G2 are the penultimate team to reach the Super Bock Arena playoffs at BLAST Open Porto, beating Aurora 2-1 in the Group A lower final, HLTV reports. The win closes out the lower half of Group A and leaves Aurora eliminated from the tournament.
The series was a rematch of the very first match of the event, in which an Artem "r1nkle" Moroz-inspired G2 swept Aurora 2-0. The return leg was a far tighter contest, and G2 came within two match points of elimination before turning it around.
Anubis lost, Inferno saved
Aurora took the opening Anubis comfortably. G2 managed only three rounds on the T side there and went into the second map on the ropes, needing to win out to stay in the event.
Inferno started far better for G2, who opened with a 6-0 run, but Aurora hauled the map back and pushed G2 to the brink of elimination. Özgür "woxic" Eker was the driving force, landing back-to-back quad-kills to swing the map towards Aurora and set up two match points.
The turn came when Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş failed to clear Guy "NertZ" Iluz out of Banana. NertZ took his time and ended the round with a three-kill spray down onto XANTARES' teammates. Aurora could not close from there. Even after NertZ died to a Glock in a following round, G2 clawed their way into overtime, and although Aurora held on to force a second overtime, the momentum had already shifted. The series went to a decider.
A 13-1 decider on Mirage
Mirage was one-sided. Aurora won the opening pistol round and nothing else, with G2 taking over and never letting go on the way to a 13-1 scoreline.
Aurora failed to convert a four-versus-one against r1nkle, then gave up another round advantage to a flanking NertZ, and the match ended there. G2 move on to the playoff stage at the Super Bock Arena, while Aurora leave the event having lost twice to the same opponent in the same week.