fnatic eliminate G2 from Paris Major and end NiKo's title hopes

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.

NiKo leaves the last CS:GO Major without a trophy to his name

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.

BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023Best of 3 fnaticMatchpage 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

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.

Group Legends Stage 3W - 0L 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' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira fnatic #15 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam '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' StykJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadTim 'nawwk' JonassonJustinas 'jL' LekaviciusDamjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyński Bad News Eagles #21 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Jonatan 'Devilwalk' Lundberg Into the Breach #28 Karol 'rallen' RodowiczJoey 'CRUC1AL' SteuselThomas 'Thomas' UttingCai 'CYPHER' WatsonSebastian 'volt' Maloș Gustavo 'Juve' Alexandre Vitality #1 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan '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' GyldstrandMihai 'iM' IvanNicolas 'Keoz' DgusKamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekIsak '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' NielsenNikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačJustin 'jks' SavageIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Jan 'Swani' Müller