G2 fall to 0-2 bracket as FURIA survive FUT scare - PGL Cluj-Napoca

We're once again left scratching our heads at G2.

This team swings from the sublime to the ridiculous as regularly as BIG change language, and today is a day of a big downswing.

They looked solid against Vitality and one imagined they could use that as a springboard and go straight back to 1-1, but PARIVISION and in particular Jame had other plans.

The infamous AWPer dropped a 23-8 scoreline on G2 on Inferno to equalise the score after G2 ran away with Mirage, as they so often do, before his riflers took over the mantle and fired PARIVISION to a supremely comfortable win on Dust 2. Never play Russians on Dust 2.

xiELO was the pick of a blossoming bunch on that particular map, but every player had a part to play in a 13-4 win, with BELCHONOKK's clutch being a defining moment of the first half.

Worryingly for G2, this was a game they had plenty of chances in - they actually shaded the opening kill share - but failed to convert far too often. HeavyGod once more was off the boil, and G2 need more from him if they're to pull this back from 0-2.

FUT came remarkably close to a marquee win over FURIA but fell agonisingly short of the finish line in a triple overtime map of Overpass, before FURIA held strong on Anubis.

Everybody's new favourite underdog had FURIA on the ropes after a sensational performance from dem0n on Mirage, but he had the script flipped on him on Anubis as he was by far the worst performer, and struggled to find a way into the rounds time and time again.

That might have been totally immaterial had FUT closed it out on Overpass. Though their only map point came at 18-17, they'd stayed resilient in the face of a giant and earnt that chance, and it's one that will replay in their minds later tonight.

It took big performances from molodoy and KSCERATO to get FURIA over the line, but that's in many ways a good sign for them, as those are the exact two you'd want to rely on. This team is built around them, and so getting those returns feels bloody good.

The MongolZ made the mistake of angering Vitality, as they only went and won the first map before getting catapulted back to Earth with back-to-back 13-4s. That'll teach you.

They'll face MOUZ in a 2-0 game, after another impressive win over NAVI. We're not sure exactly how good NAVI are right now, but MOUZ were largely untroubled in a routine 2-0 win, and getting routine wins over a top 10 team in the world is never easy.

Seriously, if we could just get that version of MOUZ in playoffs...

That leaves Falcons to round out the 2-0 bracket, as they muscled past FaZe who looked to be in slightly better form than usual - though we wish we could say the same about broky. At times it felt like he and m0NESY were not only playing with different guns, but different consoles, on different games, on different planets.

Astralis smashed 3DMAX 13-2 on map one and completed the 2-0 with a much closer 13-11, with a rare HooXi top frag on the second map. We continue to be impressed by this new look Astralist team, and baffled and bemused in equal measure by 3DMAX, who are simultaneously a very dangerous underdog who can go toe-to-toe with some very good teams, and the worst team at top tier tournaments.

They confuse us.

XANTARES dragged Aurora back from a 0-1 deficit against paiN to put them in a game against NAVI tomorrow. When we say dragged, we mean it; he dropped 48 kills on the next two maps for just 15 deaths, in 37 rounds.

That's a paddlin'.

Finally, it seems that B8 might have eventually landed on a solid young AWPer, and maybe promoted the wrong one by accident. s1zzi's 23 AWP kills helped B8 to a win over a floundering HEROIC, who, in fairness, don't really have their full line-up still.

More details on tomorrow's games and today's results can be found here.