CSGO: G2’s Love Story

On March 9, G2 announced that they would be changing their CS:GO roster.

The pre-announced lineup was: Nathan “NBK” Schmitt, Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, and Richard “shox” Papillon. Everyone thought that shox would have to take a break from his wrist injury and when he became healthy, everything would be back to normal. Instead, this trauma becomes the testing phase. This squad will use the shox time off to see if they can get better. Otherwise, G2 will fall back to shox. Now, it’s not the French revolution. This time it’s just G2’s love story.

To better understand why this change happened, we need to go back to 2016. G2 is considered a 2nd place team when compared to EnVyUs. After important roster changes, they overtook EnVyUs. EnVyUs on the other hand gradually declined, the team couldn’t believe the system that Happy put in place nor the fact that he was the leader who refused to change. Therefore, the two main actors in the last “French shuffle”, shox and NBK created a new lineup.

Theoretically, this is the superstar team. It includes promising names: NBK, kennyS, bodyy, apEX and shox. They have two potential superstars on the team, KennyS and shox, style like no other. KennyS is AWPer and shox is lurker. In addition, G2 also has apEX as an entry-fragger and is a very team player. Bodyy and NBK played well and played well too. This is considered a ‘slam dunk’, a new era. But they couldn’t find the stability they needed. If G2 is at its peak, the team can win the tournament. But for the most part, G2 is considered a dark horse rather than a candidate for the championship.

In 2018, the team secured a spot in the Eleague Boston Major playoff, but the loss to Cloud9 was humiliating. Soon after, G2 participated in two more tournaments at the Starladder i-League StarSeries Season 4 and the IEM World Championship. Starladder Kiev had the same result as the Major: performing well in the group stage but disappointing in the playoffs. IEM WC is just their bad league and makes us think that G2 is really the problem.

In the past, it would have been a major ‘blood change’. This time around, there were a lot of factors that changed for G2 to struggle. On the one hand, shox is their brand member. A talented superstar has proven himself to be at the top of the CS:GO world. On the other hand, the remaining members of the team are revolting. The team system is a battlefield: Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux doesn’t want to be a coach anymore and wants to get back into the game. In addition, shox also has a wrist injury and no one knows how long it will take him to recover.

According to the youtube video, Carlos “ocelote” Rodrigues Santiago said, “Near the end, the fatigue of shox with the team increased.” Shox started suggesting ideas for changes as to what needs to be done to rebuild the team and achieve what the team had achieved at the beginning of 2017. However, the ocelote also had to consider the other side and say, “We’re going to have to do that.” I believe the rest of the team deserves a chance to prove themselves and see what can happen.”

The difference is irreconcilable. The team wanted NBK to try the IGL position and shox disagreed with that. Meanwhile, SmithZz has left the coach position and started playing CS:GO again, and it seems that shox’s plan includes SmithZz. Among other contenders, notable free agents include: Kevin “Ex6TenZ’ Droolans, David “devoduvek” Dobrosavljevic, Francois “AmaNEk” Delauney, and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. Or some members of EnVyUs are also worthy candidates. Surely the lineup that shox put has some of the names mentioned above.

What I meant to say is that shox will never comeback to this line up. He may still play for G2 in the future though.
2/3

— Dan Madesclaire (@G2apEX) 9 March 2018

As for the rest of G2, apEX made it clear on Twitter that “Shox will never return to this lineup. However, he may still play for G2 in the future.” What the rest of the cast did was recruit a new fifth member, Oscar “mixwell” Canellas. He took French classes so he could play better with everyone. In terms of leadership, NBK will be in charge, but this time it’s a little different. In the previous lineup, NBK tried his hand at leadership, but then there was always an easy answer when things went wrong for him. Previously, he let Happy hold this role when he was still at EnVyUs. This time, no one will guarantee to take on this IGL role if NBK fails.

With the current perspective, ocelote has created a home for the French boys. He gave Shox enough time to operate and recover. During that time, G2’s new roster needs to prove that they can function. If there are no results, G2 will follow shox’s alternative. As for timing, we have to think about Major. The next Major will take place in September. The new lineup needs more time to understand, usually around three months. It’s March now, with enough time, the current G2 roster: NBK, apEX, bodyy, kennyS and mixwell will have at least three months until shox wrists recover to prove themselves as the better team. Welcome to G2’s love story, two loves, but only one will continue.

Source: vpesports, HLTV video source