After a disappointing Spring Split, G2 Esports look to bounce back from their first non-championship winning split since 2018. Going into this season, they were heavy favourites to win the European title, however, they faltered out early. Going into summer, they will look to bounce back and reclaim their crown as the kings of Europe.
After a painful loss against DAMWON GAMING at the 2020 World Championships, the G2 roster had to look at itself and ask what is needed in order to become world champions. At that same world championship, Rekkles was overperforming on a frustrated Fnatic roster. It was clear that Rekkless and Hylissang were the backbone of that team and held it together.
With the departure of Perkz to Cloud9, G2 Esports needed a new ADC and who better to fill the role than Rekkles? It must also be noted that Caps and Rekkless previously played together on Fnatic in 2018, which won both splits and went to the finals of the 2018 World Championship.
G2 signed the superstar ADC and the split looked extremely predictable again for the fifth straight year. However, as we now know, things did not end up that way and G2 were eliminated in the third-place match against Rogue, who lost to the MAD Lions in the finals.
Credit: G2 Esports
While the addition of Rekkles was the only change to the team, that ended a two-year dynasty, his addition to the team cannot be blamed for the underperformance. At first glance, we can see that he was named the 2021 Spring Split MVP, but his dominance can be explained further through statistics.
During the 2021 Spring playoffs, Rekkles showed that he was still a force to be reckoned with statistically. He led all ADCs in KDA with 6.5, and kill participation with 81.5%.
During the regular season, he dominated with an 11.9 KDA, an average of 1 Death, and 10.3 CS per Minute. Both of which show that Rekkless is a perfect player. He rarely dies and plays the lane to slowly build up a gold lead through CS. After he has achieved his lead through CS, he looks to take his lead and build upon it through team fighting.
Rekkles plays like a traditional ADC and has been doing so his whole career. He guarantees a solid performance every game, and his consistency is unmatched. Rekkles is looking for his first LEC title since 2018 and looks like he will continue to be a consistent performer for the new era of G2 Esports.
Credit: LoL esports
Caps is arguably the best western player of all time, and after tasting defeat in Europe, he will be hungry to succeed and add to his trophy case this summer.
When G2 Esports are at their best, it is Caps that is performing at the highest level. Caps will need to show that he is still the best player in the LEC this summer if G2 want to improve on their third-place finish.
The only statistical category that he led among mid laners is Damage per Minute with 572, and Assists with 7.3. While Larssen outperformed him in KDA, Average Kills, and Least Amount of Deaths. Though Caps did have a good season by any other standards, in terms of his own, he underperformed and will be looking to show more.
Credit: G2 Esports
One major addition to the team is Nelson as a strategic coach. Nelson has coached in the LPL, LMS, and BR in his career. Making G2 Esports his first European team that he will be working with on an official level.
Nelson has also been an on-air talent for the LPL analyst desk in the past. He is extremely knowledgeable about the game itself and will provide a new outlook on the game for the players. This change adds a new perspective to the game and will create a new level of knowledge and strategy that can be applied to LEC games, and more importantly international games.
G2 Esports’ ultimate goal is to win worlds, winning the LEC Summer Split would help them in that as they are granted a top seed in the Worlds group stage. Allowing them to essential dodge the top team from the LCK, LPL, and LCS in the group stage.
We also know for sure that the summer split is tiring, and can burnout players before they even get to the world stage in the fall.
However, there is also the thought that if they don’t grind and burn out fighting for Europe, they could have more energy and hunger for success at Worlds. We’ve seen every player on this roster lift a domestic title already, and 4/5 an international title (MSI 2019). Now we are waiting to see them lift the worlds title.
But even with this in mind, G2 want to add a ninth EULCS/LEC title to their trophy case and the expectations are higher then ever.
