The Magic Behind G2 Esports’ Success: Interview with Coach Swani

In the world of competitive gaming, few figures remain as elusive yet impactful as G2 Esports’ very own analyst turned coach, Jan “Swani” Müller. With a journey that began in his early twenties, Swani chose a path less traveled, opting to become an analyst and later a coach rather than pursuing a professional player’s dream like most of his peers.

Today, he stands tall as an instrumental force behind G2’s dominance in the CS:GO scene. In an exclusive interview with Fragster, moments before IEM Cologne, Swani shares his insights on his early career choices, the challenges he faced, and the pivotal moments that led to G2 Esports’ remarkable success.

An Unconventional Path

You’ve been helping teams from the shadows since your early twenties. At that age, most people are trying hard to become professional players. What made you decide to become an analyst and then a coach so early in your career?

Swani: I never really played the game with the goal of making it as a professional nor as a coach or a player. So for me it was just about playing with friends and having a good time until I met crisby and he asked me to help them out with aTTaX back in the days.

IEM KATOWICE WINNERS WUUUUUHUUUU LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/DklZecIo0k

— Jan (@G2Swani) February 12, 2023

You’ve been working for G2 Esports in various roles since 2019. What can you tell us about this experience? Which season did you enjoy the most and which do you regard as the most challenging?
Swani: Working with and for G2 has been a pleasure, it is an organization with probably one of the biggest fanbases in EU when it comes to CS:GO. We are getting a lot of support and they trusted me throughout my journey with them even though we changed multiple coaches they always wanted to keep me which I am very thankful for.

The season I enjoyed the most was definitely the one with Remy, XTQZZ, because there I finally started to work more hands on with the team as an assistant, traveled the world with them and just had more enjoyable tasks than just the usual Analyst tasks which are pretty dry and in front of your computer. And obviously as a coach the previous season is by far the best, winning World Finals, winning Katowice and having the 2nd longest win streak on LAN is just insane. Most people work their entire career to lift a prestigious trophy such as Katowice and I managed to do it in my second month, couldn’t be happier about it.

Embracing Different Roles

At the organizations you worked for, you’ve held several positions: analyst, interim coach, assistant coach, and coach. Is there a big difference between them in terms of the actual work that you need to do on a daily basis?
Swani: There is definitely a huge difference, as an analyst you are kind of just “there” and whenever they need something they call you but you are definitely not as hands on with players usually as you are as an assistant or head coach obviously. Once I started being an assistant I got more hands-on work to do, as mentioned above. A lot of 1 on 1 sessions with players discussing both short- and long term goals, creating a strategic plan and leading the anti strat before officials put more responsibility on me but also increased the trust between me and the players.

Back to back trophies with my favorite Schnitzel 🥩
Thank you guys for all the nice words and support yesterday and the entire tournament 💛 pic.twitter.com/v74efm0BSy

— Jan (@G2Swani) February 13, 2023

Now as a head coach you have to lead daily operations, prepare practice and recap everyday etc. but also you need to be a really good human and make the team function especially in an international team with completely different cultures, having for example Ilya who is Russian and away from home nearly all the time while being a kid can be hard and you need to take good care of this aspect and can not just focus on the game like a robot.

Nurturing Talents

Since you’ve been working as a coach and analyst, have you ever had a favorite player or someone that you really enjoyed helping to develop?
Swani: Obviously right now I love working with Ilya, he has the heart at the right spot and has 0 ego despite being a superstar in his young age, he is super humble and always listens to suggestions however he is not just saying yes to everything and is discussing his point of view as well and comes up with his own ideas.

What do you think is the most important difference between m0NESY and NiKo? And how are they similar?
Swani: Obviously the biggest difference is their experience, NiKo has been through it all and it’s super valuable for Ilya that he shares it with him. They are very similar in their drive to win it all. Both are hardcore committed to the grind and just want to give their best to win every single game.

Love these boyzzz https://t.co/vb1vgaRZad

— Jan (@G2Swani) August 1, 2023

You spent a bit of time helping Brazilian teams. How does Brazilian CS:GO differ from European CS:GO?
Swani: Brazilian CS is not as tactical as European CS, it is a lot more focused on creating space for individuals and having them shine, especially back in the days with SK / IMT. You can see it now with Furia, towards the end of the last season they tried to implement a more tactical approach playing slower etc. and they were having a really tough time with this change.

Have you had the opportunity to play Counter-Strike 2 and evaluate it from a competitive standpoint? If yes, what do you think of it?
I only played a bit of matchmaking with the boys but they definitely have to work on the new smoke + HE aspect, other than that it looks good.

Seeking Consistency

The current G2 roster has a lot of potential, as demonstrated by the results obtained at BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 and IEM Katowice 2023. But it’s clear that the team is struggling to stay consistent. The swings are absolutely massive. Do you have an idea of what the problem is, or is it hard to pinpoint?
Swani: Our biggest problem right now is that our fundamentals are not at a top level, we struggle with basics and need to fix them ASAP. Our bottom level has to be at a point where we can beat teams like EG without any problem even though we are only at 60% individually. We have very high highs but also extreme lows during games which we need to address and fix, consistency is the key and right now it is missing.

In your view, what went wrong in the opening match of BLAST Premier: Fall Groups? The new Team Liquid roster was supposed to be much weaker than the one that had nitr0 and EliGE.
Swani: I don’t like to say that a team is weaker on paper because they switched rosters, they got the perfect balance now with aggressive and passive players and it is really hard to prepare for these teams as you have nothing to go off. But during this match again we showed high fluctuations in terms of performance and we should have easily closed out Vertigo but failed to do so and it came back to haunt us.

Competitors

How do you evaluate the new Natus Vincere roster?
Swani: The next 2-3 months are key for them, especially in regards of the culture clash, they were always used to the russian mentality where everything is pretty harsh and nobody is sugar coating words. This will be especially crucial once they start losing and they are on the road for a long term but on paper it looks promising.

Fucking insane game vs @TeamVitality they played really good but we had good answers to everything and are showing what we are capable of, super proud of everyone and semifinals secured!! See you on Saturday Lanxess 😍 #g2win

— Jan (@G2Swani) August 1, 2023

Who do you think are the best five teams in CS:GO right now?
Swani: The best team is definitely Vitality followed by Heroic, C9, FaZe and maaaaybe on a good day we are in the mix.

What ambitions does G2 Esports have for the second part of 2023? Are you aiming for a top 8 at S-tier tournaments or a bit higher?
Swani: When you play for G2 you always aim higher than top 8, we have 4 insanely gifted players and a top IGL that knows how to win trophies so we are going for the trophies and nothing else.

 

Header: BLAST