fnatic have eliminated G2 from ESL One Cologne 2016 after winning 16-13 on Train, thus removing the second best team in the world early on from the ninth CS:GO Major.

The 'Group of Death' elimination match was a match that could have possible been fit for a grand final of the Major and was instead nestled into a best-of-one corner of Group D as G2 and fnatic fought a desperate war of attrition to determine who would leave ESL One Cologne 2016 in 13-16th place.

The Swedes won the first pistolround on Train via a T-side take that saw Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell pick up two kills for his team. After the anti-ecos, G2 began to deploy a solid defense as Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon and Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux picked up double AWP kills each to win the first gunround for the French-Belgian team.

An AK47 triple kill from Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom on the fifth round shut down a fnatic take and G2 continued to dominate fnatic for a few more rounds, such as on the eigth round when Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy won a one-versus-three clutch.

With G2 on a 6-3 lead, fnatic called a tactical timeout and resorted to the tried and tested "Rush B with Tec-9s" tactic, which actually worked out. With fnatic on the comeback, the eleventh round saw a highlight worthy shot as Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist won a one-versus-two in an afterplant situation on the B site with a double kill collateral AWP shot.

fnatic barely survived their elimination match scrape with G2

G2 claimed the fourteenth round but fnatic eventually closed out the half with a 8-7 lead. The second pistolround saw G2 opt for an A-site take but flusha shut that down with three USP kills and Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson cleaned up the round with the final two as fnatic advanced to 9-7.

fnatic moved ahead to a 11-7 lead but G2 then managed to successfully take the first gunround, partially as a result of double kill from ScreaM in an afterplant situation. G2 picked up the next three rounds to equalise the score at 11-11.

Strong defending from fnatic, including multikills from JW helped the Swedish team seal the next three rounds and put the score at 14-11. The 26th round looked as if G2 had won it despite a pistolbuy, with the bomb planted on A and shox picking up three, but a defuse by Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer was successful due to passive play from G2.

G2 won two more rounds by the skin of their teeth to bring the score to 15-13, and then fnatic pulled a quintessential "fnatic round" out of the bag and closed the map out 16-13, thereby eliminating G2 early on in the tournament.

ESL One Cologne 2016Best of 1 G2Matchpage 13 16 6th July 2016 fnatic 13Train 16

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	22 - 19	+3	81.2	1.22
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	22 - 17	+5	85.7	1.19
Dennis 'dennis' Edmandennis	24 - 24	0	88.1	1.10
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	19 - 22	-3	74.8	0.91
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	15 - 23	-8	50.9	0.71

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Adil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomScreaM	27 - 19	+8	107.8	1.46
Cédric 'RpK' GuipouyRpK	22 - 21	+1	76.7	1.15
Edouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxSmithZz	22 - 21	+1	64.4	1.04
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	20 - 21	-1	72.6	0.98
Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianarobodyy	14 - 21	-7	73.1	0.90

Day three of ESL One Cologne 2016 will feature four best-of-three decider matches, as teams will fight for the four remaining Legends and playoffs spots at the Major.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter