After beating #Heroic 3-1 in the championship match, #G2 has won the IEM Katowice tournament. It is a known fact that Nikola #NiKo Kovac and Nemanja #huNter Kovac are cousins, and together, Kovac duo lifted the prestigious trophy, making it a very significant moment for the former, who had competed in the IEM Katowice grand final three times before ultimately hoisting the illustrious trophy in Poland.

Justin #jks Savage, an Australian, is the first player to win the IEM Katowice championship back-to-back since 2016 and the first player to ever do it with two different teams. He previously won it as a stand-in with FaZe in 2022.

The multinational team won the championship in the best-of-five grand final without dropping a single series and only one map in the process, extending their current winning run to 12 games.

The Finals Recap

CadiaN, the AWPer and commander of Heroic, eliminated three opponents in the opening purchase round to put his team on the board. G2 kept their advantage by denying Jabbi a 1vs3 clutch after they had lost three straight games following Heroic’s first full purchase round.

Jabbi contributed three opening kills in the next round and assisted the fourth attacker in the eighth round of action to keep both teams close. Only managing three kills in three rounds, G2 trailed by two rounds, but a sharp play in the forcebuy and two quick kills on A kept the international team within striking distance.

Late in the first half, Heroic kept their advantage, reaching double digits while controlling G2’s economy. Jabbi had the most kills at the time of the changeover with 14, and was in a 1vs2 after-plant position on the A bomb site on the next map, however he was quickly killed by a headshot from a bullet fired from m0NESY’s USP-S.

Heroic’s first score of the half came courtesy of a triple kill by stavn that included two sprays through smoke, but G2 responded to keep up the pressure on the scoreboard. Youngster m0NESY managed a fantastic last kill on cadiaN in the 24th round to keep things level after G2 had tied the game at 11 before falling to a low-investment buy.

The Closing Moments

In order to get back within three points before the transition, G2 started to win tough rounds. One of these victories saw HooXi defusing a 2vs2 scenario that had cadiaN and stavn trapped behind smokes on the A site.

A well-known face, #m0NESY, the top AWPer for G2, has not been his usual self throughout the series, making mistakes on multiple plays and overall not having much of an impact, especially on Mirage where he got five kills in the first half. That changed during the second pistol round of the active map when he took four hits to win it for his squad, but it was not enough to overpower G2.

G2 managed to maintain their offensive momentum and win the 2nd half smoothly. All of the players contributed to the team’s 3-1 triumph in Poland, and earned to call themselves champions after rising the Katowice trophy.