What’s ahead for G2 Esports after parting ways with JACKZ?

G2 Esports have been struggling to obtain top three results in S-tier CS:GO tournaments since the start of the season. What’s worse, they missed the playoffs of both PGL Major Antwerp and IEM Cologne, the two biggest events of the last three months.

When you have players like Nikola “NiKo” Kovac and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, that’s not good at all. Other teams would have been happy with how things were going, but G2 aim to win trophies. Something clearly had to be done, and we’ve now seen the big change: Audric “JACKZ” Jug is leaving the team.

The road ahead for G2

This roster move may cost G2 the next few tournaments, or it may boost their performance significantly. Right now, we don’t yet know who will replace JACKZ. And regardless of who is going to be the player bought by G2, the change will not be without a risk.

JACKZ played for G2 for almost four years. His contribution throughout the years was substantial and with so much experience, he inevitably learned a lot about G2’s way of playing CS:GO.

Who can replace such a veteran, who’s not only a top-tier player but also a G2 expert? There aren’t that many choices and time is ticking. The next important CS:GO tournament is only one week away, the next one is three weeks away, and the Rio Major is scheduled for the beginning of November.

Can G2 get a spot in Major Rio?

But to get to the Major, G2 will need to succeed in the qualifiers. And that will not be easy given the level of skill displayed by the other European teams. The current professional CS:GO scene is full of amazing competitors. A while ago, we used to have Astralis, Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, and a few more teams who were dominating every event. But now, when you watch an S-tier tournament, you know that at least half a dozen competitors could win it and half a dozen more could qualify for the playoffs.

With so much competition, G2 no longer have their Major spot guaranteed. The system requires them to qualify purely on their merit and that means finishing in the top eight at IEM Road to Rio 2022: European RMR A, set to kick off on October 4. There will be 16 participants in total and G2’s prowess will be tested.

In the next week or so, we will probably know who’s going to replace JACKZ. Hopefully, some top-tier player joins G2 and does a good job. Two names that come to mind are Richard “shox” Papillon and Kenny “kennyS” Schrub.

Header: G2 Esports