They started as a project for the future, now the future seems to be coming early. When the G2 project, formerly under the name of Team Kinguin, started a few months ago, the expectations were all over the place. Some thought it would just burn out like many other teams with “randomly” thrown together high-skill aimers, others saw in the team the next big thing, given enough time. At this point the team is together since the beginning of May, reaping in the first successful major placements in August and October - how will November in California treat the team?

Aiming for the head, shooting for the stars

A crazy couple of weeks and months is behind the roster around star-player Maikelele with high ups, roster changes and some lows. When the team managed to first make it onto the scene of a major, the ESL One Cologne event, it seemed like destiny. The team that was consisting of some of the best aim-players on the competitive scene was meant to slowly, but surely progress into a juggernaut on the European scene. In a little less than three months they’ve made it from a collection of individuals to a major team. At ESL One Cologne they didn’t just become a major team and a force to be reckoned with in the future, they’ve also claimed the coveted and important “Legend” status straight away. In the tournament they showed perseverance and determination to make it, not giving up after the bad first day on the grand stage, getting blown out 16-6 by Luminosity Gaming. The squad, back then with ScreaM, kept at it and marched out of Group F victorious, beating Team Immunity and the NA hopefuls Cloud 9 for the Top 8 berth and a chance to play in front of a roaring crowd at the Lanxess Arena.

In that arena they couldn’t quite pull off the upset against the Danish bunch of Team SoloMid, but they still arrived in the upper echelon of the competitive scene. The experiment of putting the best individual free-agents and talent together seemed to work out and yield success. They followed that major debut up with some other good placements, ultimately winning the first LAN tournament of their team’s history - Gaming Paradise 2015. Still, the impressive outing of the team against Na’Vi twice and Titan was a sign of things to come - a sign of steady improvement and consistent output.

The consistency was slightly disrupted by the organization change and roster change, when the team left Kinguin for G2 Esports and ScreaM left them for his old French love-affair Titan. The team had to accept those changes, and they did with grace and even more success. For ScreaM the Norwegian player jkaem was introduced with only a month of prep time towards the next big major in the Romanian city Cluj.

It turned out to be well enough time, as G2 Esports improved once more. Not only did they retain their “Legend” status, but they’ve also managed to beat living legends on their way to a top 4 placement at a Valve major. Just like in Cologne, they once more overcame adversity in the groups, nearly dropping out against mousesports. Recovering from that scare, they went on to shock the world by 2-0’ing Virtus.pro, stopping the plow and overcoming the Polish roster even on their trademark map de_Train. History was made, Maikelele and company were one step further in a major, replacement jkaem played out of his mind, as well everyone taking turns of delivering clutch round after clutch round. The HYPE train was eventually stopped by Team EnVyUs, but not without a fight and in three maps. Now IEM in San Jose is the chance for G2 Esports to prove that the win over VP was not a fluke, as well as prove that they belong in the conversation, in the big picture of great European teams.

All statistics are based on HLTV.org play profiles from the last three months.

Here to stay, here to win

With the major success so recent, the form of the team is obviously trending in the right direction. With everyone inside the team stepping up and being able to deliver clutch moments, as well as internal roles ironed out, G2 Esports is looking for a strong burst in the future.

So far the major tournaments with the top 8 and top 4 placement are the shining mark on their resume, with online results slightly lacking behind. With G2 Esports not being present in the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2, they’ve played a big role in the eighth season of the CEVO Professional division. Over there G2 finished just slightly outside of the top 3 granting them a spot in the Grand Finals in Columbus, Ohio. Ultimately only the fact that they’ve lost two games in the league, as opposed to the one match HR flat out lost - that was the swing vote to determine the third place. In the end HellRaisers declined the LAN spot, dropping it into G2 Esports’ lap, but they’ve declined it as well to focus on other tournaments such as the IEM San Jose. Third replacement mouz represented the European division well and cruised to a second place finish, earning them a direct invite back to the Season 9 LAN finals.

Outside of that league, G2 has been rather quiet. With no ESL ESEA to compete in on a daily basis, FACEIT is the proving ground for the team. In that contest they are currently fifth in the standing with five wins and seven losses to their name. The wins came over rivals like HellRaisers and Titan twice, as well as Ninjas in Pyjamas - not the most impressive rolodex to have. In perspective they’ve suffered defeat at the hands of EnVyUS, TSM and Fnatic twice, splitting the two-game series with NiP. Just like in the past major and in the upcoming IEM San Jose opener, the deciding point on whether G2 Esports will move on to the next round in FACEIT Season 3 might come out of the battle with Virtus.pro. If Maikelele and his bunch can edge out two victories they’d level their record and be in position to attend DreamHack Winter 2015.

Before flying to snowy and cold Jönköping, the squad first gets to go to sunny and warm San Jose, California in order to go head-to-head with the Polish legends in front of a massive crowd in the United States. Can they continue their success with a massive audience giving them support? We will see at IEM soon.

See G2 Esports live in San Jose!

There are still tickets available if you want to watch G2 Esports perform live alongside other top CS:GO teams at Intel Extreme Masters San Jose - grab your ticket here!

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