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How G2 Esports qualified for Worlds 2022 after an electric LEC Week 8
After an incredible final Superweek run, G2 Esports finished first in the LEC Summer Regular Season and secured their place at Worlds – here’s how it all happened.
They've done it. G2 Esports have reversed their fortunes and come out on top of the League of Legends European Championship 2022 Summer Season. As a result, they're now guaranteed a spot on the biggest international stage of the year – the League of Legends World Championship 2022.
Their seeding means that even if they lose their first two matches of the Summer Playoffs, G2 will still finish fourth overall. And with Europe being granted an additional space at Worlds this year, bringing their total up to four, it means that no matter what happens, we'll see G2 facing off against some of the finest international teams later this year.
It wasn't an easy road to the top, but G2 have ended the season on a five-game winning streak, taking down some of the pack leaders on the way in an undefeated Superweek. With wins against MAD Lions, Misfits Gaming and SK Gaming, G2 head into the Playoffs as the only team to take at least one game from all of their competitors.
Let's take a look at how the final week shaped up.
Battle for the top
The first battle of the Superweek was never going to be easy. MAD Lions had been at the top of the leaderboard since Week 5 and were looking set to stay there, having already defeated G2 back in Week 3. But G2 weren't even remotely intimidated by the current leaders.
Straight out of the gate, G2 went looking for a fight. Toplaner Sergen 'Broken Blade' Çelik picked up a First Blood after just two minutes in the game before picking up a second kill against the enemy toplaner with help from Marcin 'Jankos' Jankowski. The message was clear – G2 were hungry, and they were shutting down İrfan Berk 'Armut' Tükek at every turn.
But G2's war lust would also be a detriment, as they lost two drakes to their opponents instead focusing their attention on ganks and team fights where possible. That didn't mean they were ignoring objectives, though – the squad still managed to pick up both Barons in the game, and prevented MAD from picking up Soul Point late into the game.
Instead, G2 focused on keeping the pressure on in MAD's base. Most of the big battles went down behind enemy lines, and while MAD had enough buffs and skill to keep pushing back, G2 eventually wore them down, Aced the opposing team and stormed the Nexus after 35 minutes of action-heavy gameplay.
Fitting in another win
Next up was Misfits Gaming, who were on a similar trajectory to G2, having ended up lower down the rankings but climbing their way back up in the last weeks. They'd also beaten G2 once before, back in Week 4 – but as we already know, it wouldn't happen again.
But this wouldn't be a repeat of the aggressive tactics that took down MAD. Instead, G2 focused on farming waves and keeping away from trouble, with First Blood not coming until eight minutes into the game. But when it did, it was spectacular, with a huge fight over the Rift Herald ending in four kills to G2 and just one to Misfits.
From there, it was a one-sided battle, especially with Rasmus 'caPs' Winther playing some of his absolute finest League. Fights were few and far between, but when they sprang up, caPs was there to go all in, picking away at the opponents even when on dangerously low health. Between him and Broken Blade, MSF simply couldn't do anything in a team fight, and they were summarily destroyed in less than half an hour.
In classic G2 fashion, caPs chose to meme on the enemy team by recalling back to his home base as the rest of the team took down the Nexus.
The cherry on top
G2's place in the Playoffs was essentially guaranteed at this point, and it would've been easy (and perhaps natural) for them to slack off in their game against SK Gaming and play for fun. SK, after all, had been languishing at the bottom of the table for the entire season – that said, one of their few wins of Summer had been against G2.
It did seem like G2 weren't fully committing to the game early on, with SK diving into fights and steadily picking up a slight lead. But G2 eventually got their head in the game and, around 20 minutes in, started to pull ahead, with Jankos, in particular, pulling off some incredible kills.
The end of the game came when G2 managed to Ace SK, pick up an uncontested Baron and walk into the enemy base while the minions did all the hard work. G2 sat back and let the waves crash, only picking a fight with SK when the wave was favourable or when they stepped out of the backline. Then, in true G2 fashion, caPs decided to leap into the enemy Fountain to die a ridiculous death as his team took the win, securing their place at Worlds 2022 in the process.
It's been a season of ups and downs for G2, but the team has proven that you can never count them out, even when they're at their lowest. Now they're in the enviable position of having a guaranteed place at Worlds no matter how they perform at the Summer Playoffs – though we'll almost certainly see them giving it their all to try and pick up their second trophy of the year in the LEC.
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