G2 Esports’ Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov managed to net himself a whopping 45 kills in a quarterfinals game against Virtus.pro at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice. This was m0NESY’s first game in a major LAN in front of a crowd.
Map 1 of the IEM Katowice quarterfinals saw the two teams battling it out on Mirage. It took 47 rounds and three overtimes before the first game of the best-of-three was settled. Throughout it all, m0NESY took up the mantle of G2’s star player as Nikola “NiKo” Kovač struggled to find impact. M0NESY even managed to close the triple overtime with a mind-bending triple kill.
.@G2m0NESY IS A GODDAMN SUPERSTAR WHAT A MAP ⭐#IEM pic.twitter.com/DrCxvS8O71
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 25, 2022
M0NESY’s stat line on Mirage was the stuff of dreams for a LAN debut. The Russian managed 45 kills on only 34 deaths to give him a +11 kill/death. He led the server with 98.4 ADR and an overall 2.0 rating of 1.34.
The 16-year-old AWPing prodigy was brought onto G2 in a high publicity acquisition from Natus Vincere. M0NESY is known for his lightning fast flicks on the AWP and his reaction speed.
Being up a map, G2 headed to Virtus.pro’s map pick of Ancient. G2 looked dominant on the map and closed out the 2-0. They will go on to play Na’Vi in the semifinals on Saturday. M0NESY has made it clear that he wants to play against his former org, as well as the best player in the world, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, and his friend Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi.
“I want to play versus [Na’Vi],” m0NESY said in an IEM Katowice press conference. “I want to play versus b1t.”
Despite immense public pressure to perform, m0NESY showed no fear in his Tier 1 LAN debut. Even against the best opposition Counter-Strike has to offer, the 16-year-old was unfazed.
“I’m not scared to play against strong opponents,” he said. “It will be tough maybe, but I’m not scared to play against these enemies.”
