G2 and Vitality move to semis at IEM Dallas 2024

Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024 is reaching its endgame and G2 Esports have shocked everyone with a dominating victory over Faze Clan in the Playoffs quarterfinals. All this has left fans saying Niko is back in form once again.

G2 had a rather interesting map pick, taking Dust2, one of the oldest Counter-Strike maps that many teams are familiar with. It was a gamble pick, especially in front of Faze, which paid off well this time. The team secured a decent amount of rounds in the first half on the attacking side.

Money was a monster once again, which is not much of a surprise considering his performance has been consistently good since the beginning. The second half saw a great defence from G2, with NiKo and huNter joining in. Faze remained a little short on the firepower.

The second match was on Nuke, picked by Faze who started on the attacking side which did not go well. The team was constantly losing duels against G2, failing to reach sites, let alone plant the bomb. With a 2-10 first half, it wasn’t looking great for Faze. The opening rounds of the second half were the final nails in their coffin, as after losing the pistol, the team had a broken economy.

Team Vitality takes down Heroic

Vitality and Heroic is a game of cat and mouse on the first map picked by Heroic. Team Vitality started with an early lead in the first half as defends, but Heroic wasn’t far behind. Fans had hoped they would recover on the defending side. However, the team lost the pistol, which resulted in two more consecutive round losses and the team was left once again chasing a score they couldn’t touch.

The second match was on Dust2 by Vitality. It is their domain and they owned Heroic similar to G2 in the group stages. Heroic lost both pistol rounds in the first and second half while also failing defence, only securing two rounds in the entire match.

A heated semifinal brewing?

G2 is now set to take on 9z Team who defeated MOUZ, Team Liquid and Team Vitality in the group stages and is looking quite confident. Vitality on the other hand will be facing the young guns in Team Spirit, who recently took down Natus Vincere and even the Faze Clan in a dominating victory during the group stage matches. Both teams might be in for an intense semifinal.