Worlds 2020 Group Stage Team Preview: G2 Esports

We look at G2 Esports, their path to Worlds 2020, and how they might fare in the group stage.

Just one day to go until the World Championship begins and the best League of Legends teams from across the globe do battle on the Rift for a chance to lift the Summoner’s Cup. G2 Esports qualified for Worlds 2020 as Europe’s number one seed after winning their fourth consecutive LEC title and are out for revenge after finishing as Worlds runners-up last year.

Since forming this star-studded roster, G2 Esports have only lost one knockout best-of-five, their 3-0 defeat against FunPlus Phoenix in the 2019 World Championship final.

With eight LEC titles, one MSI triumph, and four Worlds appearances under their belt, it is surely only a matter of time before G2 lift League of Legends’ most prestigious trophy.

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The Season

For the second year in a row, G2 Esports dominated European League of Legends and would have had an excellent chance of retaining their Mid-Season Invitational title had the tournament not been canceled.

G2 comfortably topped the Spring Split regular season standings with a 15-3 record despite Caps and Perkz taking time to adjust to their new roles. The team looked shaky in the playoffs, losing 3-2 against MAD Lions in the opening round of matches. However, the eight-time LEC champions weren’t deterred by this shocking upset and comfortably took down Fnatic, MAD, and Origen to secure their fourth trophy in twelve months.

The Summer Split was less convincing with G2 finishing third in the regular season with an 11-7 record, below MAD Lions and Rogue. To make matters worse, they lost to Fnatic in the playoff “semi-final”, forcing them into the lower bracket for a do-or-die game against Rogue.

At this point, European fans were well aware that their defending champions don’t do things the easy way and were anticipating a comfortable turnaround in form. G2 took down Rogue 3-2 before netting a revenge victory over Fnatic with a 3-0 sweep in the final to secure their fourth consecutive LEC title and World Championship qualification as Europe’s first seed.

The Roster

Top Lane – Martin “Wunder” Hansen

Wunder is often the most overlooked member of the G2 Esports roster as he is often placed on tank duty and on the wrong side of the map for G2’s seemingly endless bot lane fights. However, the Dane is pivotal to his team’s success and is arguably the most consistent player in the squad.

In the Summer Split regular season, Wunder boasted the highest gold difference at 15 minutes (+605) of any top laner in the LEC. Not only that but he also had the joint-most solo kills with 10, only matched by MAD Lions’ Orome.

Jungle – Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski

FunPlus Phoenix and Tian have failed to qualify for the 2020 World Championship and will not retain their title, much to the relief of Jankos. G2’s jungler is rarely out-pathed and out-ganked but was caught out and undone in his team’s devastating loss to FPX in the 2019 World Championship final.

Jankos has had an incredible 2020 season so far, single-handedly winning G2 games in the opening fifteen minutes through intelligent jungle tracking and aggressive ganks towards mid and bot lane.

Linking up with Caps for roams and dives to either side lane, Jankos is capable of blowing open any early game and snowballing even the smallest of gold advantages with the help of his team.

Mid Lane – Rasmus “Caps” Winther

Arguably the greatest European League of Legends player of all time, it is easy to run out of superlatives for Caps and his impact on the incredibly successful G2 Esports roster.

The stats speak for themself. Caps boasted the second-highest KDA (4.8), second-highest gold difference at 15 minutes (+384), and the third-highest damage share (29.4%) among LEC mid laners during the Summer Split regular season.

Despite G2’s relatively disappointing season, the Dane continued to reach new heights in the mid lane as well as permanently roaming across the map to get his team ahead.

With Faker missing out on the tournament for only the third time in his career, the 2020 World Championship is the perfect opportunity for Caps to cement himself as the world’s best mid laner.

AD Carry – Luka “Perkz” Perković

The decision to move Perkz to AD carry to accommodate the arrival of Caps will go down as one of the boldest and most successful role swaps in League of Legends history. The Dane in the mid lane has established himself as one of the best players in the world while Perkz goes toe-to-toe with established marksmen from around the globe with far less experience in the role.

There’s no doubt that G2’s bot laner took a back seat in the Summer Split to allow other roles to carry. With the ADC role being in one of its weakest states, it’s no surprise that GrabbZ and the team have opted to play around top, jungle, and mid rather than their bot lane over recent months.

Nonetheless, Perkz and Mikyx remained a fearsome bot lane duo throughout the LEC Summer Split, taking full control of their bot lane matchups, and opening up the bot side of the map for Jankos to dictate the early game tempo.

Support – Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle

The arrival of Kaiser and the resurgence of Vander have outshone yet another excellent Mikyx LEC season. The support continues to make plays in both the early game and during teamfights for his team but failed to make it in either the first or second All-Pro team due to G2’s relatively poor season.

Mikyx’s playmaking and peel are key in allowing Perkz to scale and reach key items before his lane opponent, giving G2 a clear advantage on the map.

G2’s support is one of the few players in Europe who is equally strong at playmaking during the early game and late game as he can always be relied on to engage or start a teamfight for his side.

90/50/10 Predictions

90% odds that… G2 qualify for the knockout stage and finish first in their group. Although G2 enjoy the odd “int” game, they know full well that qualifying in first place gives them a huge advantage in the first knockout round and should do so with ease.

50% odds that… G2 reach the World Championship final. The reigning LEC and MSI champions have been underrated in the build-up to Worlds by casters, analysts, and fans because of their relatively poor season. A relatively poor season which saw them secure their third and fourth consecutive LEC trophies.

G2 are still one of the top four best teams in the world and will undoubtedly reach the later rounds of the knockout stage.

10% odds that… G2 win all of their group games. As mentioned earlier, G2 are famous for throwing games against weaker opponents when the stakes are low. For this reason, it is extremely likely that they lose one or two games during the group stage in order to test out new compositions or rest their mental ahead of more important knockout matches.