After a historic win against TES at the 2024 MSI, G2 Esports’ in-form jungler Yike spoke openly about the ‘EU bad’ narrative brewing in the community for the past few years due to the region’s below-average performance in international League tournaments.
In an interview with Korizon’s Ashley Kang, Yike said, “I think the narrative that LEC is bad, Europe is bad.”
“We even lost to NA twice now. It’s getting a bit too much, and I think some players for sure, or like teams and players in LEC, are getting into it, and it looks like the practice is getting worse as well. Everything is slowly getting worse,” he said, expressing that the LEC teams’ overall quality has severely decreased over the years.
He further said G2 Esports are “tryhards,” and that’s the reason behind their dominance in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC). The team has won 14 LEC Splits since the league’s inception, double the number of titles won by Fnatic, who has the second-highest wins.
Talking about ending the “EU is bad” narrative discussions, Yike said, “I think we just need more teams to step it up in our league. I think Fnatic is doing a very good job. MAD Lions did a very good job the split before like winter split, and we need more of that,” reflecting on some of the European team’s impressive performances further debunking the notion of the region being bad.
G2 Esports has restored faith for Eastern League of Legends esports fans when hope was at an all-time low at 2024 MSI. The team has more wins against the East than all other LCS and LEC teams combined since 2023, which paints a picture of the team’s success on the international stage.
After wiping one of the LPL representatives out of the tournament, Europe and North America have one representative left. If Team Liquid upsets T1 in their upcoming elimination match on May 15, they might face each other next.
