Kinguin

G2 Esports (G2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Hearthstone'', ''Rocket League'', ''Rainbow Six Siege'', and ''iRacing''. The organization was founded in Spain on 24 February 2014 as Gamers2 by former ''League of Legends'' pro Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez Santiago and investor Jens Hilgers. The organization rebranded as G2 Esports on 15 October 2015.

G2's ''League of Legends'' team competes in the ''League of Legends'' European Championship (LEC), the highest level of competitive ''League of Legends'' in Europe. The team has won nine domestic titles in Europe, the most of any organization, and became the only Western team to win the Mid-Season Invitational in 2019. The organization's ''Rainbow Six Siege'' team competes in the European League (EUL), the highest level of competitive ''Rainbow Six Siege'' in Europe. The team won the Six Major Paris 2018, European Pro League Season 8, the Pro League Season 8 Finals, DreamHack Winter 2018, Six Invitational 2019, and placed second at the Six Major Raleigh 2019 and European Pro League Season 11.

Organisation

Carlos Rodríguez resigned as CEO of G2 on 23 September 2022, amidst controversy surrounding his acquaintanceship with Andrew Tate, known for his misogynistic commentary on social media. He had previously been suspended from his position after a clip of him partying with both Andrew and Tristan Tate went viral. Commentators later suspected this incident to be the reason for G2 being denied a spot in the upcoming season of the Valorant Champions Tour. Carlos Rodriguez was later suspended from Riot-sanctioned competition until November 13, 2022, having to follow a sensitivity and executive training before being allowed back to the LEC.

Current divisions

''League of Legends''

History

Gamers2 had made a start for ''League of Legends'' in 2014 with an initial roster of Top laner Jesper "Jwaow" Strandgren, jungler Sebastián "Morden" Esteban Fernández, AD carry Soler "Yuuki60" Florent, and support Hugo "Dioud" Padioleau.

The team participated in the Spring Expansion Tournament, beating Reason Gaming in the seeding game and Team Strix in Round 1. G2 were knocked out of the tournament in Round 2 after being beaten by n!faculty.

G2 Esports was renamed from Gamers2 after qualifying for the 2016 EU LCS Spring Season.

G2 Esports has also a sister team in Spain competing in the EU Challenger Series, called G2 Vodafone, in representation of their sponsor Vodafone. They qualified for the 2016 EU Challenger Series Summer Split Qualifiers, but failed to qualify for the EU CS. They also won the Spanish 2016 Final Cup Spring Split.

The team failed to qualify for the LCS three splits in a row.

The team finished 1st in the Challenger Series season. They then took 2nd in the playoffs, thereby qualifying for the 2016 Spring EU LCS. Gamers2 qualified for the LCS by defeating SK Gaming 3–2.

G2 finished the 2016 EU LCS Spring Split regular season in 1st place. In the playoffs, they defeated Fnatic before winning the 2016 EU LCS in Rotterdam after beating Origen. This also meant that they had qualified for the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational tournament in Shanghai. G2 would represent Europe at the competition against 5 other teams. However, in the weeks before the tournament, the team took an infamous vacation and came to the tournament unprepared. Because of this, they lost 8 of their 10 games, their only two wins against the lowest ranked seed there. This also cost the EU LCS league its 1st seed for the 2016 World Championship later that year. This meant that the 1st seed for Europe of the 2016 Summer EU LCS would be at a disadvantage in the tournament.

G2 performed well in 2018 and got much further at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship than expected for a team considered an underdog, making it all the way to the Semifinals match. G2 lost to eventual world champion Invictus Gaming in the semis. Something the G2 team of 2018 was known for was unconventional picks in the bot lane; their AD carry Hjarnan was a rare Heimerdinger player.

G2 retooled their team for the 2019 season, releasing their bottom lane duo of Hjarnan and Wadid, and signing Mikyx as a new support and aquaring Caps as their new midlaner from their regional rival Fnatic. Since the team now had two midlaners, Perkz was sent to the bottom lane to roleswap to AD carry. G2 became the first team to be crowned LEC champions after they won its inaugural split post namechange from EU LCS on 14 April 2019, in a 3–0 sweep against Origen.

After sweeping Team Liquid from North America 3–0 in the grand final of the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, G2 became the first European team to win a Riot-sponsored international tournament since Fnatic won the Season 1 World Championship. They finished first in the 2019 LEC Summer Split regular season and later defeated Fnatic 3–2 in the finals to secure their sixth domestic title.

At the 2019 ''League of Legends'' World Championship, G2 finished runner-up, losing to Chinese team FunPlus Phoenix in the grand finals.

In the 2020 LEC Spring Split, Perkz and Caps role-swapped for the split after Perkz expressed a desire to play mid lane again. G2 came first in the regular season, but lost their first playoff match against MAD Lions, resulting in a drop to the loser's bracket. From there, the team won the three remaining matches and ultimately won the split, claiming their seventh title and tying the record belonging to Fnatic. In Summer, G2 made it to the LEC playoffs; they lost to Fnatic 3–2 in the winner's bracket finals, but defeated Rogue in the loser's bracket finals and then defeated Fnatic in the Grand Finals rematch 3–0 to win the split. At the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, G2 made it to the semifinals, but were eliminated by eventual champion Damwon Gaming and finished in 3rd/4th place.

G2 revamped its roster for the 2021 LEC season, notably with trading longtime team captain Perkz to Cloud9 and acquiring Martin "Rekkles" Larson from Fnatic. While G2 finished at the top of the standings after the regular season of the 2021 Spring Split with a 14–4 record, they failed to win in the playoffs, first losing to MAD Lions, and then being eliminated by Rogue in the lower bracket. The team finished in second place in the regular season of the 2021 Summer Split, but lost to MAD Lions in the playoffs once again and were sent to the loser's bracket. There, they faced Rekkles's old team and long-time LEC rival Fnatic, and were defeated, eliminated G2 from contention. As a result, G2 failed to earn one of the LEC's three slots at Worlds, and 2021 marked the first year G2 failed to qualify for Worlds since joining the EU LCS in 2016.

For the 2022 LEC season, G2 released Grabbz, Rekkles, Wunder, and Mikyx. Dylan Falco and BrokenBlade were acquired from the disbanding Schalke 04 Esports as the new head coach and top laner. Flakked and Targamas were acquired and promoted from non-LEC European leagues for the bottom lane. G2 finished fourth place in the Spring Split regular season with an 11-7 record and lost to Fnatic in their initial upper bracket playoff match. However, they went on to win out in the lower bracket, defeating Vitality, Misfits, Fnatic (in a rematch), and Rogue in 3-0 matches. This qualified them as the LEC representative at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational. There, G2 initially performed strongly, sweeping ORDER and Evil Geniuses in the group stage, and getting a strong 4-0 start in the "rumble" stage. Including the LEC playoffs, G2 had gone on a 24 game winning streak. The streak was broken with a loss to PSG Talon, however, and G2 finished the rumble stage 5-5. Their record qualified them for the semifinals, but G2 was defeated by the LCK representative T1 in a decisive 3-0 sweep. Following the elimination from the World Championship, Jankos revealed to be parting ways with the G2 Esports organisation, ending a 5 year partnership with the team.

G2 revamped its roster again for the 2023 LEC season,G2 signed Yike from LDLC OL and Hans sama from Team Liquid.Mikyx also returned to G2 from Excel Esports.

Current roster

''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive''

History

G2 Esports acquired the roster of Team Kinguin on 11 September 2015. G2 finished 3rd–4th at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015.

On 20 January 2016, G2 Esports announced that FaZe Clan had acquired their international Counter-Strike roster. G2 announced a new French-speaking roster on 1 February 2016 which consisted of Titan's former roster. On 9 April, shortly after placing 9–12th at the MLG Major Championship: Columbus, G2 announced Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro would be replacing Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans. G2 placed 2nd at the ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals on 16 May 2016 after losing 2–3 to Luminosity Gaming in the grand finals. G2 Esports won the Esports Championship Series Season 1 after beating Luminosity in the finals on 26 June 2016.

With effect from 3 February 2017, 3 players from Team EnVyUs joined G2 Esports. Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and Nathan "NBK" Schmitt thus forming the "French Super Team". The players they replaced were Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, who joined Team EnVyUs, Cédric "RpK" Guipouy, who also joined Team EnVyUs and Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux who became the head coach of G2 Esports.

On 4 June 2018, Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux and Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans replaced apEX and NBK- in the lineup. The latter two would go on to be acquired by Team Vitality on 8 October 2018.

In November 2018, Audric "JaCkz" Jug and Lucas "Lucky" Chastang joined G2 while SmithZz and Ex6TenZ moved to the bench.

On 8 March 2019, François "AmaNEk" Delaunay joined G2 replacing bodyy in the active lineup.

On 30 September 2019, G2 acquired Nemanja "nexa" Isaković and Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač from CR4ZY replacing Lucky and Richard "shox" Papillon in the lineup.

On 28 October 2020, G2 signed Nikola "NiKo" Kovac from FaZe Clan for an undisclosed fee. This move reunited NiKo with his cousin, huNter. G2 later released JaCkz, stating they did not want to pursue a six-man roster.

On 5 March 2021, G2 benched kennyS, and brought back JaCkz into the active roster following a series of underwhelming results.

On 7 November 2021, G2 made their first appearance as Major finalists at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, where G2 would finish second place to Natus Vincere.

Following a dominant Natus Vincere during the latter half of 2021, many tier 1 teams adjusted their rosters for 2022. On 3 January 2022, G2 acquired 16-year old prodigy AWPer Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov from Natus Vincere Junior.

On 23 January 2022, G2 announced their completed new roster. Long-time IGL nexa was swapped for Finnish IGL Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen from OG Esports. AmaNEK was benched and m0NESY replaced him as their primary AWPer. Former Team Vitality coach Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam joined as their head coach.

Following a lackluster performance, longtime member Jackz left G2 on 10 August.

G2 revamped their roster again on 16 August. G2 signed Australian player Justin "jks" Savage from Complexity Gaming. Aleksib was benched and in his place Danish IGL Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen was signed from Copenhagen Flames.

Aleksib was signed by Ninjas in Pyjamas on 8 September.

For the first time since signing a team all the way back in 2015, G2 failed to make a major going 1-3 and being eliminated from the RMR by Gamerlegion

G2 announced the departure of XQTZZZ as he decided to step down; it was also announced that their analyst Swani would step in as interim coach.

G2 also announced that after 6 years they parted ways with their team manager Niak on November 1st.It was also announced on the same day that Serbian manager Petar "peca" Marković took the role of team manager.

G2 announced on November 15th that KennyS has departed the roster after 6 years with the organization.This marks the first time that the CS:GO division since 2016 hasn't had a French member.

On the 18th of December,G2,after 5 years without a tier 1 LAN trophy,won the Blast Premier World Finals 2022,with Monesy being the MVP.

Championships

* 1st – DreamHack Open Tours 2017
* 1st – ESL Pro League Season 5
* 1st – Esports Championship Series Season 1
*1st – DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017
*1st – Blast Premier World Finals 2022

Current roster

''Rocket League''

History

G2 Esports signed the RLCS Season One world champions, former iBUYPOWER Cosmic on 7 September 2016.

Brandon "Lachinio" Lachin and Ted "0verZer0" Keil left the team, and Dillon "Rizzo" Rizzo and Jacob "JKnaps" Knapman were picked up on 22 February 2017.

The team won the ELEAGUE Cup 2017 tournament after missing RLCS Season 3.

The team finished 7th–8th at the RLCS World Championship Season 5, despite being the No. 1 seed from North America, and then finished 9th–10th in Season 6 as the No.2 seed from North America.

On 7 January 2019, the team dropped long-standing captain Cameron "Kronovi" Bills, and picked up Reed "Chicago" Wilen from Evil Geniuses. Kronovi went on to join Rogue. G2 then finished 2nd at the RLCS World Championship Season 7 with Chicago.

G2 missed out on RLCS Season 8 Finals after a 2–5 finish and a fight through Promotion Playoffs to retain their spot for the following season. After finishing second ahead of playoffs in RLCS Season 9, G2 faced NRG in the semifinals of the NA Regional Championship, winning 4–3 in a close Game 7 to put them through to the grand finals to face Spacestation Gaming. They would go on to sweep Spacestation, crowning them the RLCS Season 9 North American Champions.

Throughout RLCS X, G2 saw subsequent quarterfinal exits in playoffs in Regional Event #1 and Regional Event #2. The streak ended in Regional Event #3 when G2 were able to rematch and defeat The Peeps in the quarterfinals, before falling to Team Envy in semifinals. Due to consistent placements throughout RLCS X: The Grid, G2 were awarded the Wildcard slot at the RLCS Season X – Fall: North American Major where they would go on to finish 3rd–4th.

On 18 March 2021, during RLCS X, Rizzo announced his plans to retire from professional Rocket League competition, revealing the upcoming Regional Event would be his last event on the roster before leaving the G2 Esports organization entirely on 29 June 2021. Following Rizzo's decision to step down, 15-year-old Andres "Dreaz" Jordan played as a stand-in for the remainder of the season.

Current roster

''Rainbow Six Siege''

History

The announcement that G2 Esports acquired the full roster of PENTA Sports, all five players and two coaches came a few days before the kick-off of the Six Major Paris group stage. These players, winners of the Six Invitational 2018 and multiple Pro League champions, represented the colors of G2 from 10 August 2018. Niclas "Pengu" Mouritze was considered the most experienced player in both the team and the wider Rainbow Six Siege scene, having been in the Year 1 Season 1 PENTA roster. Fabian "Fabian" Hällsten was the in-game leader of the team to whom the strategic success and flexibility of the team was often pointed towards, as one of the best IGLs in the European Pro League. Daniel "Goga" Mazorra Romero was the only non-Nordic player on the team, and the only Spanish player in the whole of Pro League at the time. He was often praised for his ability on the games hard breachers, particularly Thermite. JNSzki was one of the 2 Finnish players on the team, being acquired from PENTA's Year 1 rival of GiFu, he has been reputed throughout the Pro League's history as one of the best aimers and Bandit players in all of Siege.

The team quickly proved to be a beneficial pick-up by G2, winning the Six Major Paris and its $350,000 prize pool immediately following the purchase by defeating their rivals Evil Geniuses 3–0.

The team won the Six Invitational 2019 on 17 February 2019 by defeating Team Empire 3–0.

jNSzki was released by G2 Esports on 27 May 2019, replaced by UUNO from LeStream (Now Rogue). Juhani "Kantoraketti" Toivonen was originally a loan to PENTA from ENCE for the LAN finals of Season 7 Pro League. Following the departure of Ville "SHA77E" Palola, Kantoraketti officially became the 5th member of PENTA, that would go on to be G2 Esports. UUNO had played for the PENTA Academy being coached by G2's own coach, Thomas "Shas as" Lee. Shas is one of the longest working coaches in Siege, originally coaching for Team Fenix, a team which had also featured Fabian and previous roster teammate of Niklas "KS" Massierer, and is still the head coach for the team. Kevin "Sua" Stahnke was the secondary coach and analyst of the roster, brought in to replace Daniel "Ferral" Rotheram, G2's original analyst.

After signing Aleksi "UUNO" Työppönen and Joonas "jNSzki" Savolainen retired, G2 lost the Six Major Raleigh on 18 August 2019 after losing 3–1 to Russian rivals, Team Empire.

On 22 November 2019, Goga was replaced by the German player of Pascal "Cry1NNN" Alouane. Right before Six Invitational 2020 Cry1NNN was benched and was replaced by Ferenc "SirBoss" Mérész on loan from PENTA. After the event, SirBoss left G2.

On 3 March 2020, G2 Esports announced their new "superteam", picking up Ben "CTZN" McMillan from Natus Vincere and Jake "Virtue" Grannan from Fnatic while benching long time player Fabian in the process, who would eventually leave officially on 6 June 2020.

At the start of March 2021, Pengu announced his retirement at the age of 23. After few days, G2 Esports announced the addition of Jordan “Kayak” Morley into the roster.

After underwhelming performances at the Six Invitational 2021, finishing 8th in Group A during the Group Stage and being eliminated in the first round of the lower bracket, the organization decided to revamp their roster. On 10 June 2021, it was announced that both remaining Finnish players Kantoraketti and UUNO were benched. On the same day, G2 introduced two new players: Lucas "Hungry" Reich, coming back from a break from the competitive scene, and Jonas "Jonka" Kaczmarzyk from MnM Gaming.

Current roster

''Fortnite''

G2 Esports' debut into Fortnite saw Brand Manager and Hearthstone Manager Jakub "Lothar" Szygulski transition back into a full-time streamer and became the first competitive Fortnite player under the organization. A second player, Dominik "RazZzero0o" Beckmann, was signed on 12 September 2018. Following the conclusion of G2: Making the Squad, the top four contestants were offered contracts, with Kevin "Tohaj" Batic later transitioning into a professional player role in January 2020.

Leading up to the reveal of G2 Atlantis on 31 May 2021, various Fortnite players in both Europe and North America were signed. The first signing was Sean "Coop" Cooper on 13 October 2020, followed by Kevin "LeTsHe" Fedjuschkin, Zach "smqcked" Ebersole, Jesus "Jelty" Navarez Espinoza and Mack "MackWood" Aesoph to complete the all-new lineup. G2 said goodbye to Coop on 6 July 2021.

''Valorant''

G2 Esports first entered the ''Valorant'' scene by signing former CS:GO player Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas Colocho as the team's captain on 16 June 2020. The following week saw Patryk "paTiTek" Fabrowski and Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi also join the roster on 24 and 26 June 2020 respectively. Following the addition of a fourth player in Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks on 3 July 2020, the G2 VALORANT team would then sign David "Davidp" Prins, who had been standing in for the first two successful event runs, on 31 July 2020 before going on to win a further four tournaments.

First Strike Europe saw G2 fall in the semi-finals to eventual champions Team Heretics which led to the benching of Davidp and the arrival of Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt. The first half of 2021 was a contrast to the early domination and further struggles for the team saw them part ways with zeek, ardiis and paTiTek. These departures saw Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas, Auni "AvovA" Chahade and Jose Luis "koldamenta" Aranguren Herrero added to the roster in their place. Three weeks later, a new fifth, Cista "keloqz" Wassim, was announced on 25 June 2021 following pyth's decision to bench himself two weeks previously.

In October 2021, G2 announced the organization's first-ever all-female team, led by former ''CS:GO'' professional player Julia "Juliano" Kiran, which would compete in ''Valorant'' as G2 Gozen. G2 Esports failed to secure a slot in one of the three partnered competitions, despite being in discussion with various players and staff members ahead of the announcement. In November 2022, the women's team won the Valorant Championship Tournament (VCT) Game Changers Championship in Berlin, beating Shopify Rebellion in the grand finals to become the first team to win a championship in both Valorant and CS:GO.

Current roster

''Apex Legends''

Initially fielding Apex Legends streamers, G2 Esports went on to sign an all-Finnish lineup of Sebastian "Mimu" Vesala, Aaro "rette" Hälli and Niko "ZeroNothing" Suominen in September 2019. The organization temporarily left the Apex scene and released its former players in April 2020.

G2 Esports returned to the Apex Legends scene with the signing of the former AimAssist roster on 1 June 2021 alongside new manager Christopher "BixLe" Dunbar.

Current roster

''Sim Racing''

On 13 November 2017, G2 Esports signed Sim Racer Cem Bölükbaşı and Racing Team Manager Danny Engels. A joint venture saw the launch of new Sim Racing team FA Racing G2 Logitech G between G2 Esports and Formula One driver Fernando Alonso later that same month.

G2 would go on to launch a multi-year partnership with Red Bull Racing in the form of Red Bull Racing Esports Team, with drivers competing across multiple Sim Racing titles.

Danish racing driver Dennis Lind was signed as Sim Racing Lead on 12 April 2021.

Former divisions

''Call of Duty''

G2 Esports announced their Call of Duty roster for the Black Ops 4 season on 25 October 2018.

''Clash Royale''

G2 Esports signed with Supercell to join in Clash Royale League (CRL) on 3 April 2018.

''Heroes of the Storm''

Before the rebrand from Gamers2, G2 had an all-Polish Heroes of the Storm roster in 2015.

''Overwatch''

During the game's beta and while still known as G2.Kinguin, an Overwatch roster that was composed of retired European Team Fortress 2 players briefly competed under G2.

''Paladins''

G2 Esports signed Team CryptiK's Paladins roster on 31 August 2017. The team went on to win Paladins Premier League North America Summer 2018 and the Paladins Premier League Summer Finals 2018. G2 left the Paladins scene in early 2019.

''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds''

G2 Esports previously fielded PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds rosters from 2017 until 2020.

''Super Smash Bros. Melee''

G2 Esports signed Weston "Westballz" Dennis on 11 July 2016, but Dennis and G2 parted ways on 31 March 2019.

References

External links

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{{Rocket League

2014 establishments in Spain
Companies based in Madrid
Counter-Strike teams
Esports teams based in Spain
Esports teams established in 2014
FIFA (video game series) teams
Hearthstone teams
Heroes of the Storm teams
League of Legends European Championship teams
Rocket League teams
Super Smash Bros. player sponsors
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege teams
The Game Awards winners