G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive were one of the best teams in Europe as 2020 ended. In 2021? Not so much.

Mid-2021 G2 were uncharacteristic. They had reached the Champions Tour's main events before, but failed to progress beyond the top eight in any of them until Stage 3.

Just prior to Stage 3, Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez, G2's CEO, went on a spending spree.

He bagged two of Heretics' star players in Auni "AvovA" Chahade and Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas. They traded Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt for Acend's Jose "koldamenta" Luis Aranguren, who became G2's new IGL, and hired Cista "keloqz" Wassim from Megastitut. Throw in Lucas "Rojo" Rojo, Wygers' former coach, and you have an entirely new squad ready for competition.

The results were immediate.

G2 Esports
@G2esports
Four more days until @G2keloqz is unleashed #VALORANTMasters
10:16 AM · Sep 6, 2021 ·
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G2 opened Stage 3: Challengers 1 with a loss to FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks , but went on a lower bracket rampage against Rix.GG Thunder Rix.GG Thunder Inactive Mickebwoy Mikołaj Chojnacki memset Laurent Werly LATEKS Oliwer Fahlander frei Aaron Frei Luzuh Joseph Loose , FNATIC FNATIC Europe Unranked crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , FPX and Guild Esports Guild Esports Inactive . G2 lost the grand final 3-1 to Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk , but they had reached the EMEA Challengers Playoffs. It was all they could have wished for.

Due to qualifying in the first Challengers event, G2 secured a BYE in the EMEA Challengers Playoffs. Their first opponent was Oxygen Esports Oxygen Esports Inactive ; a swift 2-0 where G2 lost 14 rounds in two maps kept them alive. In their next match, Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Unranked skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt Celasun Emir Celasun umu7 Umut Pekdoğan dismantled the European squad 2-0. Down to the lower bracket they went — again.

Due to their win against Oxygen, G2 needed only one more win to make Berlin. Their opponent? Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin , a team known for dragging games out to the wire. Although this Bo3 lasted nearly three hours, it wasn't rather drawn out. In the end, G2 came out on top 2-1 after a reverse sweep, winning them a slot in Masters Berlin.

G2's run was shot down soon after, with Gambit overcoming them in the lower bracket semifinal. But it didn't matter much. G2 had gone from nothing to everything in a matter of weeks.

Some may argue it's just the team in their Cinderella period. Star player keloqz has a different opinion.

"[We have] very experienced players, like Mixwell. With him, we can go really far and I think we can win Berlin. We just played and we wrecked everyone,” he said. “We're the best team [of EMEA], I think, to be honest.”

The French Jett concluded the interview saying he wants to face everyone in Berlin. “I like to play against good teams. So let's go. Let's go Berlin.”

G2 are placed in Group D of Stage 3: Masters. They'll play the group opener against F4Q F4Q Inactive Hermes Ahn Byeong-wook (안병욱) Estrella Park Gun (박건) fiveK Yoo Sung-min (유성민) GOLD Geum Chang-wan (금창완) , Korea's "stream team." They'll then play against Sentinels Sentinels North America Unranked N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid , a team G2 has exchanged banter with since reaching the EMEA Playoffs. However, Group D has suffered a loss with the withdrawal of Inactive due to visa complications.