G2 BrokenBlade: “The difference is that they were just more clutch in certain situations”

We spoke to a dejected BrokenBlade following G2 Esports’ 3-1 loss to Bilibili Gaming in the 2023 MSI Lower Bracket. He was able to find positives despite the defeat, but is ultimately disappointed at the exit.

What was the difference between the sides today?

I think the difference is that they were just more clutch in certain situations, I think they pulled the trigger better than us in some situations. I think we sometimes got overexcited.

Lee Jones: You, Hans Sama and Caps all seemed very confident ahead of the series and said that practice was going well.

Why do you think this didn’t translate to the series today?

We’re playing against the best teams in the world, right, so it’s never going to be easy. I did think we were confident because we were. We had good results, it makes sense for us to be confident. I think going into a competitive match and not being confident is the worst thing that can happen as a professional player or as an athlete.

I think our confidence was justified by the way we practiced, the way we thought our level was compared to the rest, and would like to believe that the games today were very, very competitive on both sides.

What was the feedback that led to a win in game two after losing game one?

In game one I think we were in a winning position with our champs, then, again, we got overexcited. The conclusion was to just chill out a bit – calm down, calm each other down and end the games. That’s why we got the win in the second game.

Cloud9’s Fudge admitted that he was nervous ahead of facing BLG top laner Bin. How did you find the matchup?

I think I was doing pretty good – I was pretty confident. I’m not feeling as pressured by him as I did a couple of years ago, I think my play has improved quite a lot so in the games today I felt really fine. I think it also showed, I was pressuring him a lot. He’s definitely a very, very good player, he’s playing well.

LS tweeted that he thought G2 “forgot” about the possible Lucian/Nami pick in game four’s draft. Can you give me your thoughts on that bot lane?

We didn’t really let it slip through, we knew that they could pick it and we knew that they can play it.

The thing about Lucian/Nami is that when it explodes, it explodes really, really hard because you can snowball really hard with these champs.

But we were aware they could pick it, obviously it’s not like we weren’t prepared coming into this. They played it pretty well, they got ahead, and then the game is hard to play.

I noticed you ‘rallying the troops’ between games throughout the tournament. Is that a role you’ve actively tried to take?

I think it’s the role I was kind of given by my team, and by my staff, and it’s a role that I like to embrace – I like to do it.

Obviously it’s a lot of responsibility, being in this kind of position and saying the right words at the right time, and obviously being able to back that up with, not just b******t, but actually good words.  I would like to think I’m very good at it, at least my teammates  trust me in this position, so whenever I have the need to say something and lighten up the mood, I do. I think I’m very good at that.

Today we didn’t need it as much because we came in very confident, we came in thinking we were going to win and I felt like we were really there in the games.

In the Gen.G game, I was noticing that the vibe was a bit off, and then I felt like I had to say something.

What’s the plan for Summer?

We knew that we are able to match these teams, there are obviously going to be people that say “ah, you lost” and stuff, but for us it’s obviously much bigger than that. We know how they play now and how we can play. I think that we matched a lot of their plays, we made it really competitive.

So now I think it’s up to us to take all that we learned to Europe, to smash Europe, and come back again stronger and more hungry.

I think this year internationally I’ve felt very, very good, and the other two times I went to international tournaments I don’t think I ever played this good. So I’m very, very happy about my performance, but I still think it’s obviously not enough because we lost. So that means that there’s probably something I didn’t do enough, so that’s something I have to reflect on. I think that there’s a lot to reflect on as an individual player but also a team overall as well. So I’m definitely going to look to take everything I can from what happened.

Next: BLG Xun – “Our team doesn’t really struggle when playing from behind”