Rainbow 6
After disappointing results in recent times, G2 is turning the page of their history book in Siege. Despite the ups and downs of the pandemic era, the organization has settled with a stable roster in 2022. BLIX.gg's Rafael Ferreira takes a closer look at G2's journey in R6.
Goodbye to the old guard
G2's old players who earned titles for the org followed distinctive paths after their departures.
While some of them retired from the competitive scene. Niclas “Pengu” Mouritzen is now a commentator for Ubisoft and content creator for Darkzero. Fabian “Fabian” Hällsten went on to become an analyst for the official broadcast for the European League. But others decided to not leave the competition.
Finnish player Juhani “Kantoraketti” Toivonen joined Rogue after the Six Invitational and Aleksi “UUNO” Työppönen joined Heroic this year; and is leading the team to the first place in the European League.
Also part of G2's historical journey in R6 — the Spanish talent Daniel “Goga” Romero. He left G2 in 2019 and after time in Team Vitality, returned to Spain to win the Six Masters Iberia with Movistar Riders. Goga is now representing Rebels — David De Gea’s organization. While Joonas “jNSzki” Savolainen was part of G2 from 2018 to 2019, and left the competition in 2020 with Team Secret.
This group of players collected the following titles: Six Major Paris in 2018, Pro League Season 8, DreamHack Winter 2018 and the Six Invitational in 2019.
The hardest process: replacing legends
However, the org's replacement of these players didn’t mature as planned. Ben “CTZN” McMillan and Jake “Virtue” Grannan both joined the European organization in 2020 and are the remaining players from this “new” generation still on the roster. The German duo, Lucas “Hungry” Reich and Jonas “Jonka” Kaczmarzyk were added to the team in mid-2021, under the new leadership of Jordan “Kayak” Morley; who joined G2 in March of 2021 after Pengu retired. But the team didn’t find the success they were looking for.
In 2021, G2 finished the Six Invitational in 13th-16th place. They also attended the Mexico Major, but weren’t able to get through the group stage and they failed to qualify for the Major in Sweden. In the domestic competitions, the story wasn’t that different. G2’s peak in European League was in Stage 2 with second place.
Building a new era
The results weren't coinciding with G2's history in Siege and the organization started to monitor new players. As Karl “Alem4o” Zarth said to BLIX.GG; even after the Six Invitational of last year, the Brazilian talent was approached to join the team and start a new chapter for G2 in the game.
Things didn’t happen and in 2022 they decided to rebuild the project. Yet with the “yes” of Alem4o, G2 was aiming to only stick with CTZN and the coach Thomas “SHAS” Lee in the new roster. Kevin “Prano” Pranowitz from Rogue was signed to be the new leader of this new chapter of G2.
With him, G2 aimed for the signing of Maurice “AceeZ” Erkelenz from Rogue too. But as Alem4o said recently on stream, the team decided to follow other options.
The “other” option was already at home and Virtue surprised even Alem4o; the Brazilian had offered a lot of praise to the Australian for his quality in-game. One spot was missing and, in a swap deal, Natus Vincere and G2 negotiated the swap of Kayak to the Ukrainian organization and the coming of the British player Jack “Doki” Robertson to G2.
First steps
As said to BLIX.GG, Alem4o has no doubts about this new G2 roster: “I think we’re the best team in Europe, we have the best players and the best strategies”.
However, the first goal for the G2 squad is accomplished — qualifying for the Major. Even though Alem4o’s words made the whole scene think G2’s journey in the first stage of EUL would be simple, the truth is that G2 had to wait for the result between Rogue and Heroic’s match to see if they would be able to attend the international competition.
Still, what really matters at the end of the day is that they'll travel to Charlotte, USA, to play the first international tournament for this roster. For G2, the expectations are high, but we all know the first steps for a roster built through so many changes and adaptions will take the due time to adjust and play their real and intended game.
Will G2 get back to the old title road or stay in the shadows for longer?