Gaming
Esports
Meet the two new stars ushering in a new era for G2 Rainbow Six
After a tough few months G2 Rainbow Six has undergone a rebuild. We meet new signings Hungry and Jonka as they hope to turn the team around.
This year has been a rollercoaster for the G2 Esports Rainbow Six Siege division. It started off with the highest of highs, with the team winning the European League finals and regaining its crown as the best team in Europe and potentially the world. It looked as if the team would be heading into the Six Invitational as favourites once again.
But then the Invitational was delayed due to France closing its borders just weeks before the competition was due to take place, and things started to change rapidly for G2. With the Invitational on hold, the star player of the G2 roster and arguably the best player in the history of Siege, Niclas ‘Pengu’ Mouritzen, decided to call time on his playing career and transition to become a full time content creator.
Jordan ‘Kayak’ Morley was bought in to replace him, but this new look roster just did not seem to click without Pengu at the helm. The team could only manage fifth in the first stage of the 2021 European League, and when the Invitational did roll around once again they went out in 13th-16th place, narrowly avoiding an embarrassing last place finish.
So G2 decided to enter full rebuild mode, removing the last remaining member of the iconic roster it initially signed to enter Rainbow Six Siege, Juhani ‘Kantoraketti’ Toivonen, and long time member Aleksi ‘UUNO’ Työppönen. To replace them they brought in two German players, veteran Lucas ‘Hungry’ Reich who is best known for his time on PENTA, and young player Jonas ‘Jonka’ Kaczmarzyk, who until now has not played at the very top level of Rainbow Six.
“[It’s] unreal, I still haven’t come to [the] realisation,” says Jonka. “The team and the organisation have always been something I wanted to be a part of. Being one of the best teams in Europe and having a great organisation like G2 behind them made the decision easy. I got the offer to trial for some other team but it failed beforehand. I’m really thankful for the big opportunity that I have been given and hope that I can help the team reach new highs.”
While it may not have been the return of Pengu that many G2 fans had wanted, the addition of these two players should help G2 return to the top of the European League. Jonka has the potential to grow into one of the best in the world, as he has only been in the pro scene for a couple of years and is yet to showcase his skills against the best in the world. Hungry on the other hand is a veteran presence that the team sorely needs, bringing a lot of flexibility to the roster that should give them the opportunity to change playstyles on the fly.
“I know my strengths and how I can help the roster to be successful,” says Hungry. “I think I’m one of the most flexible players out there who can play every operator, including all the strong meta picks like Ying/Montagne/Capitao/Dokkaebi. It helps the team to change strats on the fly and try to counter the enemy just by an operator pick.”
While it is only early days for the new G2 roster things are already looking good. The team dominated Virtus.Pro in their opening match in the European League, and then had a competitive showing against Natus Vincere, who won stage one of the competition earlier in the year. After just a few weeks together this is about as good a start as they could have hoped for, and the team is excited about the future potential of this roster.
“I mean there are issues in every team especially at the start,” says Jonka. “We are just trying to get everyone on the same page and get some synergy between the players and of course this can take some time. I think it will take some time. Changing two players is a pretty big change, it is pretty much a rebuild. Just give us time, be patient and support us and hopefully we will be able to prove everyone wrong!”
For a G2 roster success is expected, and the fans may be worried that they will be sitting outside the top placings for a while before the players really manage to come together. But with the talent on this roster they are more than capable of beating every team in the European League on their day. Having been around the scene for years Hungry has a good read on the level of competition in Europe, and he is confident that as soon as this season they could be in the very top placings.
“It looks really good so far, yeah every team has issues, but it’s important how you deal with them and develop as a team,” says Hungry. “I think we are gonna be able to compete to be top two in EU this season, but to be in our best shape it will probably take some months of training. I think we can beat every team but probably the toughest challenge is gonna be Vitality and BDS. I really want to beat every team out there.”
Of course only time will tell how the roster ends up doing, but with the rebuild stage now seemingly complete and G2 once again having a stacked roster that looks pretty impressive on paper, they are once again serious contenders for the European League, and with almost a full year until the Six Invitational rolls around again, you wouldn’t want to bet against them winning another world championship.
