G2 Esports picked up a convincing 3-1 win in the Series against KOI yesterday to secure a spot in the 2023 LEC Winter Split finals. G2 Esports proved their mettle once again, this time taking the Win in this rematch of the 2022 Summer Split Final.
After a bumpy Season start where KOI fell short of expectations, they had a strong Group Stage. However, they cut their teeth on G2 yesterday and took their first loss since the start of the group stage in this split. If KOI wins in the lower bracket against MAD Lions or SK Gaming, they will get their last chance at the title in the rematch.
KOI wins early game in match 1
History seems to be repeating itself between G2 and KOI as the two teams meet again in this split in the Upper Bracket semifinals of the LEC. However, unlike last summer’s showdown, this time it was G2 that prevailed in the Series. In the first game, KOI had a strong early game due to the ganks of Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong, who played Sejuani.
hans sama hans sama hans sama hans sama hans sama hans sama hans sama pic.twitter.com/uoik5HJR1C
— LEC (@LEC) February 20, 2023
But every player knows that if the Early Game goes well, you don’t automatically win. That’s how it turned out for KOI, who couldn’t carry their Early Lead into the Mid Game, and G2 knows how to exploit that. Above all, AD carry Steven “Hans Sama” Livs on Miss Fortune showed again that you should watch out for him. KOI couldn’t do much against G2 and the first match of the best-of-five went to G2.
G2’s Ultra Stomp in Match 2
In the second match, the G2 players jumped all over their opponents as if they were Diamond players playing against Iron-Elo players. KOI couldn’t do anything about the aggressive play style of G2, who demonstrated to the entire community how awesome it is to play when you have a 14K Gold Lead. KOI couldn’t even think of Objectives like the Drake. With that, G2 was at match point and only needed one more Win to win the Series.
"Dylan, we have to go Sejuani" pic.twitter.com/KcFuUEoNDc
— LEC (@LEC) February 20, 2023
KOI defend their honor in match 3
Even if after the first two games it looked as if KOI would have nothing more to say, the team could prove in the third match that we were wrong. G2 allowed themselves small mistakes, which their opponents punished immediately and so KOI could give all fans some hope for a reverse sweep.
PENTAKILL for @CompGRE ! #LEC pic.twitter.com/RasxDxxzcJ
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) February 20, 2023
Finally KOI’s Botlane showed what they are actually capable of and AD-Carry Markos “Comp” Stamkopoulos could even make his fifth Pentakill in the LEC. With this win they showed that G2 is not invincible.
Close race in match 4
The fourth match was a real banger, because here you finally had the feeling that both teams were playing on the same level. The gold distribution was even and also both teams had the same amount of kills almost all the time. In the end, however, G2 as a team was a bit more united than KOI.
The #LEC Winter Playoffs Bracket ahead of the Finals Weekend! pic.twitter.com/pczjaDiH7v
— LEC (@LEC) February 21, 2023
With a teamfight everything was decided and G2 could win with a better positioning. G2 is now the absolute favorite in the final of the LEC Winter Split and is now waiting for their opponents. KOI slides into the lower bracket and will play against the winner of the matchup between MAD Lions and SK Gaming to get one last chance to reach the final.