G2 Esports took down ENCE 3-1 in the grand finals of IEM Cologne 2023 to secure what might end up being the very last big trophy in CS:GO as the game is set to transition to CS2 sometime this summer.
IEM Cologne 2023 became a record-breaking event with tickets selling out faster than any other previous IEM Cologne edition and reaching the highest hours watched of any esports event held in the German city as fans showed up to wave goodbye to the CS:GO as we know it.
ESL’s flagship tournament unfolded from July 26th to August 6th with the final three days taking place in front of more than 37,000 fans at the iconic LANXESS arena in Cologne, Germany.
G2 delivered a super dominant performance in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike. They topped their group by taking down Astralis, FaZe, and Team Vitality to reach the playoffs semifinals and then proceed to an almost flawless win against ENCE in the grand finals.
On their way to the trophy, G2 dropped only three maps, the third one being against ENCE in the grand finals. The European outfit landed victories on Nuke (16-4), Mirage (16-10), and Ancient (16-9), but lost on Anubis (13-16), which allowed the grand finals to go to a fourth map.
Upon taking the 3-1 victory and lifting the trophy, G2 also took home $400,000 of the $1,000,000 total prize pool and joined Team Vitality and ENCE in the race to secure the Intel® Grand Slam V. Moreover, the squad is the first team to secure a spot in the Group Stage of the first ESL Pro Tour (EPT) Championship event in 2024.
G2 Esports Rifler Nikola "NiKo" Kovač also secured his very first EPT DHL MVP award which is judged on a combination of player performance, fan voting, and broadcast talent voting.
Following the amazing victory, NiKo commented: “This is the biggest trophy of my career – I’m super happy right now! It’s been a long journey to finally get this trophy but it wouldn't be possible without this team and I’m so happy to have them by my side. I’m really proud of everyone, we kept it cool and calm throughout the whole series and it doesn't feel real that we managed to win both [EPT Championship] tournaments in the same year. The experience and playing in the LANXESS arena was amazing!”
With this historical win, G2 shut down the doubters and proved why they choose against any roster change in the offseason, unlike most of their adversaries who went for quite big roster shakeups in preparation for the CS2 launch.
