G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive came out on top in the Stage 1: EMEA Challengers lower bracket final against FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , sweeping them 3-0. They'll now play the grand final against FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks .

After a slow start, G2 found their pace and steamrolled Fnatic on Icebox and Ascent, reaching a 3-0 result. As such, Fnatic will be the third seed of EMEA in Masters: Reykjavik, due to start April 10.

“I think their veto wasn't very good. They banned Bind, which I wasn't expecting because they don't play Breeze too much,” Mixwell said in the broadcast interview. “And they left Breeze open, maybe thinking that we don't play it or something. We just first-picked it, because if it's their perma-ban we'll just pick it and play against them.”

AvovA echoed his teammate's thoughts, saying that G2 started laughing once they saw Bind banned instead of Breeze.

“We just take it day by day. We don't think ‘oh next time is Fnatic, next time is FPX.' We don't think too much about it, just take it as it comes and prepare our own game,” he said.

G2 elected Breeze to start the series, a map that felt like a prolonged back-and-forth. Several highlight plays dotted the map. Derke struck down three to give Fnatic their sixth round, but nukkye replied with a 4K to tie the half.

Once on the attack, Fnatic won the pistol round but were unable to capitalize on their advantage. G2 won their eco round to jump ahead. After several traded rounds, G2 managed to chain together five to find the 13-9 win.

“We practiced Breeze, maybe two or three weeks ago. Since then, we tried to not have it as a perma-ban, but we stopped playing it, basically, because we saw the other teams didn't really play it as well so we might as well just ban it,” AvovA said. “We always had the possibility to just keep it open, because we already had practiced it before. We know that Fnatic doesn't play Breeze at all, and they hadn't seen us play it as well so they kept it open.”

Icebox followed, a map chosen by Fnatic and where they had typically dominated recently. However, the winds favored G2. Fnatic were only able to secure two rounds, one of them enabled by a 1v3 clutch from Mistic . G2 reached match point with a destructive 13-2 result.

“Everyone thinks Fnatic has the best Icebox, right? Maybe they wanted to prove a point, I don't know,” Mixwell said. “I still think their Icebox was really good but I think we found a way of playing it that really suits us and we didn't really care against who we played, even though I think Fnatic is a really strong team on Icebox. The score today was probably much bigger than it should be.”

G2's prowess shone on Icebox in particular. AvovA was the only player to finish with a negative KD and under 80% KAST. The remaining G2 players all scored 80% KAST or more, with hoody taking the lowest positive KD of 1.6.

More specifically, nukkye flexed his muscles with a gargantuan 6.5 KDA and 93% KAST, showcasing that his Sova can be equally as good as his feared Raze.

“I feel like us five players just love Icebox. We just feel good on it, and with the comfort we have it just feels like there's no gap basically. We know what's going on at all times,” AvovA said.

On the cusp of losing the match, Fnatic entered Haven by winning the first two rounds. From that point on, G2 began knocking down their opponents with ease as they marched toward a 6-2 result. Fnatic paused and won a round, but G2 replied with another two to lead the first half 8-4.

Fnatic showed signs of life in the second half, winning its first two rounds. A B take on round 18 gave G2 their ninth point, but Fnatic pressed on and locked in three more rounds, tying the map at 9-9. G2 called a timeout and quickly finished the series with a 13-9 win.

“We're really good at seeing what the enemy team is doing and talk about it to tweak some stuff during the matches that make a huge difference,” Mixwell said. “It doesn't have to be something really good, you can change a piece of utility or the tempo, or freezing instead of going directly to the execute because the enemy team is using a lot of utility.”

hoody came alive in the last map, finishing the map with 18 kills and 16 assists, totaling a whopping 25 assists across the three played maps. Despite finishing at the top of the charts, he ended Ascent with a mere +1 kill/death differential.

“I'm feeling really good. It was a good match. Ascent was really hard, but we played really well in the first two maps and I'm happy that we're improving.”

The win means that Fnatic will enter Masters: Reykjavik as the third seed for EMEA. The top two slots will be decided between FunPlus Phoenix and G2, who will play the best-of-five grand final to decide not only the Reykjavik seeding, but also to crown the Stage 1 EMEA champion.

“It can go either way. I think it's going to be a good game,” AvovA said.

For AvovA, winning yesterday was better than today for obvious reasons. The controller player said that returning to LAN feels great. After not qualifying to Iceland and Champions in 2021, AvovA set himself a goal of reaching every single LAN.

Qualifying for Stage 1: Masters Reykjavik is a really good start.