In a meeting between two of the Americas region's best teams,
LEVIATÁN
LEVIATÁN
Latin America South
Unranked
tex
Ian Botsch
kiNgg
Francisco Aravena
aspas
Erick Santos
C0M
Corbin Lee
defeated
G2 Esports
G2 Esports
North America
Unranked
icy
Jacob Lange
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
Unranked
Derrek
Derrek Ha
NaturE
Nicholas Garrison
supamen
Phat Le
Apoth
Vincent Le
jawgemo
Alexander Mor
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
Unranked
Boaster
Jake Howlett
Chronicle
Timofey Khromov
Alfajer
Emir Ali Beder
vs
Team Heretics
Team Heretics
Europe
Unranked
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.