The self-appointed villains of the EULCS managed to win back-to-back splits in both summer and spring. Although its performance at the Mid-Season Invitational was a catastrophe, G2 picked up where they left off domestically. Even better, they also upgraded their bottom lane in the process.

Top - Ki “Expect” Dae-han

It's always hard to be forced into a lineup as a season is midway through. Not only that, he also had to replace up to Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek. Kikis stepped down from the roster and heded to Fnatic. While mechanically, Expect isn't necessarily worse, his game sense and teamwork was nowhere near G2’s former top laner. Kikis wasn't the best top laner in EU, but his in-game presence was among the best in the region.

For Expect, G2 took a different approach from the start. Kikis was — for the most part — a self sufficient top laner, whereas Expect wasn't as dependable. This forced Kim “Trick” Gang-yun to put more attention towards the top lane. While the lane swap scenario helped Expect bait the enemy top laner in, which granted Trick a free gank path, standard lanes may prove a bit of a tougher when it comes to the worlds stage.  

Jungle - Kim “Trick” Gang-yun

Back-to-back MVP of the split awards are not handed out on coincidence. After the excruciating disappointment that was MSI, you'd expect a possible falling-off from some of G2's players. But not Trick. Instead of taking the losses too heavily, Trick picked up right where he left off at the end of the spring split and continued to play his farm-oriented invading style. If anything, the new bot lane on G2 gave Trick even more freedom to play around the lanes he sees as the strongest.

Unlike more aggressive junglers — such as H2K’s Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski or ROX Tigers’ Yoon "Peanut" Wang-ho — Trick’s early shenanigans don't necessarily involve him getting in the face of the enemy jungler to confront him. More often than not, Trick just walks in, steals an enemy jungle camp drops a ward, leaves and farms his way into a lead (unless he's babysitting the top lane). Thankfully for Trick, G2’s current bot lane is not just self-sufficient, but a powerhouse duo that facilitates Trick’s pathing significantly.

Mid - Luka “PerkZ” Perkovi?

Since the announcement of the new bottom lane, fans knew that the burden of being the team’s carry would be partially lifted off of perkz’s shoulders. Prior to Expect becoming the full time top laner of G2, much of the early focus was on getting PerkZ ahead. Whether it’d be through timely ganks from the jungler/support or simply Trick walking into enemy territory to let his presence be felt, G2’s midlaner always found himself with a gold lead by mid-game. As weeks progressed, we saw PerkZ still keep many of his spring split tendencies intact, despite his team not playing entirely around him, like before. 

Without the same attention from his teammates, PerkZ found himself in a bit of a slump. During most of his laning phases, the young Croatian mid laner postured forward and took the same trades he took in the spring. Difference was, this time it’s the enemy team’s jungler that paid visits to mid lane. While PerkZ is by no means bad, he’ll have to fix his pace in lane if he expects to not get camped at worlds.

AD Carry - Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen

Despite making the finals in spring under the Origen banner, both Zven and Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez chose to jump ship to G2 in hopes of finding a better chance of winning the EULCS. It was clear from the start of the summer split that G2 was going to have a whole new threat on their roster. One of the great things about having Zven in this lane, is that he doesn’t require more resources than G2’s previous AD carry Kim “Emperor” Jin-hyun. With the same resources, Zven can be a far bigger threat for his team.

G2’s botlane has always been a dominant force in the lane. They manage to find ways to bully out their opposing duos, to the point where they sometimes manage to find good trades with an unfavorable champion combination. For most of summer, however, the lane swap meta forced G2 to be more creative with their resources and how to allocate them. If the meta does stick to the standard lanes that were favored in playoffs, we might see G2’s bot lane be a lot more punishing in the early stages.

Support - Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre Rodriguez

Widely regarded as one of the best supports EU has ever seen, Mithy started a new chapter in his story when he accepted an offer from G2 under its banner for the summer split. As with Zven, being a finalist simply wasn't enough. Mithy is versatile and dominant, akin to Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon in Korea. The spanish support never took long to master different champions when they become meta. He's able to play the peel/disengage support to protect his team just as well as he plays the big frontline/engage champions to start the fights himself.

With his versatility, Mithy also brought an excellent mind for the game to G2. Mithy’s timing was impeccable. He often found the right opportunity to roam that wouldn’t disturb the pace of the lane he was in. One thing often overlooked is how well he times his recalls, which allowes the support/jungle pairing to coordinate ganks and ventures into the enemy jungle at the perfect time.

Final thoughts:

G2 comes to worlds very differently than how they walked into MSI (this time there is no vacation excuse). Seriously, though. While Trick is still essential to how G2 functions, it’ll be up to him and Mithy to make sure G2 has appropriate vision to work out their kinks in the early-game. Standard lanes allow for Zven and Mithy to impose their will on the bottom lane, provided they get reasonable matchups. It’ll be a joy to see G2’s bottom lane return to worlds, under a different banner, and hopefully they can, at the very least, match their previous year’s semifinal finish.

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Images and cover photo courtesy of Riot Games flickr