G2 Isma discusses what it takes for a roster to succeed in the LEC, and hints at big changes coming to G2 Esports next season.
G2 Esports exits the international stage after a disappointing series loss against Bilibili Gaming, a repeat of last year’s results. But despite outlasting other EMEA rosters, the Kings of Europe are still aiming high until they beat the East — and G2’s coach gave us rare insights on how they’re laying the foundations for bigger wins.
In an exclusive interview with ESTNN, Performance Coach Ismael “Isma” Pedraza reflects on the Samurai’s 2024 run, their lacklustre record at Worlds, and what it takes to maintain Europe’s star roster.
How is G2 Esports picking themselves back up after another rough Worlds run?
“It is very sad for sure. Some of our players would say that our year was a failure. There is a little frustration in the sense that we knew we could have performed maybe better, or [taken] games from the Asian teams. Right now that it’s the off-season, some of the players are assimilating that maybe they didn’t achieve what they wanted to achieve performance-wise, and looking into what happens next. It’s just the natural way of performance that at the end of the year; only one team is going to be happy, and that’s just the way it is.”
What specific strengths did the coaching team focus on this season to help the boys perform at MSI and Worlds 2024?
“So for this year, it was a lot about implementing many of [the] learnings we get from international events, especially from last year into this year.. During our local competitions, we got the opportunity to improve some of those strengths like BrokenBlade’s leadership and — from my perspective in my role — how he manages elements from the day-to-day.
Which aspects of your life do you try to instill into Caps and co. to fortify their mental?
“I mean, completing the [Berlin] marathon was obviously one of my biggest goals. I come from traditional sports, and competing in football. And with all the intensity we had this year, I’m able to show the guys that while we are competing at a high level in esports, there is time and space for other activities.
I basically lead by example, right? There are many things I do for myself in terms of recovery, nutrition, sleep and mindset. There’s also a lot of tools I implement [both] on myself and my team. These are different ways to show we want high standards for the team, we want to reach our goals, [so] you should also have high standards for yourself as a person.
We are 24/7 with the guys. The consistency [we’ve] built starts with our team, and it’s reinforced on a daily basis.”
How do you balance working on what you think the boys need to improve on vs. what the fans think?
“This is a tricky one because, like a new year and a new team.. let’s say you start a new season with a different team. This will come with a basic understanding of where we are on that scale of weaknesses and strengths. As [for] performance, you can always implement the strategy where you work on your weaknesses during the off-season or the pre-season and then reinforce the things you are good at in a place like the LEC. The splits have been super fast, so it’s really hard to combine them and work on your weaknesses like in Playoffs for example. I don’t think you should do that at all.”
Which player has inspired the most growth in the team recently?
All of them inspire on specific levels. The easy choice is for sure Yike, in the sense that he’s getting more and more experience on the professional level. This is his second year professionally, and he’s performing at a high level. His Worlds was hard [behind the scenes] because there were rumors about the change, and — just for players in general in esports — having this at the back of their [minds] is not that easy.
So for him to keep his composure, to still do his best, still show up and be conscious about things that we’ve been working on the last few years is something to be proud of. I think [Yike] is the player I’ve worked with the most this year, so I’m very proud of the work we did, and how he showed up in difficult moments.
One that many fans don’t get to see (because I read many comments) that inspired me is Hans Sama because people don’t really see what he does in the team. His leadership skills have improved a lot, more on the level of in-game perspective. How to play the game, what he needs from his teammates, or starting the conversation on ‘how we should play better here or there’.
A lot of macroplay elements. So I think he does a lot for the team, and he was the most consistent this year. People may say otherwise because he’s not as flashy as other ADC’s. I think what he does in comms and practice is very impressive. When he’s at this level, we call it his “Soldier Mode”. Nothing affects him, he’s very efficient and very solid. But not a lot of people saw that. And that’s something that’s inspired me for sure.
Will there be any changes in G2’s approach next season?
“All of us in the staff are very reflective, and we help each other a lot [to] make things work. So if we understand these and have open-minded players still — because for the last two years, these players have been very open-minded and willing to commit to our processes and stick to it..
So because we understand them, we’ll go to our “back to school” workshops in a few weeks and lay out the foundations. I think we’ll be able to build on what we’ve been building, and we still have the core players in the team. We’ll be able to share the work, and I think this is very important: to share what we have done and share what we went through and [teach] how we solved the puzzles when they were almost impossible to solve.
So this is how it’s going to look in the 2025 season. Results-wise, it’s always something you cannot predict 100%. But from my position, I cannot say that we will win like we did this year because it all depends on the process. It all depends on how we can put the pieces together — because we will have new pieces — and make sure they fit in very well.
It never gets boring! We always have to face the challenges, and hopefully we’ll achieve results-wise what we achieved this year and continue building up internationally. Because that’s still the goal, right?”
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