After a disappointing season in 2021, G2 Esports had a decent year in 2022, winning the LEC Spring Split, participating in MSI, and finishing second in the Summer Split.
Even with those accomplishments, G2 haven’t been the dominant force we have been used to seeing back when they were the best team in Europe, especially when Worlds came around. This year, they were only able to win one game in groups, going 1-5, and they never seemed like they could fight against the Asian powerhouses.
A disappointing end to the 2022 season forced G2 to make major roster moves. Here are all the changes that G2 is likely to implement to its squad for the 2023 season.
Departures
Before the end of the League of Legends 2022 World Championship, there were already rumors that G2 was going to change things up in 2023.
Some fans pointed at what was considered the weakest lane in the lineup, the bot lane, and especially ADC Victor “Flakked” Lirola Tortosa. Aside from him, the jungle position also seemed to be weaker than expected and it became visible when facing top teams like JD Gaming and DWG KIA.
Investigative journalist Brieuc Seeger reported that both Flakked and veteran jungler Jankos were allowed to explore their options before the Worlds quarterfinals began. A few days later, Jankos confirmed in a YouTube video that he would leave G2 at the end of the season. It initially looked like Jankos wouldn’t be playing in the 2023 LEC Spring Split due to the size of his contract buyout, but he recently joined Heretics.
Flakked, while not joining an LEC starting roster, reportedly reached a verbal agreement with Team Heretics Academy to play in the Spanish LVP.
While both the Flakked and Jankos moves were expected, Raphaël “Targamas” Crabbé leaving for Excel Esports came as a surprise. The Belgian support player had a strong season considering he was a rookie in 2022. He was among the best supports in Europe, but G2 still decided to part ways with him.
G2 will be counting on experienced players…
To fill up the vacant spot left by Targamas, G2 made quite an intriguing move by looking to bring back its former support player Mikyx, according to Seeger. The Slovenian player was given the opportunity to look for new options at the end of the last offseason, but no team was in a position to pick him up due to the same reason Jankos encountered this year: a high buyout price.
He was then later picked up by XL last year, but he’s now swapping with Targamas to make his return to the team. Mikyx will be joined by former Team Liquid ADC Hans Sama, who decided to return to Europe after a disappointing season in North America.
The French player left Rogue at the end of 2021 to join what was supposed to be a super team, with the likes of Bwipo, Bjergsen, and CoreJJ. Liquid were unable to win a domestic title in the two splits and they failed to qualify for Worlds, which was hosted in Liquid’s home region.
The organization thus decided to drop the super team. As a result, Hans Sama left the organization in September and became a free agent. Now, according to Brieuc Seeger, he will be playing for G2 as the starting ADC.
And a new rising superstar
With BrokenBlade and Caps appearing to be confirmed for 2023, the only position left for G2 to fill is jungler.
Losing Jankos and the leadership that he has always brought to the table might be a huge loss for the team. Based on Brieuc’s report, G2’s top choice was MAD Lions’ Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla, but the Spanish organization rejected G2’s offer of 800,000 euros to buy his contract. While G2 wasn’t able to get one of the best junglers in the LEC, the European org probably got the best pick-up possible from the European Regional Leagues (ERLs).
According to Seeger, Martin “Yike” Sundelin, a player for the French team LDLC OL, will be coming in as G2’s new starting jungler. The Swedish player is coming off a great year in the LFL, having won both splits and finishing at least top four in the two editions of European Masters. He’s a flexible jungler who showed the ability to be both a utility and carry player on a team and is one of the top ERL prospects.
If the rumored roster ends up becoming a reality, Yike will be the only rookie that G2 will field in 2023. Just like for Flakked and Targamas at the beginning of this year, Yike will have to face an enormous amount of pressure since he will also have to fill Jankos’ shoes and deliver on what should be a team that competes for the LEC title.
That being said, G2 will also have four of the most experienced players in the European competition, giving Yike the golden environment for him to take his play to another level.
In an ironic turn of events, it’s the veteran jungler he’s replacing that may have accidentally confirmed his addition to the team.
While Jankos has departed G2, he’s still somehow accidentally leaking the org’s roster moves. In a recent stream, he told his viewers about how he accidentally joined his former team’s lobby.
“I joined the lobby, I looked at if I should go blue or red team, and then I saw Yike in the game, and I was like ‘what, we are not scrimming G2,’” Jankos said.
He then realized that he was the odd man out and didn’t belong, but not before dropping Yike’s name specifically. As of now, the pick-up has not been confirmed by either the organization or the player. After his chat started blowing up with “leaked,” Jankos attempted to backtrack while laughing about it.
While it isn’t officially confirmed yet, G2’s Twitter account did have something to say about the incident.
While the rumors are likely going to be true, these moves haven’t been officially announced. To learn whether G2 has made all the right moves for the 2023 season, we will have to wait until the roster is finalized.
