On the 7th, G2 Esports defeated Infinity Esports 3-1 in the 2018 World Championships Play-In Knockout Stage and qualified for the group stage.

Despite giving away the first game to Infinity, G2 Esports refined their draft and win conditions to take 3 consecutive games off Infinity. G2 has made it out of Play-Ins, but their performance has looked shaky at the very least. G2’s jungler, Jankos, clarified that the team’s main issue is giving away early game leads. Going into groups, Jankos has explained that he prefers to be placed in Group C rather than Group A.

After the series, we got to interview G2 Jankos. Let’s see what he has to say about qualifying for groups, Hjarnan’s Heimerdinger, and Group C.

¤ First of, congratulations on the series win and making it groups. How do you guys feel about today’s result?

We are happy that we won and moved onto the group stage. But, I feel like we didn’t really play that well today. Also, our draft in game 4 was questionable. We shouldn’t have won that game, and it should have gone to a game 5. However, Infinity Esports threw. The last game was similar to the first game when we had a lead late, and we should have closed it out. Unfortunately, we couldn’t because we made so many mistakes.

I believe if we want to make it through the group stage, we need to play way way better. Despite this, I think it is possible. I believe we should still be happy that we made it through Play-Ins and just focus on our improvement.


¤ There was a lot of back and forth from both sides during game 3 and 4. Was this due to very miniscule mistakes or something bigger than that?

When it comes to us, I do think we managed our side lanes better. This is why Wunder was always ahead in farm. In regards to mistakes, I believe we just fell behind frequently during the early game. It was to the point that we would fall too far behind for us to have the leisure to wait for the opponent to make a mistake.

In game 2, we actually had a good draft and played to our win conditions. We played well in that game. So, I would just like to focus on that (laughs).


¤ G2 has a 50/50 chance of placing in either Group A or Group C. What are your preferences there?

I would personally prefer to play in Group C. I think that kt and Team Liquid are more playable to go against compared to Group A teams. I mean, for sure, kt is a really strong team, and I think we can beat Team Liquid. I’m not saying we are a better team, but I’m just saying that our opponents could be more beatable than the teams in Group A. Teams like Afreeca Freecs and Flash Wolves, alongside the wildcard team, could be kind of a risk to play against. I will for sure prefer to play against TL, kt, and MAD.


¤ A majority of teams want to avoid the Chinese and Korean teams for as long as possible. Is this the same with G2?

I think right now, we are not even strong enough to consider avoiding anyone. At this moment, we should really be focusing on who we will be going up against. Although a lot of teams could probably beat us, maybe we could beat most of the teams as well. We shouldn’t really focus on avoiding any teams but focus on ourselves.


¤ What are your thoughts on Infinity Esports consistently banning out Heimerdinger? Is it really a free win if opponents don’t ban Hjarnan’s Heimer?

It is not necessarily a free win. But, I feel like a lot of people at Worlds are not prepared to go against a Heimerdinger bot lane. In addition, Hjarnan is very comfortable on Heimerdinger. If someone leaves it open, we’ll see what happens (laughs). Maybe kt will leave it open (laughs).


¤ What is the number one issue that G2 needs to tackle before playing on the group stage?

Mostly, we just need to not lose the early game. Since we did play in Play-Ins, teams have the possibility to throw their early game lead over us. But when we go to group stage and play against the best teams in the world, we will actually get punished way way harder if we make the mistakes of not waiting for each other. We really need to step up and try to play together as a team. We didn’t really play this way in game 1 for sure. Our macro is also definitely not as good as some of the top teams at Worlds.


¤ Lastly, is there anything you want to say to your fans?

I am extremely grateful for the support that we are receiving. I am sorry that we could not perform better, but we are going to go to group stage and get the best result possible.