NRG battle past G2; head to ESL One New York Playoffs
The final game of the group stage in New York saw NRG and G2 face off for the final playoff spot, and a match against mousesports in that semifinal. The two teams vetoed down to Cache, Overpass and a potential decider in Inferno.
Cache began in G2's favor, in the pistol round and following anti-ecos, before the North Americans gained control of the map, starting in the first buy round and extending to a six round run in the middle of the first half. A small bit of ping-pong existed at the end, with NRG 9-6 ahead at the break.
The second half was next up, with G2 once again taking the pistol round and anti-ecos for the starting control. Once again NRG took wins in a mirroring fashion, edging up to a 14-10 lead as they looked to close out the map. The Frenchmen weren't out yet, as they secured five rounds in a row to unexpectedly reach the first map point, before NRG evened the game up to send it into overtime at 15-15.
NRG were in control throughout the overtime, taking a 3-0 lead on the CT side before finishing off the opening map with a 19-16 score, helped by Tsvetelin "CeRq"Dimitrov and Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte both going past 30 in kills.
NRG's map pick of Overpass followed, and yet again G2 picked up the pistol round at the start of the game. Straight away NRG overturned the round, with a forcebuy win of their own and from there they were flying and never behind in the map. NRG went 5-1 ahead before G2 picked up another round, eventually going in 9-6 ahead at the half.
The second half saw NRG finally secure a pistol round, but only converting the following round before G2's forcebuy saw them narrow the North Americans' lead to 11-10. But from then on NRG were barely tested, contrary to Richard "shox" Papillon's attempts, as they headed on for a 16-11 win to 2-0 the series.
NRGG2| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
57 - 39 | +18 | 95.6 | 77.4% | 1.38 |
 Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
52 - 42 | +10 | 88.0 | 74.2% | 1.30 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
43 - 46 | -3 | 77.2 | 72.6% | 1.01 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
37 - 42 | -5 | 68.3 | 69.4% | 0.94 |
 Damian 'daps' Steele |
30 - 40 | -10 | 57.3 | 66.1% | 0.79 |
| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Richard 'shox' Papillon |
57 - 42 | +15 | 93.0 | 77.4% | 1.30 |
 Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' Droolans |
43 - 42 | +1 | 88.2 | 75.8% | 1.15 |
| Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro |
41 - 43 | -2 | 69.3 | 72.6% | 1.09 |
| Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub |
40 - 50 | -10 | 69.6 | 62.9% | 0.88 |
| Edouard 'SmithZz' Dubourdeaux |
27 - 45 | -18 | 53.9 | 66.1% | 0.73 |
This leaves the semifinal matches, with both North American teams remaining, for tomorrow as follows, with times in EDT:
| Saturday, September 29th | ||
| 1:00 PM |  mousesports vs. NRG |
BO3 |
| 4:50 PM |  Gambit vs.  Liquid |
BO3 |
Tomorrow also sees the start of MSI MGA at ESL One New York, where compLexity and eUnited will be representing the region against Spaniards Movistar Riders and Kazakh team AVANGAR.
