Can G2 Esports thrive with their new CS2 roster?

Jks joined G2 Esports in August 2022 and left in November 2023. He spent around 15 months competing for the organization and obtained three important results during this time.

First, he won BLAST Premier World Final 2022, less than six months after joining the roster. Then he won IEM Katowice 2023, just two months later. In August this year, he won IEM Cologne.

But after that excellent year was over, G2 started to encounter difficulties again. Despite having some of the world’s best players, the team constantly got eliminated in the semifinals of tournaments, or even in the quarterfinals. This happened at Gamers8, ESL Pro League S18, BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, and IEM Sydney.

The decision to replace jks

For almost any other team, this level of consistency would have been enough. But G2 want to win trophies. Apart from FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, and a few other contestants, there is nobody that can realistically beat them. But they keep losing against the same teams over and over, and sometimes even against lesser opponents.

pic.twitter.com/68PJK7EjhM

— G2 Esports (@G2esports) November 20, 2023

The decision to bench jks may come to hurt G2. Their roster functions well partly because of the great chemistry that exists between the players. On the other hand, the man who was brought in to replace jks is a former player of the club. Nexa is from Serbia. Both NiKo and huNter- know him well.

The only issue is that he played for more than a year for OG before joining G2, and spent more than four months without competing. Given the team’s high ambitions, it’s highly unlikely that he’s a good fit. But he might prove to be. We cannot know, from the outside, what the situation is like internally.

Furthermore, professional players are much better than casual players at assessing a player’s qualities and potential. G2 would not have made this move if they weren’t confident that it would prove to be a good decision.

For the time being, jks is still on the bench and will probably not leave the club too soon. But there’s a small chance that Team Falcons will make him an offer. In that case, he almost certainly will choose to leave, especially since he’s been replaced on the active roster.

For G2, BLAST Premier: World Final 2023 will be the first big test. Last year they won. This year, with all the amazing competitors in the race, it’s going to be much harder.

Header: G2 Esports