Gaming
esports
How G2 Esports can dominate the 2021 LEC season
As G2 Esports go looking for yet another LEC trophy in 2021, here are the challenges Europe’s top team will face in the new season – and how they can overcome them.
G2 Esports have been the undisputed kings of Europe in the League of Legends scene for the past two years. They’ve won four LEC titles in a row, they’re the reigning Mid-Season Invitational champions and they've gone deeper at the World Championship than any European team in a decade.
However, staying at the top of your game isn’t easy in a world that’s constantly changing and evolving. A new player has arrived, the game has undergone a number of updates and plenty of teams are aiming to steal G2’s crown. So, here are the challenges G2 can expect to face in 2021 – and how they can steam right over them, as they so often do.
Teaming up with Rekkles
This one is twofold, as G2 will not only have to spend time integrating Martin ‘Rekkles’ Larsson into the team for the new season, but they’ll also have to deal with the loss of Luka ‘Perkz’ Perkovic, the man who's been at the heart of the team for five years.
Perkz has won more European titles than any player in history and he’s done so as both an AD carry and a mid-laner. He’s highly regarded as one of the best players in the world, so of course, he’s going to be a big miss for any squad.
Rekkles signs with G2 Esports
© G2 Esports
But in Rekkles, G2 have brought in someone just as skilful and even more experienced. Rekkles first joined the Fnatic organisation all the way back in 2012 and won four European titles. Now that he’s with G2, he has every chance of adding to that collection in 2021, as G2 go searching for their fifth in a row.
Rekkles has consistently been at the top of his game when it comes to the AD carry position, but as always, it takes time to get used to playing with a new team. The rest of G2 have been his main rivals for the past three or four years, so it'll be exciting to see how they play with each other, rather than against each other.
Mastering the new item shop
League of Legends is constantly changing, but Riot Games have brought in a whole raft of updates ahead of the new season. Usually a handful of items get dropped and new ones added every year, but for 2021 the item shop has been given a complete overhaul.
Items are now classified into four tiers: Basic, Epic, Legendary and Mythic. You’ll only be able to build one Mythic item per game, so the players will need to look at the team compositions, the opposing players’ items and the situation they’re in to choose effectively.
With the amount of time G2 put into practice before each season begins, it’s likely they’ll have a firm grasp of how all the new items work, but there’s always a chance for surprises and changes to the balancing when the LEC starts up again.
New champions – Yone, Samira, Seraphine, Rell
New champions usually slowly roll out over the course of a year, but 2020 saw several released in fairly quick succession. In 2018, Riot released three new champions in total, while we got equally as many in just the period from August to October this year.
Professional players will have four brand new champions to contend with that haven’t been seen in professional play yet. Yone the Unforgotten, Samira the Desert Rose, Seraphine the Starry-Eyed Songstress and Rell the Iron Maiden haven't appeared in the LEC yet, but that’s likely about to change.
New champions are historically over-tuned when they're first released, so we can expect to see some fireworks when they finally get into professional games. It will be down to the G2 players and coaching staff to do some deep research into what these champions can do before the LEC starts again.
Not only that, but they’ll have to discover how these four will interact with the 153 other champions that are in the game. Unexpected interactions can make for powerful combos, so G2 will need to learn how to use them – or how to beat them.
G2 are looking for more trophies in 2021
© Riot Games/Flickr
Staying at the top
Once again, G2 ran the show in Europe in 2020. They won four titles in a row for the second time, breaking the record for all-time wins with eight. Now, they’ve got to try and do it all over again.
After two full years as the dominant team in League of Legends, it sounds like an easy task. However, nothing's ever easy when it comes to professional play. Although they won both playoffs in 2020, they only managed to place third in the standings in the Summer Season, mounting a remarkable last-minute comeback post-regular season. Rogue and MAD Lions are now fully cemented as contenders and Fnatic will always be knocking on the door. More teams may rise up to challenge for the top next season as well, so G2 will have to be on their toes.
Winning Worlds
And of course, the one thing that has eluded G2 so far: the World Championship trophy. They’ve come close before, even winning MSI in 2019, but after so much success domestically, they won’t be satisfied until they finally get their hands on the Summoner’s Cup.
The bar is always being raised on the international stage, so G2 will not only have to stay ahead of the pack in Europe, they’ll also need to keep an eye on what’s going on in China and South Korea as well.
With Rekkles joining the team, could 2021 finally be G2’s year? We’ll find out when the LEC returns on January 22.
