2022 Roster Analysis: G2 try out unproven talent

G2’s first year without Luka “Perkz” Perkovic has been very disappointing. After a promised rebuild, will they dominate once again? Following their semifinal loss against Damwon Gaming at the 2020 World Championship, G2 Esports shocked the world with their roster moves– they were letting go of Perkz, who had been with the team since its entry into the highest level of professional European League of Legends.

He was replaced by a superstar bottom laner from another organization, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson. Despite this one change, however, the team’s play and results changed drastically. They seemed to be struggling with their form and desired style of play. They placed third in the spring, and got knocked out of Worlds contention by their rivals in Fnatic. For the first time in their organization’s history, they were not able to make it into the world championship.

Players leaving G2

Going into the 2021 season, news was getting out that G2 Esports was trying out some players from the European Regional Leagues. They also put most of their players from the 2020 roster available for buyout. Soon enough, the announcement came– Rekkles would be moving on to Karmine Corp, Martin “Wunder” Hansen would be moving on to Fnatic, and while some teams were interested in Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle, he would not be transferred just yet.

Broken Blade & Targamas

As is the case with departures, there were also some arrivals. Sergen “Broken Blade” Celik, previously from FC Schalke 04 Esports, would be their top laner. Victor “Flakked” Lirola would be joining as their bottom laner, from the MAD Lions’ ERL team. Raphael “Targamas” Crabbe, who just recently won both spring and summer of the European Masters tournament with Karmine Corp.

Broken Blade is an excellent top side carry, who has international experience and knows what playing for a prestigious organization is like. In addition, he is also excellent on tanks and on weak side champions. Targamas was in the EU LCS in 2018 with Giants Gaming, and definitely showed potential there, but Giants did not seem to be able to harness this. He spent the last three years in the ERLs and having won the EU Masters twice last year is a great testament of his improvement and level of consistency as a support.

Flakked

He is very good on playmakers such as Rakan and Sett, and more of this should be expected when he goes into the LEC. Flakked has shown some proficiency both on late game carries and on mages, which means that he will be very dependable in the drafting phase. His best champion from last year seems to be Ezreal, which means that he may be left on his own while Targamas roams into other parts of the map.

Caps & Jankos

Long-time viewers of the LEC are no stranger to the highs of Rasmus “Caps” Winther and Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski. Jankos has proven over the years that he is good not only in providing leads for his laners, but he can carry on his own as well. When Caps is on his best, he can take over entire games and make them about him. If they manage to perform well as the cornerstone of this relatively younger roster, G2 may see themselves hoisting the LEC trophy once again.

Will Europe’s most successful organization come back on top with this roster? Only time will tell.