G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf has released their duelist player icy after one season together, ending his first stint in VCT. He is a free agent beginning Oct 7, according to G2's announcement.
After years of competing in the tier two scene, icy got his first shot to prove himself in tier one when he signed with G2 after Americas Kickoff. G2 were eliminated in the play-ins stage of this tournament, where they were defeated in an upset against MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #22 mazin Matheus Araújo artzin Arthur Araujo Palla Davi Alcides rich Gabriel Rosa liazzi Felipe Galiazzi . icy's addition to the team was met with mixed results, as G2 ended Stage 1 with an even 3-3 record. This would be enough to qualify them for playoffs, as they barely beat out Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid in a tiebreaker by only two rounds.
They hit their stride in playoffs as icy became more comfortable in the team. They would defeat Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #4 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang and KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro , both of whom were 5-1 in groups, to qualify for Masters Shanghai.
Going into Shanghai, G2 were commonly overlooked compared to the rest of the competition. Moving past the Swiss stage with a 2-0 record, they were chosen first by Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , a team many had hyped as tournament favorites, to be their opponents. G2 would make them regret this choice in a massive upset win over them. They continued on to defeat Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius for a second time in the tournament, managing a comeback after being down 2-11 in the second map. This secured a top-three finish for G2, but they were swiftly defeated by the eventual winners in Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) and would lose their third matchup against Team Heretics in the lower finals. Finishing third, they were the highest-placing team from the Americas region.
G2 proved that their run in Shanghai was no fluke, as they returned home to Americas and dominated. They cruised through groups and playoffs until they reached the grand finals where their momentum was halted in a defeat against LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee . They carried plenty of momentum heading into Champions Seoul. While they came out of their group seeded first, they would fail to make it any deeper, as they were eliminated in the first round of playoffs without winning a map.
G2 are now: