In a meeting between two of the Americas region's best teams, LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee defeated G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf 2-0.

The two-map series was played out on Icebox and Abyss. Icebox was Leviátan's map pick, while Abyss was G2's pick.

Leviátan won Icebox 16-14, and then ran away with Abyss 13-5.

Icebox is one of Leviátan's best maps this year. Entering Thursday, they were 12-3 on the map, but two of those three losses came against G2.

G2 came out with the zero-duelist team comp that they've often played on Icebox this year, which puts icy on Gekko and leaf on Killjoy.

G2's in-game leader valyn orchestrated a fantastic start to the opening rounds of the map, pushing and pulling at the Leviátan players to bring them to a 5-1 lead early on.

A moment of heroism from Leviátan IGL kiNgg , with his team down 3-6, helped level the playing field for his side, despite him being detained by icy's Gekko Thrash.

kiNgg and tex hold down B main.

G2's attack-side game plan of avoiding the gun barrel of aspas was successful. The duelist finished with just one operator kill on the map.

Facing an 8-4 deficit at halftime, the reigning Americas champions had their work cut out.

When the teams switched sides, the keys were put into kiNgg's hands. Leviátan continued to play well in the gun rounds, despite falling victim to two G2 thrifty rounds.

The map was razor-thin, with very little separating the two teams. G2 claimed four defensive rounds after their opponents came out with a hot 7-1 start to the half, bringing the two teams to 12-12.

The last time these two teams went into overtime on Icebox, G2 prevailed 14-12.

The trend of this match being attack-sided continued into overtime. In round 29, with the teams knotted at 14 apiece, Leviátan clinched a close round, giving them an upper hand to clinch the map 16-14.

After a shaky showing on their map pick, the Americas champions dominated G2 on their own pick.

An early 4K from LEV kiNgg helped set the tone for a Leviátan win.

Leviátan owns a 66 percent win rate on the defense side of Abyss, and that percentage stayed put, with the half ending 8-4 in their advantage.

On the map, the play of C0M and kiNgg locked down the A site on defense. Both players finished at the top of the team's leaderboard, with 20 and 19 kills, respectively.

After Leviátan won their opening pistol round on the attacking half, all five of G2's players ran off of the map. The puzzling decision didn't pay off, as Leviátan converted their following bonus round to go up 11-4.

From that point forward, Leviátan was cruising. Despite duelist aspas only finding one first blood across both maps, his supporting cast shone through, guiding the team to a 13-5 victory and a 2-0 series sweep.

G2 head coach JoshRT chalked his team's performance on Abyss to being a byproduct of the Icebox result.

“We lost a close one. I could tell the nerves were a little high. Going into the next game, we tried to mentally reset, and you just forget a few things,” he said.

No members of G2 finished Abyss with more kills than deaths.

“[Leviátan] is such a good team that they'll capitalize and they'll punish you for making those mistakes,” he went on to say.

tex , a former teammate to many of G2's players having formerly been a member of The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch , elaborated after the match that it was a fun one.

“It feels amazing to beat them, not gonna lie,” tex said following the match. “They're my old team so of course there's always a little rivalry there. Not only are they my friends, but they're a good team so it's like beating my friends and a good team. It feels amazing.”

He spoke on the friendship he still holds with many members of them, from joking with each other in the lobby to friendly trash talk before matches.

“But it's never easy. Well, Abyss was kind of easy – for them, not for me,” tex said, motioning to his teammates sitting beside him. He finished the map 5-15.

C0M, the last remaining member of last year's Champions 2023-winning Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #20 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le team in this year's competition, finished with a server-leading 42 kills, while G2's leaf had a team-leading 38 kills in the losing effort.

Thursday's matchup was the fifth meeting between these two teams in 2024, with the Argentina-based team now leading the series 3-2.

Less than a month after butting heads for the VCT: Americas Stage 2 trophy, Leviátan held their ground against Group D's top seed, and will advance to the upper semifinals. They await the winner of FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder vs Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius , while G2 will face the loser in an elimination match.