There were two major tournaments in CS:GO this past week, with SK Gaming winning IEM Sydney and G2 Esports coming back to win DreamHack Tours 2017.
G2 Esports have endured mixed form since their creation as a French Super Team in early February. However, they did well in their homeland, cruising to a 2-0 victory in the Finals over a talented HellRaisers side, with wins on Cache (16-6) and Cobblestone (16-14) to claim the title. By winning the tournament in Tours, G2 Esports exited with $50,000 prize money, while HellRaisers came away with $20,000.
G2 Esports shocked in first match
G2 Esports were drawn in a relatively easy Group B, with the Frenchmen avoiding main rivals Natus Vincere, who were drawn in Group A. Up against G2 Esports were HellRaisers (Ukraine), Team EnVyUs (France) and unknown outfit Tricked Esport (Denmark), who replaced Gambit Esports after the latter had visa issues.
Surprisingly, G2 Esports were upset in their first match of the tournament by Tricked Esport, with the Danes pulling off a convincing 16-7 victory on Inferno. This contributed to HellRaisers finishing top of Group B, with the Eastern European side avoiding G2 Esports by defeating Team EnVyUs and Tricked Esport to advance as the number one seed.
G2 Esports recovered from their opening defeat to qualify from Group B with a 2-0 victory over fellow French side Team EnVyUs, securing easy victories on Inferno (16-10) and Cobblestone (16-8). With HellRaisers moving on to the playoff bracket, G2 Esports then had a rematch with their relatively unknown first game conquerors for second place.
In their second clash with Tricked Esport, G2 Esports wisely made sure to ban Inferno as the newly redone map appeared to be the Danes’ strongest. This contributed to G2 Esports finishing off Tricked Esport 16-11 on Cobblestone and 16-9 on Train. NBK led the way on Cobblestone with a team high 1.30 rating, while also carrying the team on Train with 28 kills.
An extremely talented squad, but how long will it last?
The main issue surrounding French CS:GO is that the teams seem to have a certain shelf life. Historically French Super Teams are impressive in their first few tournaments, but it doesn’t matter how strong the side is, they always hit a wall and collapse, which often leads to player movement.
This version of the French Super Team is, at least on paper, one of the strongest in the world, alongside SK Gaming (Brazil) and Astralis (Denmark). They go into any event they enter as a top three squad at least.
KennyS has returned to form after slumping for most of his time at the end of the Team EnVyUs era. Once named the top player in the world, kennyS finished with a tournament high 134 AWP kills, outscoring the next top AWPer by 16 kills in Tours. The French sniper also claimed 203 total kills in the tournament and just finished ahead of ShahZaM of North American squad Misfits. The one-two punch of kennyS and shox was the key dangerous combo for any of G2 Esports’ playoff opponents, particularly after Natus Vincere had failed to get through the Group Stage.
G2 Esports take down HellRaisers for the title
NiKo-less mousesports gave G2 Esports all they could in the semifinals but it wasn’t enough, with the French squad pulling off a 2-1 victory over the multi-national team.
G2 Esports took the first game on Overpass 16-8, a map that they had picked, with apEX leading the way with 22 kills. Mousesports pulled off a 16-14 victory on their selected map of Cache but G2 Esports dominated the third game on Cobblestone 16-6, with an 11-4 Terrorist side. Bodyy has done an excellent job as an entry fragger for the French team and this was the case here, with the 20-year old connecting on 103 headshot kills for G2 Esports.
G2 Esports then cruised through the Finals, defeating HellRaisers 2-0 with a convincing 16-6 victory on the Ukrainians’ own pick of Cache. HellRaisers almost made it a three game series, but G2 Esports eked out a 16-14 victory on Cobblestone to take the title.
KennyS finished with 52 kills between the two games of the Finals and seems to be back on top form, joining NiKo (FaZe Clan) and coldzera (SK Gaming) as a player considered one of the best in the world. Whether this continues will strongly influence G2’s success over the summer.
