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Published: July 3, 2023

Written by: Stoyan Todorov

  • G2 defeats Heroic 3-1 in the Polish event’s finals, lifting the trophy above their heads
  • G2’s Justin “⁠jks⁠” Savage wins the IEM Katowice for the second time
  • huNter- wins the event’s MVP award and leads in several key categories

Following an almost 100% perfect run, G2’s international roster wins the first major CS:GO tournament of the year – IEM Katowice.

G2 Emerge Victorious

G2 lifted IEM Katowice’s cup above their heads after defeating Heroic 3-1 in the event’s grand final. Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač and Nemanja “⁠huNter-⁠” Kovač, the two Bosnian cousins from G2 lifted the trophy under the applause of their teammates and the roaring crowd. It was a particularly momentous occasion for the younger of the two, 25-year-old NiKo, who has played the IEM Katowice grand final three times before and is now finally able to grab the cup. 

G2’s victory also marks Justin “⁠jks⁠” Savage’s second IEM Katowice win in a row after raising it as a stand-in with FaZe in 2022. This means the Australian player is the first player to win it back-to-back since 2016, as well as the first player to top IEM Katowice with two different teams. 

The international team wins the Polish event without losing a single series. The only ones who had any chance against G2 were Heroic, who are the only team that made the champions drop a map. This means G2 exits the event with a winning streak of 12 matches. 

G2 would not have performed so well without the help of Nemanja “⁠huNter-⁠” Kovač who has been awarded the HLTV.org x 1xBet MVP. With a rating of 1.28, the older of the two Bosnian cousins was a menace throughout G2’s tournament run. “It means a lot obviously. MVP, more or less because I know I have really good players around me,” the 27-year-old player said after the match. “The trophy is something I was dreaming about, and yeah of course the MVP trophy is good as well for the confidence and for the future.”

While huNter- was not the highest-rated player in the tournament, his skills proved to be crucial at just the right times, which ultimately landed him the MVP award. jks gave him a close race for the award but was ultimately less impactful in G2’s round wins (96 ADR vs. huNter-‘s 106). The Bosnian player scored highly in some key categories, being the third-most consistent fragger (53% of rounds), and the fourth-highest damage dealer (83.3 damage per round). 

The last time G2 and Heroic faced each other was at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the BLAST Premier Fall Final quarter-finals. The latter of the two won that engagement 2-1, so G2’s victory now also marks the team’s revenge for that occasion.

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CS:GO G2 IEM Katowice
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Stoyan Todorov

Stoyan is passionate about video games and electronic sports and has played and covered virtually every single competitive title - from Farming Simulator to Dota 2!

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1
Live odds: CS:GO

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Home

Away

9Pa
mou
1.32
2.93

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Ape
For
1.88
1.78

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Fna
Mon
1.76
2.08

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