Devon H. October 2, 2018
In the first day of play-ins at Worlds, G2 Esports suffered a shocking defeat to Supermassive.
Supermassive entered the game between the two teams with a seeming advantage in the draft. G2 went with a composition meant to find picks and engage advantageously, but Supermassive loaded their roster with defense in the form of Zilean and Tahm Kench for Lee "GBM" Chang-seok and No "SnowFlower" Hoi-jong.
With these champions at the ready, Supermassive rolled over G2 with superior team fight coordination and macro play. The Turkish side ended the game with a 5-1 kill advantage at 30 minutes, and defying many fans’ expectations for a G2 side struggling to maximize their potential.
G2 is established as a top competitor in the EU LCS. Since its inception in 2015, G2 has accumulated four EU LCS championship titles, and with additional finals appearances to boot. But since the loss of two of their star players, Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Alfonso “Mithy” Rodriguez, G2 has struggled to maintain its dominance.
In the spring split of 2018, G2 took second place to Fnatic. But in the summer, G2 didn’t even make it to playoffs. The team did manage to scrap their way into the World Championship by winning the European gauntlet. But while G2 fought to stay alive, Supermassive reigned at the top of the TCL.
Ending 2017 in second place, Supermassive replaced mid laner Koray "Naru" Bıçak and support Burak "Rogu" Eryol with GBM and Snowflower, respectively. Along with these moves, Supermassive also acquired a capable coach in Heo "Irean" Yeong-cheol, former coach of Team Vitality in the EU LCS. These changes enabled Supermassive to take first place in both the summer and winter TCL playoffs, and eventually their win against G2.