G2 Esports trounced Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in the PGL Major quarter finals on Thursday, securing their spot in the semis against Heroic. The international squad has had their difficulties during the online era, but they seem to level up in a LAN environment. If they can beat Heroic in the semi finals, there’s a possibility for a rematch from IEM Cologne 2020 — another LAN event, albeit with no crowd — where G2 met and lost to Natus Vincere in the grand finals.
G2 take Ninjas in Pyjamas down in PGL Major quarter finals
G2’s Kovač cousins, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač, showed up in full force in the match. NiKo, who is still hunting for his first major win despite being one of Counter-Strike’s top players for years, dropped 51 kills with a 1.44 HLTV 2.0 rating.
As for NiP’s star AWPer, the one Dane on the Swedish side, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz had a lackluster performance until it was too late in the day to recover. NiP’s pick of Inferno was too lopsided in the first half for the Swedes to recover on their strong CT side. The final scoreline was 16-11. Mirage felt like a foregone conclusion and also ended 16-11 in favor of G2.
“We don’t think of what has happened before this event,” NiKo said in the post-game interview. “We are just stepping up and I’m really happy we’re doing it at the right time.”
Both teams began their journey in the PGL Major at the Legends stage, but that’s where the similarities end. G2 breezed through the stage, going 3-0 with wins over the Copenhagen Flames, FaZe Clan and Entropiq. For NiP, it was a tougher road. They beat MOUZ and Astralis in best-of-ones to reach promotion point before losing two consecutive best-of-threes to Na’Vi and Gambit Esports.
The match between NiP and G2 concludes the first half of the quarter finals and the first day of the New Champions stage. FURIA Esports play Gambit tomorrow morning at 11:30 p.m. E.T. In the afternoon, Na’Vi take on Team Vitality at 3:oo p.m. E.T. in the long anticipated duel between Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.
