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G2's CS2 team celebrates after winning IEM Dallas 2024.
Photo by Viola Schuldner via ESL
Category:
Counter-Strike

G2 faces losing CS2 playoffs record in London after star benched over visa issues

This will be much harder than Dallas.
Nicholas Taifalos
  and 
Mateusz Miter
|

Published: Jun 11, 2024 08:50 am

G2’s incredible eight-event playoff streak in Counter-Strike 2 is in jeopardy as the IEM Dallas champions enter this week’s BLAST Premier Spring Final without star AWPer m0NESY, who can’t make the trip to the U.K. due to a visa issue.

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The organization announced coach TaZ will enter the server with the team in a June 10 post on X (formerly Twitter), replacing the star AWPer for BLAST Spring Finals. The team will once more need to defy the odds with a stand-in if they hope to keep their playoff streak alive, with G2 making the finals of every offline CS2 tournament they’ve attended dating back to the sequel’s launch last September.

Photo of Russian CS:GO player m0NESY sitting in front of the IEM Cologne 2023 trophy after G2 defeated ENCE in the grand finals.
G2 will have their work cut out for them without m0NESY this week. Photo by Helena Kristiansson via ESL Gaming

The G2 social team joked it was “wanting to recreate the success from Dallas,” where the squad took out the tier-one event despite the absence of captain HooXi, who attended his sister’s wedding. With Stewie2K, shot-caller NiKo led the squad to its first win in CS2. However, the absence of wunderkind m0NESY might be a step too far for G2 this time.

The 19-year-old Russian sniper has been the standout player of 2024, recording a remarkable 1.34 HLTV rating across 70 LAN maps this year. To many pundits, only Vitality’s ZywOo comes close individually. As a result, the Russian’s absence will leave a sizeable hole that many struggle to see filled by the Polish coach, who last hit the server competitively with HONORIS way back in March 2023.

Following that HONORIS stint and the team’s demise, TaZ announced his retirement from competitive play and moved to a coaching role. He then eventually landed in the G2 setup ahead of the 2024 competitive season.

It is unclear who will wield the big green for G2, although we have seen NiKo play a hybrid role with the rifle before. The IEM Dallas champs will open their BLAST Premier Spring Finals campaign against Donk’s Team Spirit on June 12 at 1:30pm CT.

Update June 11, 8:50am: HLTV reported that G2 eventually got his visa approved at the last-minute and will be travelling with the team to London. The organization has yet to confirm the report, though, they teased it with the “eyes” emoji on their X profile.

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Author
Image of Nicholas Taifalos
Nicholas Taifalos
Weekend editor for Dot Esports. Nick, better known as Taffy, began his esports career in commentary, switching to journalism with a focus on Oceanic esports, particularly Counter-Strike and Dota. Email: nicholas@dotesports.com
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Author
Image of Mateusz Miter
Mateusz Miter
Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.
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