G2 have won IEM Cologne 2023 after taking down ENCE 2-1 in the Grand Final.
In what is the final Cologne event in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) history, G2 leave with the final big trophy. They were near flawless in the Playoffs as they took down Astralis 2-1, FaZe Clan 2-0, Vitality 2-1, and Astralis 2-0 in the Semi-finals.
After taking down a resurgent Astralis in the Semi-finals, G2 faced IEM Dallas 2023 champions ENCE in the best-of-five Grand Final. The first map was on Nuke, which was an absolute blow-out in favour of G2, who took it 16-4 with NiKo stepping up. Mirage saw ENCE perform better, but it was G2 once again walking away with it at 16-10 as m0NESY and NiKo starred once again. It looked like it would be a clean 3-0 for G2, but ENCE fought back on Anubis as their in-game leader (IGL) Snappi carried them to Ancient. On the fourth map of Ancient, it was the m0NESY and NiKo show again as G2 wrapped up the map 16-9 and took the Grand Final 3-1.
For his stunning performance throughout the Cologne campaign, G2’s star rifler NiKo was named as the MVP of the tournament. NiKo joins a unique group of victors that have won IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne in the same year.
While G2 and ENCE finished first and second, respectively, Cologne also saw a welcome return to form for Danish power-house Astralis, while recent Major winners Vitality faltered in the semi-finals, falling to ENCE.
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