G2 Esports beats Gen.G, keeps European hopes alive at Worlds 2020

William Davis Published 18/10/2020

G2 Esports is the only western team in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship semifinals after taking down Gen.G.

G2 had to fight against Gen.G for the last spot in the Worlds semifinals. Gen.G topped its group after solid performances, while G2 had to go through a tiebreaker for first place in their group. G2 fell short against Suning but still ended up getting a playoffs draw with good chances to succeed.

Both teams came out swinging in the first game of the series, where Gen.G did find their early game aggression to match G2’s play style. Gen.G managed to get a lead through the aggression but snowballing a game against G2 is never easy. Even though Gen.G had priority on the objectives, G2 slowly crawled back and found a fight to break open the game and secure the Baron Buff. G2 made sure that Gen.G couldn’t slowly recover, by accelerating the game and taking down the first Nexus.

The two teams continued their heavy aggression in game two, with a total of eight kills after the first five minutes. With kills in all lanes, this seemed like another bloody game where G2 was looking to create chaos. Unfortunately for G2, a lot of early kills went over to Gen.G bot laner Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, who got set up to carry on his Ashe.

Even though Ruler got three early kills, G2 kept pressuring and taking every fight possible. The fights slowly started to turn in their favor, and just like in the first game, G2 crawled back through world-class skirmishing. G2 mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Winther started taking over the game, to a point where Gen.G had no way to prevent the second Nexus for G2.

Just like Fnatic, G2 was now up 2-0 and only one step away from a semifinals spot. Fnatic didn’t manage to take the last point and get Europe in the top four, leaving it all up for G2 to make it happen.

For the third game in a row, G2 bot laner Luka “Perkz” Perković picked up Jhin and it paid dividends once again. G2 managed to get control of the game and play the side lanes much more effectively than Gen.G. A bad fight from G2 made the game even again, but shortly after, G2 was ready to outperform with the Infernal Soul and close out the quarterfinals 3-0 after an intense ending.

G2 understood how to shut down Gen.G at Worlds 2020

Not only was this a quarterfinal between two strong regions, but also between two very different playstyles. Gen.G came into the series knowing that G2 would play aggressively and try to skirmish their way to a lead. As expected, G2 did this but Gen.G tried to answer back with aggression as well.

The aggression from Gen.G did work out to some degree in the early games, but they didn’t manage to turn the leads into a snowball and control the games like it’s usually seen from the Korean third seed. Instead, G2 kept responding with even more aggression and chaos, which ultimately resulted in victory.

The approach from G2 was perfect to shut down a team like Gen.G, who usually likes to play through the bot lane. G2 jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski put a lot of focus towards the bottom side and managed to interrupt Ruler’s play style. The chaos G2 brought to the table ended up working out for them, as they are known to thrive in chaotic games.

Even with some hick-ups, it was clear throughout the whole quarterfinal that G2 was in control and never really afraid of losing.

Can G2 take Europe to a third Worlds final in a row?

For the semifinal, a different beast will be waiting for G2. For the second year in a row, G2 will clash with DAMWON Gaming in the Worlds playoffs but this time the Koreans will come more prepared. DAMWON has been dominating the LCK and also this year’s Worlds so far. G2 on the other hand has looked shakier but managed to pick themselves up against Gen.G.

DAMWON coach Zefa wants revenge on G2

The semifinal could likely turn into a bloodbath with lots of fights from both teams. Both teams have very strong mid laners in Caps and Heo “ShowMaker” Su, while junglers Jankos and Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu likes to play this jungle-centered meta. There could be a lot of fighting around the mid lane and whoever comes out on top will likely advance to the final.

Even with a good showing against Gen.G, G2 is going into the semifinals as an underdog. The Europeans will have to deliver their absolute best play to beat DAMWON this year, but they are not without chances.