G2 Esports is returning to the VALORANT Champions Tour for 2022 and is bringing a new re-tooled EU roster to compete in the second year of official competition. The organization announced today that it has signed the former Giants Gaming trio of Aaro “hoody” Peltokangas, Johan “Meddo” Renbjörk Lundborg, and coach Daniil “pipsoN” Meshcheryakov.
Both players bring some VCT and extensive CS:GO experience to the rest of the G2 roster, which consists of Óscar “mixwell” Cañellas Colocho, Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas, and Auni “AvovA” Chahade. With the Giants additions, G2 is parting ways with coach Neil “neilzinho” Finlay and moving the young Wassim “keloqz” Cista to the bench, allowing him to pursue other options.
Earlier in December, G2 parted ways with mid-season acquisition koldamenta, whom they acquired from Acend in July. In turn, Acend brought in the recently benched Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt from G2, before eventually winning VCT Champions to close out the year.
At the beginning of 2021, Giants fielded an all-Spanish roster that was soon acquired by the 19esports organization. For VCT, Giants played with an EU lineup that was consistently altered by roster moves. The only two players that stayed on Giants from the beginning to the end of the VCT 2021 campaign were both hoody and Meddo.
G2 found more success in their initial VCT campaign, especially after their mid-season shakeup, becoming the first team to beat Sentinels on LAN at Masters Berlin and reaching the semifinals of that tournament. They were a couple spots shy of reaching Champions via VCT points earned, but suffered back-to-back losses to Liquid and Guild in the Last Chance Qualifier to see their season end mid-October.
G2 should debut its new roster in the qualifiers for the first EMEA Challengers stage, which should begin in late January or early February.
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