G2 Esports: The Dark Lords of Europe Strike Back!
By Michael Salt
G2 battled and battled, unfamiliar with being the underdogs they chewed through Splyce and FC Schalke 04 to earn themselves a spot in the Worlds 2018 play-in stage. Sure, it wasn’t ideal for the formerly untested dark lords of Europe. but it was a chance to show the world that they weren’t done after 2 disappointing splits.
G2 made it out of play-ins alongside North America’s 3rd seed Cloud 9, China’s 3rd seed EDward Gaming and the LMS’ 3rd seed G-Rex. They were placed into Group A alongside the LMS’ prevailing champions and international powerhouse Flash Wolves, Korea’s 3rd seed Afreeca Freecs and Vietnam’s 1st seed and internationally unproven Phong Vũ Buffalo. After a hard fought week of group play, G2 found themselves tied 2nd with Flash Wolves and won a nail-biting tiebreaker to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals.
G2’s quarterfinal opponent was none other than the Chinese powerhouse Royal Never Give Up, who was on their “golden road” having won every single international event they took part in during 2018. And as if by an act of God, G2 toppled the Chinese giants in an astounding 5 game match and booted down the door to semifinals. Now was their time.
Unfortunately, their opponent Invictus Gaming – the eventual world champions held them at arms reach and gave them a thorough spanking, taking out Perkz & company in a clean 3:0 sweep. Sure this was the end of the road for G2 in terms of their competitive year in 2018 but the things they managed to accomplish with a supposedly weaker roster than the years previous showed that there was nowhere else for them to go but upwards.
After having their proverbial Death Star blown up and their beloved legacy snatched from them at the hands of Rekkles’ Fnatic in the spring 2018 finals, you can bet that G2 is coming back in 2019 even hungrier.
Next. From Ashes; SKT Returns. dark
The Dark Lords of Europe shall rise again.
With Perkz moving down to the bottom lane to meet his rival Rekkles head-on and snatching his right hand in Caps to take over G2’s mid lane as his replacement, I certainly expect to see a bitter fight to the death between the two teams. Hopefully, we will get to have Perkz and G2 standing above Fnatic and delivering the line, “you have been weighed. you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.”
Do you expect big things going into 2019? Or do you think that Perkz’s arrogance has gotten the better of him and G2’s wild experiment will blow up before their eyes? Let us know in the comments below.