G2 Yike: “It feels s**t to lose like this”

I had the chance to talk to G2 jungler Yike after the heartbreaking loss that knocked them out of Worlds 2023, talking about the match and what went wrong at the tournament.

G2 Yike – It’s very confusing because we never expected it to happen

Coming into Worlds, fans had high expectations for G2, considering the dominance they had in the LEC, and various players praising the team prior to the start of the Swiss Stage. Yike himself felt like they were looking great, which further increased his disappointment after the elimination.

It’s very hard to say how I feel. It’s very confusing because we never expected it to happen. We thought we could win Worlds and we didn’t even make quarterfinals so it feels very weird, especially after going 2-0 in the first week.

When asked what went wrong, the Swedish jungler mentioned it was due to multiple stuff going on:

We didn’t play as good in the first few days, especially when playing against DK and WBG. With Gen.G I don’t even know if we played good or bad or if they played really well but they beat us. Then we felt like we could have probably changed stuff and it would be easy for us but then losing to NRG and getting stomped was when we realized that something was very off.

The series started off with BLG stomping in Game 1, and G2 felt the pressure of having to make it closer in Game 2. “We got stomped in Game 1 and losing 5 games like that in a row would be the most embarrassing way ever to get out of Worlds,” said Yike, “so I’m very happy we managed to get Game 2 even though we couldn’t make it. I think we played better today compared to yesterday”.

In the last game, Mikyx picked Bard. In such a crucial moment, G2 decided to flip it by choosing an unconventional support pick that is rarely picked in this meta. I asked whether they had prepared it for the series or if was it a last-minute decision:

I think Mikyx is one of the best Bard players I’ve ever seen in my life and they also blind picked Braum, so when we were talking about what to pick between Bard and Pyke. I think the pick was good into enemy comp since it was good into Orianna and Braum so I don’t think the pick was a problem.

From LEC to Worlds – the growing trajectory for the player

Even though Yike already played at MSI, this was his first-ever Worlds tournament. I questioned how much of a difference there was compared to the LEC and whether he felt more pressure when flying to South Korea:

For sure I could feel the pressure and stress. In the first few days, I was really scared and nervous but my team supported me as always. We were for sure not as dominant as we were in EU, but even in scrims we were doing good. We beat every single team, maybe the only one was T1 which was the hardest to scrim against. In EU we would stomp every team but here Asian teams could beat us mechanically, in decision-making, and macro. I think we were good and kept up in a lot of games but some of the games, especially against NRG, we just kind of lost it.

Despite the disappointing results, there are still a lot of positive takes for one of the LEC rookie players:

Getting into a new environment was the first time for me. Flying to a new country and timezone, new food, everything was new. Maybe it was easier for my teammates to adapt because they were used to it. I don’t think I felt bad but we can get sick so for sure I could’ve done better at adapting to how I need to eat and sleep.

I also asked him to rate his year and this is what he said:

I think my team taught me so much and made me become as skilled as I am, I’m very proud of my development this year. At season start I was extremely nervous, more than now, and my team just made me feel very comfortable: that’s how I played throughout the entire year and that’s what probably made very good this year. So I’m happy with how the year went. It’s a bit sad that we didn’t win Spring because we could’ve done that but the goal was to win Worlds and coming here and failing this early, it feels very bad.

Now that G2 is out, Yike and the rest of the squad will be getting some well-earned time off as the season comes to an end. I questioned if there was anything, in particular, Yike was looking forward to during the offseason:

It’s going to be nice to fly back and meet my family, my girlfriend. I’m going to spend the time with the ones I love because they supported me throughout the entire year because that is probably going to remove the negative thoughts of the year.

Before rounding off the interview, Yike shared a message to his fans:

I’m always grateful and thankful for all the support this whole year. It feels s**t to lose like this and not even make quarters but at least I feel like I learned a lot and I’m going to make sure that this can never happen again in the next years.

Read more: LoL Patch 13.22