 needed to shake off the previous game and they started off the final map by eliminating every CT. They were soon up 3-0 and thanks to some unsuccessful, risky force buys from their opponents it was 4-0 a moment later. Finally Mousesports picked up a round but they were unable to convert it into a second, instead they were forced into saving what they could for the next round’s eco. Mouz were finally able to get back in the game in the 9th round but even then it took a clutch 1v1 win from Oskar. At last they were able to string two round together, forcing KennyS to back off and save his AWP after a failed attack on the A bombsite. But G2 re-gained the ascendency immediately and broke Mousesports’ economy, giving themselves a 9-3 lead after yet another eco. The French team continued to pummel their opponents, round after round, only giving up one more round before half time, taking an 11-4 lead into the CT side.
The next pistol round was vital and it went the way of G2, albeit barely, thanks to 1v1 clutch and defuse by Body. G2 didn’t falter in the eco round, but Mousesports had money for an AWP in the third round and were able to convert it into two rounds when the French were forced to eco. With the gap closing slightly at 13-6, Body stepped up again to win a 1v2 clutch with the bomb planted at B. The following round came down to another 1v1, but despite the apparent disadvantage of having an auto-shotgun, NBK came out ahead and put his team on the verge of reaching the final. Down to a force-buy, Mousesports were unable to delay what seemed inevitable and it was G2 that claimed the grand final spot
Image courtesy of HLTV.org
