For G2 Esports, the European League of Legends Championship Series had been experiencing the oddest timeline to date and, to some extent, is still doing so. Normally the leader of the LCS, G2 is yet to headline its group and assert dominance over the league in the summer season, and missed the opportunity to represent the European region in the finals of Rift Rivals.
G2 has been battered, but not out.
Despite its woes, the team remains within striking distance of Fnatic's No. 1 spot in the EU LCS Group A, and its starting mid laner, Luka "PerkZ" Perkovic, even went on record with a bet with shoutcaster Martin "Deficio" Lynge, stating that G2 would not drop a single map the rest of the split.
Fast forward to last Thursday, and G2 had successfully taken down H2k-Gaming, 2-1. The bet was lost with that one map loss, but the emphatic manner at which G2 had won signaled their return to form. Still, the team's head coach Joey "Youngbuck" Steltenpool, took note of the result.
"Our goal was to not drop a single map after Rift Rivals, and I'm really sad we couldn't make it because I thought we could, the way we were doing in scrims, especially the productivity and the growth of the team," Youngbuck told ESPN. "However, maybe it was too early to call; the wake-up call happened during the last day of Rift Rivals. Maybe we needed a little bit more time before we could confidently say that we were not going to drop anymore maps."
G2 Esports's history in League of Legends features frequent wake-up calls. Despite dominating the European circuit in 2016, the squad crashed at the world championship and incentivized its players to focus less on relying on individual strength, and more on team play. Bouncing back in the 2017 European LCS Spring split as a result, the squad still fell to the Flash Wolves at the Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice, Poland. Then came the Mid-Season Invitational, validating G2's growth as a unit, signaling its arrival on the world stage. Their demise at Rift Rivals following a tenuous summer campaign up to that point constituted another electroshock moment.
"We hit rock bottom at Rift Rivals, and you have three options. One is: you don't talk about it as a team, and you move on slowly and don't go to Worlds, not perform well. The second option is to replace someone, which most teams do in those scenarios," YoungBuck said, before detailing G2's choice. "Or, you work it out, and that's the hard path. But that is the path that we're willing to take, because even when things are going rough, we're such good friends outside the game that we know each other's worth. It's the hard path, but it's working out really well."
"We had a really good team talk. Everyone was open with each other, everyone gave feedback. Individual feedback was really important. Scrim quality was very important. Since everyone is laughing all day, we're having fun again, and we're calling out each other's mistakes and wrongdoings again. Now, our scrims are so productive and the team atmosphere is so good, the VoD reviews are very productive," Youngbuck said.
It took an inspired draft from H2k-Gaming in Game 2 of their head-to-head series to thwart G2's plan of an unbeaten streak leading to the playoffs, but it would have taken more to outright beat them. H2k still managed to sow the seeds of doubt within the G2 camp during the series, if only briefly.
"After the second game, we had to make a difficult call. If we were going to change our priorities based on our scrims, what we thought was better; or if we were going to play their game and do what they thought was better, and outdraft them in their style," YoungBuck said. "In the end, we made the call to stick to our priorities, stick to what we know. If they have a different read on the meta, then that's that, we just have to be the better team."
Recognizing the strength of H2k's priority picks (Cho'Gath, Sejuani and Braum) which excel in teamfights, G2 stuck to its guns, with a Caitlyn priority.
"When I thought we could get Caitlyn, we could say: If we have Caitlyn and four Teemos, we're going to win the game, because Caitlyn is that overpowered," YoungBuck points out in jest. The pick proved potent alongside Tahm Kench, which H2k had used to devastating effect in the first game of the series to establish map pressure in a 1-3-1 configuration.
"[Caitlyn-Tahm Kench] is a very strong lane. It always gets a tower if you play towards it, and there is nothing you can do about it if you play good macro around it," YoungBuck said. "From there on, you can snowball it. That's pretty much what happened in Game 3: we were pressuring the bot lane a lot, we were able to move to mid lane a few times. Top lane had a good match-up as well which was going much better than expected -- so hats off to [Expect]."
In the end, G2 had drafted compositions which allowed it to focus on teamfighting or 1-3-1 pressure around a strong front line, as practiced in scrimmage sessions. In the process, it has asserted its ability to contend in the EU LCS, and currently trails Fnatic by two in the standings. Another win would get G2 closer to first place, and with it a bye to the LCS summer split semifinals.
"We're still aware that we might end second, because we're relying on Fnatic having to drop games, and we don't have that luxury. We can't lose a single series anymore, even if we beat Fnatic," said YoungBuck. "Our goal right now is to breathe down Fnatic's neck, and then beat them to set the record straight. Hopefully, we can squeeze by and get the first spot, but it requires Fnatic to blow up a bit."