G2 BrokenBlade: “I want us to dominate and not drop a split”

We had the chance to speak with G2 Esports top-laner Sergen “BrokenBlade” Çelik ahead of the 2024 LEC Winter Split start scheduled for tomorrow.

After only dropping a single split in 2023, the Topfather looks to do one better this year with a clean sweep of LEC titles and gives his thoughts on why G2 is in a better position this year to perform at international events.

We also discuss the off-season, and meeting new opponents in the top lane.

Credit: IG | brokenbladee_

Esports.net: Firstly, how was the off season break? What have you been up to?

BrokenBlade: The break’s been nice. Just spending some time with my family, and now I’m back practicing with the team.

Lee Jones: I noticed you’ve been very quiet on social media during that time.

Was that a deliberate effort to stay offline for a while?

Yeah, I mean, the world’s run hit me a bit. I feel like after such a devastating way to go out, it’s never nice to go on social media. You’re not going to get a good response from people. I was thinking of using it more this year, so we’ll see. I definitely have shied away from social media a little bit from last year. I think that was a mistake, I should have should have used it more.

For me, it’s a bit hard to get into it again but I’m sure I’ll find a way.

Lee Jones: The team hasn’t made any roster changes in the off-season.

Was it a no-brainer for you to stay with G2?

I mean, it was pretty much a no-brainer. I think we were the best in Europe by far and we believe that if we stick together, we’re going to up our game even more.

Lee Jones: Given that you dominated Europe last year and have kept the same lineup, that makes G2 clear favorites – at least to perform best out of the gates.

Does that add any pressure?

Broken Blade: I mean, we were the favorites last year as well, so I’m not really going in with a lot of pressure in mins. I just want to play my own game, I just want us to play our own game and just dominate.

I want us to dominate from the get-go and not drop a split. You know, that is my goal first.

Last year, we managed to lose in one split, Spring to MAD Lions, and we don’t want that. We want to dominate this year year-round, every split before we go into international. So it’s definitely something that we want to do better this year.

Lee Jones: Speaking of international events, performing better internationally seems the next step for you guys.

How do you actually go about performing better internationally a reality?

I think going into international tournaments is always weird, especially if you’re in a region that is not looked at as the best – and that is because the competition in your region is usually not the best. Before we go into international tournaments, we need Europe to be as strong as possible so we can also learn as much as possible while we are in Europe. And how we do that is by obviously having good competition.

I think this year’s competition is much better than last year’s. KCorp is coming in with a lot of hype and some teams are sticking with similar rosters, like Fnatic for example, that changed only one player. KCorp has been looking strong right now so I’m excited for that. So yeah, I’m excited to see how teams will do, how they will be in practice.

Credit: X | @BrokenBlade

There’s one rookie top laner you’ll play against this split with Myrwn joining MAD. How do you think he’ll fare?

I heard he’s a very, very cheesy kind of player and he picks cheesy champs. He’s not scared of picking Fiddlesticks top, or Neeko top, or Zeri top lane even, so we’re going to see how he wants to create advantages for himself and how I will respond to that. I’m definitely the type of player who did that before so I will know how to play against it. Let’s see how he does on the LEC stage. Obviously, I’m excited for new players to always give me a challenge because I’m willing to learn from that as well. So let’s see how that matchup is going to go.