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We continue our look at what's happening on the ESL Pro League Season 20 stage. We're talking about the play-offs of the Maltese championship, where the climax is nearing.
There are 6 teams left in the title race, of which 2 are in the semi-finals and 4 more are about to go there. Among the contenders to reach the ESL Pro League Season 20 semifinals are G2 Esports and Team Liquid.
We are trying to understand how the clash Liquid - G2 will end and who will be stronger.
Let's go.
G2 Esports uniforms
Let's open the analysis of the match G2 Esports - Liquid with the analysis of G2 form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.6.
Almost all of last year G2 Esports did not leave the podiums of major championships. Their rise as a top team started with BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023 and IEM Katowice 2023. Both championships G2 passed confidently and at two tournaments they deservedly became champions.
Next, the "samurai" were stormy. Last season ESL Pro League Season 17 G2 Esports finished on the 9-12 line, which is clearly not the level of the team that recently won Katowice 2023.
After a frankly weak performance at EPL Season 17 G2 Esports played at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. NiKo and company had a real fiasco in Paris, as the tournament for them ended at the TOP-14 stage, which certainly did not fit into G2's plans.
- G2 Esports line-up: huNter, NiKo, malbsMd, Snax.
Before ESL Pro League Season 18, G2 Esports made their mark on several other major tournaments. These were BLAST Premier: Spring Finals and Fall Groups, where G2 took top 4 and top 8 respectively.
Next up was IEM Cologne 2023 and finally a win. In the Grand Final they beat ENCE 3-1, thus taking another IEM title for the year.
The last championship was Gamers8. The biggest commercial tournament of the season ended with G2 Esports in the top 4.
G2 Esports started off ESL Pro League Season 18 with a betting tirerable win. They beat Lynn Vision 2-0 in their opening match, but to be fair, they were close to a fiasco on the first map. However, G2 Esports subsequently advanced to the play-offs, and straight into the quarter-finals, where they met MOUZ. The Mice outplayed G2 Esports and later became EPL S18 champions.
G2 Esports attended two more events before competing at BLAST Premier: World Finals 2023. These were BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 and IEM Sydney 2023. Both tournaments saw the team finish in the Top 4 stage. There was also CCT Online Finals #5, where G2 showed a frankly mediocre result. The titular European club failed to make it to the top 2 and get a slot to the Global Finals, and settled for only the top 4.
Prior to the PGL CS 2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR G2 Esports played at three top tournaments before the Long Convergence PGL CS 2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR G2 Esports. BLAST Premier: World Final 2023, BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024 and IEM Katowice 2024 and they finished in the top 6. Looks good, but it's still not the same for the G2 Esports level.
Then PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR A G2 Esports played at their level. The level that you expect from them, i.e. top 2 and a slot in the Copenhagen CS2 Major Legends.
Later G2 Esports played at the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen, where they managed to reach the play-offs and at the end of the championship took the top 4. In the semi-finals they lost to future champions NaVi.
G2 Esports played at IEM China 2024, where the "samurai" managed to reach the TOP-4. Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they reached TOP-8, Ledgeiv to the future champions from MOUZ.
G2 Esports attended IEM Dallas 2024, where they managed to snatch a win with a 2-1 win over Vitality in the grand finals. They also played BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024, where they finished in the top 8.
Esports World Cup 2024 G2 Esports started off with a solid win over MongolZ, even though the latter struggled. Next was a match against Team Spirit, which the Samurai won again, beating one of the strongest teams in the world with a score of 2-1. Later G2 defeated Vp, but in the grand finals Ledge and NaVi with the score 1-2.
Further G2 Esports played almost all top tournaments on Counter-Strike 2. They played at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they finished in the top 1-4, and at IEM Cologne 2024, where they finished in the top 6.
At ESL Pro League Season 20, the team won Group B, beating KOI, 3DMAX and MIBR. The play-offs went straight to the quarter-finals.
G2 Esports Mappool
G2's main map is Ancient. G2 played 8 matches there, of which they won 6.
Then comes Anubis (3 games, 2 wins), Vertigo (5 matches, 3 wins), Inferno (12 matches, 58% wins).
G2 Esports has no minus winnings on mapx. Among the "worst" choices are Nuke (7 matches, 4 wins), Mirage (4 wins, 4 losses).
Team Liquid's form
We continue the analysis of the second quarter-final of ESL Pro League Season 20 with the analysis of TL's form. In this match, Liquid are playing as the number two team with odds to win around 2.
The American club had a pretty productive 2023 season. Played in a lot of tournaments, but high results were rare.
They started the year with a top-4 finish at IEM Katowice 2023, where they reached the top 4. Next was the equally good BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown with a similar top-4, and then BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: American RMR followed by a top-3 and a trip to the main tournament of the year.
Unfortunately for Liquid, that's where their results ended. At BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, the team made it to the top 8 and that was their biggest achievement of the year.
After making it to the legends stage at the only Major tournament of the season, Liquid played at a lot of big events. These included IEM Dallas 2023 with a top-12 ranking, BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with a top-9 ranking, and IEM Master Cologne with a top-12 ranking.
At the end of the season they played at Gamers8 2023, finishing in the top 16 and ESL Pro League Season 18, finishing in the top 20. Closed the year with a second place finish at BLAST Premier: Fall American Showdown 2023.
- Team Liquid roster: NAF, YEKINDAR, jks, ultimate, Twistzz.
A string of failures at major championships has caused major roster changes. Such that Liquid in 2024 can be called "Dream Team", but the status still has to be earned.
2024 began with qualifiers for the American RMR. They came out, which is not surprising. They also tried to qualify for IEM Chengdu 2024, but it was not successful: in the final of the qualifiers Ledge and M80.
Liquid took TOP-8 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, and then passed at IEM Dallas 2024, did not pass at PGL Copenhagen Major 2024, taking TOP-8 at home, and then TOP-16 at BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 and TOP-6 at IEM Masters and TOP-6 Chengdu 2024. They also played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they finished Top-8.
IEM Dallas 2024 Liquid started with a victory over CoL, but then - a completely unexpected defeat by 9z Team in the match for the play-offs. As a result, at IEM Dallas 2024 Liquid finished in the top 9-12 without making the play-offs.
Liquid attended BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they surprised everyone. At BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, Liquid finished in the top 1-4, winning their group, thus securing a slot at BLAST Premier: World Final.
Liquid Long Sogpeg IEM Cologne 2024 from the Play-In stage, where they played twice against Brazilian representatives: paiN and FURIA and won both times to advance to the group stage. At the Long Stage of the group stage IEM Cologne 2024 played against FaZe, where Ledgeili 0-2. After falling to the bottom of the group stage, Liquid made it to the small final, where they again played against FaZe and in a very dramatic match they lost 1-2 and as a result finished in the top 8.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Team Liquid started with a performance in Group D, where they beat ENCE and Vp 2-0, and lost to Vitality 1-2 in the play-offs seeding match. Starting the main stage of the ESL Pro League Season 20 play-offs with a match against CoL, Liquid outplayed the American club 2-0 without a chance.
Team Liquid Mapple
Team Liquid's top 1 map in the last 3 months is Mirage. Liquid has a mind-blowing winrate of 92% with 13 games played.
They also played Inferno, where they won 5 matches out of 7 games. Nuke is also in plus winrate, where the "ninjas" have 3 wins from 5 matches.
The most not favoured map for Team Liquid will be Vertigo. There they have 6 maps and only 1 win.
History of G2 - Liquid
In the season 2024 the teams played each other three times and two matches were won by G2.
Predicted result of Liquid vs G2 Esports at ESL Pro League Season 20
In this match I expect a beautiful Counter-Strike 2 from both sides. If we talk about the winner, I would not hurry to call it G2. After all, the "Samurai" had a very easy passage to the semifinals with a minimum number of top clubs on the way, and Liquid themselves have already had time to warm up significantly in play-offs and before that with more serious opponents than KOI and 3DMAX. All in all, I'm expecting at least one card from Liquid.
Bottom line: Liquid +1.5.
