G2 Esports secured the IEM Katowice 2023 trophy today, beating the record for the second-longest map win streak in CS:GO esports along the way.
The European superteam faced Heroic in the best-of-five grand final. Starting the series with a 19-map winning streak, they claimed Nuke and Mirage to surpass Natus Vincere’s run in 2021, eventually defeating Heroic with a 3-1 score to win the first S-tier event of the year.
The longest map win streak is held by Ninjas in Pyjamas, with 87 maps won in a row back in 2012 and 2013.
G2 currently top the HLTV rankings, and they showed why by claiming a second trophy in a row in a dominating fashion. Their biggest rivals in the current competition, Heroic, were only able to steal Inferno, losing their own map picks of Mirage and Ancient.
The Danes, however, also made history as they put a stop to a second winning run by taking Inferno over G2. Previously, they also halted NAVI’s streak.
This is the second tournament win in a row for G2, who started their run of success at BLAST Premier World Finals 2022 in December. As of now, they have racked up 12 series wins without a hitch.
The victory at Katowice is also monumental to some of G2’s individuals. Their star rifler NiKo previously played in three grand finals in the same arena (2017, 2018, and 2022), losing all three of them.
Justin “jks” Savage, on the other hand, became the only player in history to secure back-to-back IEM Katowice titles under different banners. Last year, he won the event with FaZe Clan as a stand-in, a performance that played a large part in earning a permanent spot on G2.
