It's fair to say G2 Esports haven't met the team's standard this season. Coming from back-to-back Six Invitational Top 4 finishes, including the team's second hammer in 2023, and multiple other great international displays, the hopes around the samurai were high ahead of the 2024 season.
Instead, the team's struggles to qualify for Majors and the surprising defeats against some presumably weaker rosters made the European powerhouse the perfect target for mockery. It's the consequence of playing for a team that's surrounded by successful legacy and glory; not staying on top is seen as a sign of weakness.
It's not the first time that G2 Esports goes through something similar. The team's lowest point was between 2021 and 2022, a run that included surprising results like Parabellum's 2-0 win at the Six Invitational 2021 or missing out on the Six Invitational 2022. However, when the storm hits, it's important to know how to react; and G2 Esports have proven to have that quality multiple times.
Following the team's disastrous performance at the BLAST R6 Major Manchester where they got knocked out following back-to-back 1-2 defeats against Team Liquid and FearX, the samurai made two roster changes as they brought in Roberto “Loira” Camargo and Alexandre “BlaZ” Thomas to replace the Six Invitational 2023 champions Benjamin “Benjamaster” Dereli and Jake “Virtue” Grannan.
"The chemistry is good, it has always been good. Loira and BlaZ are easy guys to get on with, they don't cause any problems, no drama and stuff like that, so that's always good," explained Jack "Doki" Robertson in an interview with SiegeGG.
"Loira specifically, he's really smart, he understands the game at the highest level, he can IGL and coordinate with the team, what we need, everything, which really surprised me, I thought he was just a fragger, but he's way more than that, he's just so involved in all of the strats we do, all the work we do outside of the server, he's so involved," the Scottish added.
So far, the former Black Dragons player has been a great asset for G2 Esports as he has averaged SiegeGG ratings of 1.05, 1.06, and 1.39 in the Europe League 2024 Stage 2, the BLAST R6 Major Montreal, and the Six Invitational 2025 Europe and MENA Finals, respectively.
Despite the team's signings ahead of the second split of the season, Montreal wasn't much different to Manchester. In fact, the roster qualified for Canada in similar fashion as they had to win Europe's last chance qualifier to clinch the region's fourth spot.
Overall, against the hard nuts to crack, G2 Esports hasn't shown any consistency at all. The team's back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the Europe League 2024 were followed by strong last chance qualifier performances, where they mostly played against weaker sides. While struggling in Europe's top flight and in Major games, the samurai had an overall map record of 25 wins and six defeats in regional qualifiers – four of which came against MACKO Esports this month.
Although the team excelled in those tournaments, the performances would be followed by international failure. This season, the samurai have lost five of their seven BLAST R6 Major matches, including defeats against FearX and SCARZ, despite the Europeans being the favorites to win.
While Doki acknowledged the level of the teams in last chance qualifiers isn’t the same to the level in Europe’s top flight and international competitions, especially considering the qualifiers include Tier 2 and 3 rosters, the Scottish focused on the team’s mentality and the bracket's format. “The games are back-to-back, you play so many games, that’s good for us because we’re a momentum team, the more games we play, the better we play."
To get back on track, the team decided to make multiple internal changes following the conclusion of the BLAST R6 Major Montreal. This led the roster to move Karl "Alem4o" Zarth out of the IGL position as the players decided it would be more beneficial for the team to bring Aleksi "UUNO" Työppönen in that role.
"The reason we did it was because we felt like it was hard for Alem4o to keep doing that IGL role on the roles he was playing, the aggressive and entry positions, and it was kind of inconsistent for us, and for him; it wasn't something he wanted to do, for example, he wanted to change as well," Doki explained.
"We are used to UUNO, we have played with him for years now, he has got a really strong voice, we understand him, we respect him, this isn't something new that UUNO just started calling, he has been calling for us for a long time, but not the main voice, now he has that decision-making power," he added.
Although the Finn is now leading the game's coms, players don't stay silent as there's a constant flow of ideas between all of the members of the team. However, the 29-year-old always has the final word.
"We aren't silent, we're always giving ideas, specially Loira and Alem4o, they are extremely vocal when it comes to shot calling and stuff, they always give suggestions to UUNO and he will make the final call," the Scottish explained. "Not much has changed but this system is better for the long run," he added.
The decision to change the team's IGL wasn't the only tweak made after the BLAST R6 Major Montreal as the samurai decided to sign Gabriel "cameram4n" Hespanhol to become the team's new assistant coach. The Brazilian reunited with his former coach Matheus "Ramalho" Ramalho as they competed under FaZe Clan together for almost two years. Now, they are G2 Esports' coaches.
"Ramalho has always been a smart guy in the game but I think cameram4n can connect to us more as individuals because he has been a player, he has been in our shoes, so I think that's something that's really good," Doki explained.
When we talk about cameram4n, we aren't talking of just another retired player. The Brazilian has been competing since Rainbow Six Siege's esports scene was born and he has featured in seven out of the eight Six Invitational editions played on PC. He has also reached three Six Major grand finals and became an international champion at the Six Sweden Major.
"The experience is so important, he likes the way that we play the game, he's not trying to change everything, he's just trying to help us, he brings a lot of new ideas, new strats, new ways of dealing with problems," Doki explained.
"The main thing that we noticed is that, now that we have two staff members, and UUNO, who also helps, is so much easier to counter our opponents, it doesn't take so long anymore. When we only had Ramalho as our coach, he couldn't really do his best work, analyzing the opponents and being our coach at the same time was a lot of work for one guy."
"With the addition of cameram4n we're so much ready for back-to-back BO3s, we can prepare against our opponents way better and way faster, I think the only thing we have realized is that we have to be performing individually well and hit our shots, which is something we're always pretty good at."
"We're finally understanding the game at the right level as a team, I think everyone is playing the right roles, so I think that's step one towards the right direction," he added.
G2 Esports have been placed in Group A of the Six Invitational 2025 and will play against Team Liquid, M80, Team Joel, and Unwanted. While they have already played twice this season against the Blue Cavalry, they have yet to play against the rest.
Compared to the team's preparation for the BLAST R6 Major Montreal there's a big difference that the 25-year-old believed was worth mentioning: the travel to the event. Before competing in Montreal, the samurai bootcamped in San Francisco and had to endure a 15-hour trip to the Canadian city right before the start of the event. However, the Six Invitational should be different.
"We're bootcamping in Boston for this SI which is where the tournament is, instead of bootcamping in somewhere else. Last time, for Montreal, we bootcamped in San Francisco and we had that really long travel day, it was a 15-hour travel day to get to Montreal, it was just completely so destroying, it took out all the motivation, it was a hard day for us and people would keep really sick because of this as well."
"(I am) not using it as an excuse, just saying how it was. That was bad for us to be honest, that really hurt us so hopefully that won't happen this time, because we're going to be in Boston for ten days before the tournament starts," he added.
Regarding the teams G2 Esports will play against, Doki sounded confident. "I am not scared of any opponent, I am not thinking that all this guys are going to be really hard, I don't think so, I think every game is going to be a great match, it will be depending on who's prepared the best and who shoots the best," he concluded.
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