G2 shocked the world at their last tournament, IEM Dallas, by winning the entire event playing with Jake “Stewie2K” Yip as a stand-in for Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen. This time, at BLAST Premier Spring Final, the team has to play once again without a core member of their lineup as Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov was unable to reach the opening match due to visa troubles.
G2’s coach Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas, who is currently serving as their temporary fifth man, shared his thoughts on his first professional game back since becoming a coach, how the team played with three capable shotcallers in the server, and some humorous remarks on m0NESY’s absence.
For you, being back on the server after quite a long time away, how did it feel to be back on the server today?
It was fun, but it was also very hard because, like, it was mainly hard because we didn’t have AWP. For me, I didn’t play for a long time so it would be nice to have some fear on the enemy, but when there is no AWP on the team especially Ilya [m0NESY] it’s hard.
We saw you pick up the AWP on Dust 2, was there any sense that you felt like you can be the m0NESY on Dust 2?
Hey, to be fair I felt it, instantly first round I knew that I shouldn’t. But I felt like I could play my AWP and get a kill or two, but I really messed up the eco round – so I felt that it would come towards B since I didn’t hear anyone on Glocks. That was my expectation but then I just overpeeked mid.
There might not have been an AWP on the server but there’s plenty of voices with yourself as a coach, former IGL, NiKo who’s tired to IGL, and HooXi as well. Was there any kind of overlap or too much talking or what was that like?
No it wasn’t. I leave space for the players in the end. I try to chime in but, you know, we had NiKo who was IGL in Dallas, we have Rasmus [HooXi] back, so if I would also be trying to lead it would be very bad.
Vitality tomorrow with mezii hopefully going to the arena, I think that they’re going to have a lot to play for with the arena. What’s the prep going to be like going into that game.
Hey, I would just fly for visa and for Ilya [m0NESY], come back, we win.
Is there any word or update on the m0NESY situation at the moment?
I don’t know. Please, UK government, help.
It will be a race against the clock for G2 today to ensure that m0NESY arrives on time ass their elimination game against hometown hero Mezii and Vitality is slated to kick off at 5pm GMT.
