It’s a story as old as time – from the lofty highs to the crushing lows, a team riding on a victory is humbled by a sudden and shattering defeat. Today, G2 Esports crashed out of IEM Rio, a $250,000 tournament unfolding in Brazil. Just one week ago, the same squad secured the $200,000 grand prize in Copenhagen at the BLAST Premier Fall Final.
What happened?
One week ago, G2 Esports waltzed through the BLAST Premier Fall Final, dashing down the hopes of Team Spirit, Vitality, and Natus Vincere, securing the trophy and the $200,000 prize. Earlier this year, in June, the team secured the top spot at IEM Dallas, netting another $100,00 before moving on to the Esports World Cup and pulling off an admirable second-place finish.
And then something monumental happened in Brazil.
G2 fought hard against Heroic in their opening fixture in the upper bracket at IEM Rio, but a 10 – 13 defeat pushed the squad down into the lower bracket. From there, they clashed with Eternal Fire, and a 2 – 0 sweep from the Turkish team effectively forced G2 Esports from the running.
To put that loss into perspective, Eternal Fire has been on the market since 2021 and has amassed $860,000 in winnings, the largest of which was secured in the last six months. G2 has claimed almost $6 million in winnings over a tenure stretching back more than a decade.
That’s got to sting based on numbers alone.
Eternal Fire will now push on against The MongolZ, but it’ll be a slog to reach the qualification matches. Eternal’s ‘woxic’ had positive things to say about the games ahead:
Tomorrow is going to be a more comfortable game, I’m not saying we’re going to beat them, but people as a mindset are going to be more comfortable, more focused, and they will tell themselves from the inside that we won against the champions and No. 2, why not win this tournament?
Quote courtesy of HLTV
This was a tough series and an even rougher tournament for G2. Per the stats, G2’s NiKo produced his worst CS2 map and worst ‘Big Event’ rating ever. He was pretty hard on himself on social media after the match, which matched the sentiment of fans worldwide.
IEM Rio runs until October 13.
For more Insider Gaming esports, check out the news that the Six Invitational will take place in Boston
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