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G2 falls off in second half of the VALORANT Challengers season

· Jun 01 - 3 minutes read

After an incredible start to the 2023 North American VALORANT Challengers season, G2 Esports VALORANT division has fallen off a cliff in the second half of their campaign. After a couple of underwhelming performances the squad is now on the edge of elimination, which sadly for fans was an expected result.

In the first season of Challengers, G2 proved they had what it takes after finishing 4-1 in the group stage and reaching the final of the Mid Season Faceoff, even after an opening round loss. However after losing to M80 in the Mid Season Faceoff around March, they have been in a steep decline, dropping all their 5 matchups in Split #2 and losing the opening round of the Challengers playoffs versus Oxygen on May 31st.

G2’s current roster is more than experienced in situations like this, as it has happened before in their previous teams. Four out of the five players in the current G2 lineup are used to starting their season incredibly well, however are not able to maintain the same performance level by the end of the split.

Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan and Michael “dapr” Gulino are the ones who suffered the most of this situation, as it happened at the highest skilled VALORANT competition while playing under Sentinels. Around 2021, Sentinels was considered one if not the best VALORANT team in the world at the time, demolishing the entirety of the NA scene after picking up TenZ plus showing incredible gameplay at Masters Reykjavik without losing a single map.

Nevertheless they have slowly but surely started to lose their grasp at the top tier level of competitive VALORANT by the end of the year, with that roster not playing to their expected level during the entire 2022 season.

As for Erik “penny” Penny and Maxim “wippie” Shepelev, and coach Ian “Immi” Harding are also familiar with this feeling. Back in 2021, they managed to surprise everybody under Version1 at the North American Challengers league, with the squad reaching Masters Reykjavik. However soon after, they were never close to replicating that same quality to reach another international event in 2021 or 2022.

For analysts it was rather easy to understand what G2 were lacking in the second half of the season, mainly lack of confidence and proactivity during the match.

Coach Immi shared his thoughts via a social media post:

“It’s just so embarrassing, i have no copium to give you. Never been more confident going in to a match in my life.”

G2 will have to think about future steps when it comes to both the roster and their approach to the game. As of the moment of writing, no further announcements have been provided by G2.