Impressive G2 condemn Liquid to lower bracket run at BLAST Open London

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 28/08/2025

G2 have condemned Liquid to the lower bracket of the BLAST Open London online stage after an explosive 2-0 victory.

The international rosters clashed in what was one of the most anticipated contests of the first round of play, with community emphasis on the Liquid roster, who are under pressure to perform and improve their chances of making the Starladder Budapest Major.

After two extremely close losses to Vitality, fans were optimistic about Liquid’s chances to be competitive at the event, ultimately hoping that they could attend the BLAST Open London Finals at the OVO Arena Wembley. The chances of that seem vanishingly slim after the loss.

Liquid will have to make it through the lower bracket, where they will face Imperial in the lower bracket round 1, with two of the stronger teams, such as G2, Mouz, Spirit or Furia guaranteed to fall to the lower bracket at some stage.

Currently, Mouz and Spirit are favourites with esports betting sites to advance straight through to the group’s upper bracket to Wembley.

The result is yet another poor showing in what has been a calamitous year for Liquid, who are only at the event due to The MongolZ’s Visa issues.

If they wish to be in Budapest, they must deliver soon, either here or at FISSURE Playground 2 and the local Polish LAN, the Birch Cup, which Liquid have signed up to in an attempt to get LAN wins for VRS purposes.

Promising signs for G2 and huNter-

G2’s rifle core delivered in spades in the two-map affair, which saw Liquid picking Train and G2 return to Inferno, a map that they have historically succeeded on but have not picked since IEM Cologne.

As the old saying goes, Train was close until it wasn’t. A 7-5 half for G2 on the CT-side felt like it favoured Liquid, with Train leaning towards the CTs generally. However, Matúš ‘matys’ Šimko and new IGL Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovač provided huge impact to open the rounds for G2 and close out the map comfortably, 13-8.

Inferno saw no questions at all over who was coming out on top. Liquid started on the CT side and were pulled apart limb by limb as huNter- yet again both delivered as an individual and a caller, going 12/6 on Inferno.

Guatemala’s Mario ‘malbsMd’ Samayoa was the star of the map with a 24/11 KD, but huNter- remained the star of the series as his individual performance, and confident calling serve as a proof of concept for G2’s move to make him IGL and kick Polish legend Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski.

If he can continue to get that output in the server, then G2 essentially have one more player capable of delivering on the server than previously, and do not seem to yet be suffering tactically from the switch.

The only negative for G2 is that Álvaro ‘SunPayus’ García was once again poor. The Spanish AWPer is yet to find form in G2, dropping a 0.88 HLTV rating despite the easy victory, especially on Inferno.

However, Liquid were clearly not in a position to punish G2 for Sunpayus’s faltering time in CS2, and G2 will move on to play Mouz for a spot in London.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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