After a harrowing CS:GO Road to Rio RMR, G2 Esports and Astralis have been eliminated and have failed to qualify for the Major.
Going 1-2 in the group stage, G2 Esports had their back against the wall coming into today’s match against GamerLegion. In a complete shocker of a game, GamerLegion managed to reverse-sweep the series and eliminate the HooXi-led squad. As former major finalists, G2 will not make it to the Rio Major in any capacity.
In what has come as a bigger shock to the CS:GO community, the four-time major winning squad, Astralis, has failed to qualify for the Major as well. Dropping a best-of-three series against ForZe, Astralis has broken their record of making it to every major since 2017. Here’s how these games panned out and what it means for these teams going forward.
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Astralis and G2 drop matches against underdogs and lose their spots at CS:GO IEM Rio Major
Looking into G2’s matchup, pundits and fans alike predicted that G2 would comfortably take the series. Starting strong on the first map, G2 esports managed to close Vertigo out with a dominant 16-3 scoreline. However, the team never seemed to get rolling over on Mirage where GamerLegion took a convincing 16-4 win. Rounding off the series, the two squads battled it out on Inferno. Despite Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov’s best efforts, G2 couldn’t pull through and dropped the final map 12-16.
Absolutely devastated by the loss, members of G2 took to Twitter to address their supporters:
Over on Astralis’ side, the four-time major winning squad was the clear favorite in their do-or-die matchup against ForZe. Both teams were on a 1-2 record, making it an elimination match for both squads. Unlike G2’s matchup, Astralis didn’t manage to pick up a single map, losing Mirage and Nuke with a 16-14 scoreline. With this, the world’s #5 and #8 ranked teams have found themselves eliminated by squads that aren’t even in the top 20.
With both teams missing the major, roster changes may potentially be on the cards. Since G2 recently added HooXi and found moderate success at ESL Pro League Season 16, changes are less likely. However, Astralis’ CS:GO squad has been facing a string of bad results for the better part of two years. Considering that this is the first Major the Astralis organization is missing, changes may be incoming.
