How G2 Became The Most Decorated European Team Ever
Since G2 Esports’ inception in 2015, the organisation has been locked in a fierce battle with the old kings of Europe - Fnatic. Split after split, the two teams have clashed in final upon final, each meeting only deepening their desire to one-up the other for good.
United in their hunger for victory, the rivalry has developed into the greatest in all of League of Legends, and perhaps even esports as a whole. Since their victory in the 2020 Spring Grand Finals though, G2 has been just one step away from finally exceeding their rivals in LEC titles.
After yesterday’s LEC Summer Grand Final, G2 took that one last step. With their devastating 3-0 Grand Finals win over Fnatic, G2 has become the most successful European (and Western) team in history. They have now won eight of the ten LEC splits since 2015, and the LEC trophy is yet to have a different team’s name engraved on it.
Not content with just a trophy though, G2 and Fnatic also broke the LEC’s viewership record, as over one million fans tuned in to watch the historic series.
Here, we’re taking a look back at the series and G2’s journey this split to unpack just how they did it.
The Tiebreaker Split
While G2 has for years been recognised as the strongest European team, the long and successful history of Fnatic evens out the trophy count. Coming into this split, the two teams were equally matched in their achievements; both had won seven LEC titles, and both were World finalists (both were also 3-0ed by the LPL, but we don’t talk about that).
Internationally, Fnatic’s Season 1 Worlds title was matched by G2’s historic MSI 2019 victory, leaving them neck-and-neck – whoever won this split would pull ahead, and the balance would be irreversibly broken.
Regular Season Troubles
Unexpectedly, things weren’t looking good for either team halfway through the regular season. Despite their 3-0 start, Fnatic’s coordination problems left them hovering precariously in the middle of the pack, and G2 were not faring much better. After star ADC Perkz suffered a personal tragedy and took some vacation time, G2 began to drop games left and right.
After Week 6, the defending champions were stuck in a three-way tie for fifth, teetering on the edge of playoffs qualification. With such close standings and volatile matchups, a single misstep could have doomed G2’s Worlds hopes before it even began. While their pedigree ensured that many remained faithful to G2, playoffs were approaching fast, and their window of opportunity was rapidly disappearing.
Fortunately, the fans were rewarded for their faith. The last two weeks of the regular season saw a G2 resurgence, shooting up to third place to overtake Fnatic. Still, doubts remained about whether G2 could beat the new blood at the top; despite being rookie teams with less best-of-five experience, the second place MAD Lions and first place Rogue were sure to be stiff competition. Fnatic, being the veteran team they are, could never be counted out either, and the unstoppable Schalke miracle run loomed over them all like a guillotine. As their first opponents, SK Gaming’s chances were slim.
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Playoffs Bonanza
With their momentum built up from the final weeks of the regular season, G2 came into playoffs with something to prove. First facing off against the second seed, the 2019 world finalists showed no mercy to the rising talents of MAD Lions. Caps and Perkz took no prisoners, and the first game saw them go 9/0/11 and 7/2/12 respectively. MAD managed to strike back in Game Three with Shad0w’s Lillia, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to stop Claps. The defending champions advanced to Round 2, while the MAD Lions fell from the safety of the upper bracket into the path of a rampaging Schalke 04.
Fnatic, as the fourth seed, was clearly perceived as weaker than G2 by Rogue. Despite ending the regular season on top, many players and analysts showed disdain to Rogue’s straight-forward style, and beating a faltering Fnatic here would be a huge boon for their reputation. Confident in their victory, the regular season table-toppers stepped onto the Rift, but were soon made to regret their decision. A swift and unforeseen 3-0 left Rogue reeling, and both new blood teams were knocked down into the lower bracket. Fnatic advanced onto the next round, poised to take revenge on G2 for their humiliating loss in Spring. As the lower seed, the MAD Lions prepared to face the wrecking ball of Schalke 04.
The real excitement though was in the upper bracket, where somehow the rivals had managed to meet once again. Rather than an LEC title though, the two teams were fighting for their own reasons. Fnatic, in particular, were looking to wash away the disgrace of Spring Split, as they hadn’t won a best-of-five against G2 since 2018 and hadn’t even taken a game off them in 2020. Giving it their all in a nail-biting game five, and with a little help from a G2 throw in game three, Fnatic finally managed to beat their rivals.
Click to enlargeWith 875 days since their last best-of-five victory against G2, Fnatic had cause for celebration. Unfortunately for them, G2 weren’t done yet. Dropping down to the lower bracket, G2 would have another chance to face Fnatic in the Grand Finals – they just had to beat whoever was in their way.
MAD had derailed the Schalke miracle run and secured their spot at Worlds, but Rogue had just as quickly done the same to them. Rogue looked much more convincing in their series against MAD than against Fnatic, and were raring for a rematch against G2.
They hit the ground running, taking game one in dominating fashion, but two insane games from Caps on Syndra and Zoe left Rogue one more loss from defeat. As the carries of the team, Hans sama and Larssen stepped up in their moment of need to take G2 to game five.
Regrettably, they would go no further. Even Hans Sama’s signature Draven was helpless, as G2 heavily outclassed Rogue on the top side of the map. Wunder’s Shen absolutely crushed Finn’s Aatrox, spreading his influence throughout the map using Stand United. It was all downhill from there, and G2 booked a ticket to the Grand Finals.
The Decider
Following Fnatic’s ‘banger’ 3-2 win over G2 last week, tensions were high for the LEC Grand Finals. Could Fnatic get revenge for their devastating 3-0 loss in the Spring Finals? Who would pull ahead in the LEC title race? Which team is better heading into Worlds? Everything would become clear after a single best-of-five, and a legion of fans a million-strong tuned in to find out for themselves.
Right out of the gate, G2 surprised everyone with a team comp inspired by the LCS of all things. Having watched TSM’s series the night before, Jankos was curious about Spica’s Shen jungle pick and decided to try it for himself. Drafting the jungle Shen as a flex pick into top also forced Fnatic to respond with the counter of Gangplank, giving Wunder the free counter pick advantage over Bwipo. Picking strong solo laners in Camille and LeBlanc then set up G2 with the perfect split-push comp, and rounding it out with Ashe and Braum gave the team scary pick potential.
While jungle Shen may seem like a troll pick, in theory, it makes perfect sense. Shen offers similar ganking potential to a Sett, and a Taunt Flash combo gives your target even less time to react than a Flash Facebreaker. While his AOE clear early on is lacking, Shen is perfectly capable of clearing his Red, Blue and Gromp with enough health to secure a quick Scuttlecrab or gank. It helps that many people underestimate Shen’s damage, when he is actually one of the strongest duelists before level 6. His damage is even further amplified by Press the Attack, which can be almost instantly activated by three enhanced Qs.
Post level 6, Shen becomes capable of appearing on the map anywhere and at any time, while also taking objectives and power farming. Often the threat of his ultimate is as useful as actually using it, since the enemy team can’t take evenly-matched fights without it suddenly turning into a numbers disadvantage when Shen ults in.
His ultimate only becomes scarier and scarier over time, as Jankos’ Ultimate Hunter makes it come up even more frequently, and when combined with a split-pusher like Camille, Shen makes it impossible for Fnatic to match the Camille 1v1. A Hextech Ultimatum into Stand United and Taunt spells instant death for any champion, no matter how tanky. With the added threat of Caps hovering behind Wunder on LeBlanc, a 1v1 in a side lane can instantly become a 1v3.
Knowing all this, G2 executed on the composition as well as they could. While there were some fumbles that put Rekkles in a good position to carry, Fnatic was unable to prevent Caps from picking up kill after kill on LeBlanc. As their towers fell one after the other, Fnatic was eventually forced back into their base to clear side waves while G2 took everything on the map.
With Fnatic’s team-fight oriented draft, they found it impossible to match the Camille and LeBlanc in a 1v1 and thus opted to roll around as a team. This worked well for a while, successfully slowing down the constant G2 assault. They were still on a timer though, as they were constantly giving dragons and eventually Barons. Fnatic continued to bleed out slowly, but it took Elder Dragon for G2 to finally break in the base and end the game in 49 minutes.
Having lost the first game, Fnatic chose to show their own innovation in team composition for game two. The combination of Zilean top and ghost Hecarim turned Selfmade into a supercharged warhorse, diving into the G2 backline unstoppably. With Hylissang on his signature Pyke, Nemesis on Corki and Rekkles on Senna, the rest of Fnatic chose comfort picks able to dish out huge damage.
Unfortunately for them, Caps saved his pick for last – an R5 Sylas. Although Corki’s ultimate is pretty lacklustre, Zilean, Hecarim, Senna and Pyke all have potentially game-changing ultimates for Sylas to steal. The rest of G2 opted for a more traditional front-to-back composition, with Lulu, Ornn and Sett to protect Perkz on Ashe.
The Ashe Lulu bot lane proved to be a winner for G2, as Perkz picked up First Blood on Hylissang in an early 2v2. Despite that setback, Hylissang was still able to execute on his game-plan of shutting down Caps by roaming mid and getting Nemesis ahead. At the same time, Selfmade’s Hecarim proved to be a big problem for G2, as Ghost and Zilean’s speed boosts allowed him to cover long distances instantly to find pick after pick.
Luckily for G2, Selfmade’s speed was also his downfall, as he repeatedly outpaced his own teammates and dived too deep without any follow up. As Caps picked up more and more kills, even Dragon Soul couldn’t stop G2 from cracking open Fnatic’s Nexus.
Having been in such a strong position in game two, Fnatic were now a loss from being swept once again. In a last-ditch attempt, Fnatic took blue side and first-picked Caitlyn. Alongside Corki and Graves with Ignite, Fnatic attempted to crush G2 with pure carry power and the pick potential of Hylissang’s Bard.
As they say, though, history has a way of repeating itself. Instead of five intense games, we got yet another 3-0 for G2. Fnatic went out with a whimper, as Wunder’s free farming Vladimir turned into a terror in team-fights. Zoning away Rekkles, G2 eventually took Soul and Baron to close out the series convincingly.
For the fourth split in a row, G2 took the hefty LEC trophy home, cementing themselves as not only the best European team, but also the best Western team ever. They have won eight out of ten splits that they've participated in, and there's no other Western team that even comes close to such long term dominance. Even so, it doesn't look like G2 had to show all the tricks up their sleeve in playoffs, and we'll have to wait until Worlds to find out what they've been cooking up in scrims. If all goes well, maybe they won't get swept by TES in the World finals...
Images via Riot Games | G2 Esports