Deep dive: Diagnosing the issues with G2

G2's decision to bench jks in favour of nexa last year was one that was met with heavy criticism, and that criticism hasn't gone away in the months that have followed as G2 have struggled to challenge for trophies.

That isn't to say G2 have been bad, in fact, their deep tournament runs have gone unnoticed, and the credit they should have received for those runs has instead been unfairly maligned for their failure to win those events.

Photo: Michal Konkol

The criticism may be a result of the incredible performances put in by their star player m0NESY during that time, however, it's hard to shake the feeling that G2 are a way off beating the likes of FaZe, Vitality, and Spirit.

So, if G2 are a way off beating those teams, what exactly are the issues with the team that stormed IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne in 2023?

Is HooXi to blame?

Let's start with the big talking point: HooXi.

There is perhaps no IGL in Counter-Strike history that has ever been as divisive as HooXi has been since signing for G2 in 2022.

His achievements with the team are constantly outweighed by his failures and perceived bad performances - but is that exactly fair? First off, let's weigh up the successes against the failures.

Of course, G2 haven't fared as well as they would have hoped in Majors since HooXi's signing.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

In their first Major as a team, the IEM Rio Major 2022, they were eliminated from the RMR by GamerLegion.

In the second, the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, they were eliminated from the Legends Stage with a 1-3 record after losses to Vitality, Bad News Eagles, and fnatic.

At the most recent Major, the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, G2 far surpassed those results by finishing in the top four.

However, despite that undeniably strong finish, HooXi was still blamed by many for their exit - something his coach TaZ then defended him over.

Two of these results are undoubtedly poor for a team of G2's stature, but solely blaming HooXi for them is unfair.

G2 can't ever hope to succeed if their tw biggest stars go missing, and both NiKo and m0NESY were poor during their elimination game versus fnatic.

So what about the successes?

Much has been said about NiKo's inability to win a Major or a premier event in his career, but that all changed after the arrival of HooXi.

It wasn't long before they won BLAST Premier World Final 2022, and they followed that victory up with wins at both IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne last year.

Winning the most elite tournaments is something not even karrigan managed to do with NiKo, so why does HooXi not get credit for doing so?

Photo: Michal Konkol

The other factor people criticise HooXi for is his fragging ability, but that has become something of an outdated narrative.

In 2024, PGL Copenhagen winner Aleksib has a 0.91 HLTV rating, and even karrigan, the IGL of the best team of the year so far has a 0.90. Compare that to HooXi's 0.92 and it begs the question of why G2's captain is the only one to receive criticism for his poor performances.

So, with that said, is HooXi really the problem? We think not.

nexa vs jks

The other big factor people like to bring up is the individual difference between nexa and jks.

It's true that in the past jks has been a star player. He was the big reason as to why the former Renegades/100Thieves team managed to shoot up the ranking, and he provided a solid fourth piece to G2 throughout his tenure with the organisation.

Photo: Michal Konkol

However, if you go off rating alone, there is very little difference between the two players - especially seeing as jks was afforded more luxuries to perform in terms of his positions on maps.

There is, however, one key difference between the two: trust.

G2 may trust nexa as a personality element with the team, but it's hard to say that they trust him individually like they trusted the Australian.

The teams map pool has changed for the worse since the arrival of nexa, with them moving away from Mirage, a map that was typically strong for NiKo and m0NESY, and the change has definitely made them weaker as a result.

So, what could be the reason for this change?

As mauisnake pointed out, jks had an important role as the A anchor on Mirage, a position that is one of the hardest anchor spots on the game.

Although he wasn't putting up star numbers, jks is still a player capable of holding his own against any player in the world, something nexa, who has never been a star, may not be able to do.

That being said, nitr0 also acted as Liquid's A anchor on Mirage during his time with the team in 2022 and 2023, and while he was often the lowest-rated player on the team, he was never a liability for them.

This suggests nexa's inclusion on the G2 roster might have been an issue.

However, it is only a problem for as long as they reist trusting him, the problem can easily be fixed if they put the same trust in him as they put in jks and once again begin to play maps that they are stronger on.

Photo: Michal Konkol

Change is difficult

The final and most pressing issue is that G2's Bosnian duo haven't quite been the same since the switch to Counter-Strike 2.

NiKo, who was arguably the greatest rifler across CS:GO, saw his rating drop from 1.22 to 1.09 during the first few months of the new game, however, that has now risen back to 1.16 in 2024.

Let's be clear: A 1.16 rating is by no means poor. In fact, it's actually quite good. However, the drop-off is something that G2 have had to combat, NiKo is invisible now far more than he ever used to be, and that is made far worse by the bigger issue from the Bosnian cousins.

NiKo's drop-off is an issue, but it is nowhere near the level of issue as huNter-'s is.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

In 2023, huNter-'s CS:GO rating was 1.10. This fell to 1.02 upon the release of CS2. He's managed to get that back up to 1.05 in 2024, but that is a minimal difference, and that's where the real problem lies.

If huNter- was intended to be G2's fourth piece, there would be little wrong with his 1.05 rating. However, huNter- is meant to be the third star, and that's where the drop from 1.10 becomes far more noticeable, especially next to NiKo's lower rating.

With HooXi on the team, G2 have room for one more player who is putting up the ratings that huNter- and nexa, but having two will see them greatly limited when it comes to taking down the best teams in the world.

Photo: Michal Konkol

With the form of m0NESY since the release of CS2 and the ambitions of the organisation itself, G2 needs to address these issues fast. There are plenty of suitors for m0NESY, it won't be long before he starts to want to listen to them.

Consistent playoff places are good, and as a result, some of the negative conversations around G2 are unwarranted, but G2 is an organisation that should be contesting for trophies, and they're going to need to change something in order to get back to that point.