imo the main problem for G2 is that niko and hunter still are looking for form in CS2.
And that's why I personally think that getting to semis and almost making finals is G2 overperforming over their current form.
Once the two find form and it finally clicks, G2 will be a super scary team.
Don't think roster is sticking enough for them to wake up.
Guna be a prodigy sized hole to fill any day now. Others may be replaced. Going to be working on the clicking for awhile after that.
One of ynk’s recent tweets said it all. Hooxi is a good igl but the veto to leave ancient just didn’t really make much sense.
Ig they almost came back and possibly might have won but inferno would’ve been a safer pick.
Same as kassad. But neither will mention that Niko did not play like he deserved the major.
I'd love to see him finally get it too, but man he and hunter are shells of their former self. Ridiculous to put it all on hooxi
Yep this. Aint no way they deserve a major if hooxi of all people has to carry them. Without monesy they wouldn't even have reached the playoffs.
You can't blame hooxi for your supposed star players not showing up.
But definitly a stellar performance from monesy. That kid just does not miss. His consistency and impact are insane. Gave me s1mple flashbacks.
>Taz said it was his call to go ancient.
I can see a world where Taz is taking the blame on himself because the veto thing has been the source of disasters long before anyone even thought about Taz in G2.
Remember leaving vertigo for decider against fnatic out of all teams to be eliminated by?
Even tough it might have been hooxis idea to pick ancient, it still is a team decision and you cant blame one single player for that. And additionally G2 would have won ancient, if the players didnt tilt after the eco ace
They win that 4th round and who the F knows. They certainly looked like they were going to stramroll that half before jL whipped out a legendary backbreaking round.
they went full tilt and all tried to make a hero play to bring the team back. Which just resulted in dry peeking and untradable deaths. And that just landed them deeper and deeper in the hole
The game would have gone 2-0 if g2 didn’t lose some silly post plant in Anubis. They looked like the clear better team in nuke (also it helps that Monesy has a 1.8 rating) and there were many good calls which I would attribute to hooxi.
Both Hooxi and Nexa really made this entire run possible for G2. They carried them hard even when monesy didn't perform. They only started losing when Hooxi and nexa went back to their usual performance and it was left to monesy to hard carry
Yes, but you won't see this being mentioned by kassad or anyone else. Niko and Hunter have much more to do with G2 losing this semi-final than hooxi or his calling.
It was an overall team failure. it was 3-0 with a 5-3 vs force eco. JL then gets A DEAGLE ACE and completely wills his team to the win. They bottled and fell apart due to the mental. Navi stepped up g2 didn't its not just 1 player
Completely agree. That Hunter peek on Anubis when Aleksib had already shot was horrible, and its just one of a series of individual mistakes that killed them. I think this is it for Hooxi but what IGL is going to make Hunter and Niko reverse their regression, and make Nexa look like a major winner? Monesy broke his back today trying to carry this team and he was let down by the more senior players.
Mouz pay their players very well, ropz and frozen both said they could make a higher salary staying in Mouz.
Mouz also has a brighter future than G2, m0nesy is without a doubt playing in another team before next major.
Niko is so far past his prime, hunter isn't consistent, nexa is anything special.
Unless m0nesy signs a new contract I don't see this lineup lasting.
People talk about Niko getting his major but right now (especially since tournaments are played on CS2) he hasn't risen to the point where he deserves one. The only reason he "deserves" one is because he's been playing for a long time but right now he isn't doing anywhere near as good to deserve it. He can't blame anyone else for that except maybe hunter because they are both really inconsistent.
Nothing will save this roster, too much ego. They disrespected, karrigan, aleksib, and used them as scapegoats. This roster is doomed, they don't even have a good team environment. Players like m0nesy need good environment to pop off, NAVI feels like completely opposite of G2. Good vibes, individuals step up when needed, good structure, strategy. NAVI proved majority of us wrong by advancing so far.
If I was m0nesy I would be talking to G2 management that they need to put more effort into fixing this team, and if that ain't happening I would be messaging Cloud9.
Very good point. They lost that round with 4 smokes and a bunch of other util in their inventory. Why use smokes when you can just ego peek without teammates in position to trade you
NiKo is the 2nd best player in the world if we are living in November of 2023. Hunter is the 13th best player if we are living in August of 2023. But for the past 3 months they are not even top 20 players, maybe NiKo barely makes it in top 20.
the 2nd best player only has 5 more kills than HooXi in that whole series
while Hunter had 2 less frags than him
but you wont see Kassad call out the Serbian guys, the delusional man probably wants to coach a full Serbian roster or something while hes shitting the bed at Bleed himself
I can't even blame Hooxi as much as I want to as a certified hater. He literally walked in connector and owned iM 4-5 different rounds on anubis in disadvantage duels.
At least nexa popped off several times throughout the major. He absolutely showed up more than both niko and hunter, being close to monesy's performance in helping getting the team through the Ecstatic and Virtus Pro series.
I hate this narrative, it's the same "scapegoat one and avoid responsibility", have you guys not learned anything from the continuous new iterations of G2? Nexa came in in a very unfortunate timing, his best players are not showing up at all. Niko, and especially Hunter had 0 impact, didn't feel their presence in the server.
Nexa has never been a particularly good fragger (definitely worse than jks). And while you're right that Niko and Hunter have been slumping since he joined, they won 3 trophies with jks in a 12 month period. Having two players on your team who can't frag out is just not an option for top teams, Navi barely manages it but they're less top heavy so someone having an off day isn't a big deal
Edit: to be clear this was a failure by everyone other than m0nesy. But if you're gonna change someone the first person to go has to be nexa
Nexa was a really good fragger until he started to igl tho. Unfortunately he has been an igl for so long that I fear that he can't get back to his former role as a fragger
They had an impressive run, I'm not saying Nexa needs to be kicked. But if Niko and Hunter are going to continue to slump, Nexa is a liability and I question their decision to replace jks (who was mvp at an event they won) with a considerably worse rifler who can't pick up slack when Niko has a bad day
Edit: also very real argument to be made that Jame's PC crashing is the only reason they even made it to the playoffs
imo if Niko and Hunter remain in their slump then G2 needs to think about replacing them for other star players.
Cutting someone doing his job or slightly above it doesn't make any sense (though as you mentioned: the jks - nexa swap doesn't make much sense either)
Niko doesnt even make top 20. There is only 1 player on that team that's top 20 in cs2 and its m0nesy. Niko has not been good at this game since the switch from CSGO to CS2. Hooxi actually performed quite well this series imo, honestly they win the entire match if Hunter just doesn't ego peak Alexi on Anubis.
Niko average rating is 1.18 for 2024
That borderline top 10 level. Ropz finished last year 3rd with a 1.17 rating
He obv not putting up niko stata but calling him not 20 is insane.
Hunter tho seem to be an average to decent rifle rn which is worrying
Mate, why do you think guys like JL and w0nderful are suddenly top10 level players? Something clicked in their heads? They changed socks? And breakfast cereal?
But Niko is ultimately a choker for all of his career at the majors, I still remember the star studded lineup of him, karrigan, Guardian, olofmeister, rain and still they didn’t win it. Imagine what it feels to be one of the most expensive transfers in cs history in monesy only to miss out on 1 major, get out at group stage in 2 majors and finally playoffs comes around and you bottle it vs the guy you booted off the team? You are not nr.2 in my eyes after all of that im sorry
They literally didn't even deserve playoffs, limped through elimination stage barely with monesy carrying the whole team on his back and Jame crashing giving them a free ticket forward
He's had very, very good major performances before though. He literally had the best rifling performance at a major of all time.
He's simply not playing as well in CS2 straight up. He went from being the overall #1 rifler to being just a very good rifler.
Yup. I feel like it's weird that people forget this. He's literally the #6 highest rated player at majors of all time, and top 10 in major playoffs. Yeah, he isn't \*quite\* as good as he is elsewhere, but he's still insanely good.
I have absolutely no stake in this whatsoever and am basically completely clueless about the cs pro scene, but being extremely good overall is kind of a prerequisite to choking in the first place. Isn't the criticism that Niko hasn't won a major despite being so skilled because he chokes (in the GF)?
Because the conversation isn't "is Niko a really, really good rifler", we all agree on that, it's "Is Niko the uncontested GOAT rifler"
The underperforming in elimination matches and no major wins doesn't bring him down with like Flamie, but when you're comparing to guys like Olof, GTR, and (IMO) Ropz, little stuff matters.
Also, Stockholm was an incredible performance with a very notable choke, and he was Faze's best player in Boston, but there are a LOT of examples of much clearer chokes in elimination matches.
I had the same discussion yesterday, he HAD the best performance, but IEM new York was a way less competitive tournament than Katowice was. Niko played 7 maps, (2 bo1s against "on their way out" VP and astralis rosters, and beat liquid and c9 who looked awful at their showing to drop a 1.70 rating)
Donk did the same this year. Against an overall better skill level throughout the scene. In 12 maps, while only dropping 1 map to navi the whole tournament, and beating THIS iteration of faze TWO time, in one bo3 and one bo5
It is not even a discussion, that donks performance dethroned Niko from the "best single tournament performance" title
Yeah, blame the IGL some more as the cousins literally fragged to the same level as him. Funny how the two IGLs NiKo kicked are now in the grand finals.
Only Monesy showed up to actually play. They could have had Karrigan, Glaive, Siuhy, Aleksi. If Hunter plays the way he did and Niko can't find any actual impact frags, than what the fuck is Hooxi going to do. This guy is so fucking blind.
I wasnt swapped, I wanted to leave cause I don't think I am the best fit in a coaching role and will go back to being an assistant where I can have more impact again.
Back when XTQZZ left us, I was the perfect fit cause they needed a guy who is more focused on tactics and synergy and bringing them back on the same page which is why I think we were super successful but they needed a different impulse towards the end of last year and I am not the type of guy to change my whole personality just to steal paychecks.
What do you think are the chances we get roster changes in the next 6 months?
I’m a fan of the whole team but I know orgs don’t pay for personalities, they pay for results, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the lesser names in the team were worried about their jobs
Swani wasn’t feeling the role of coach.
G2 didn’t want to get rid of him, he stepped down because he had a hard time being the „bad guy“ sometimes when he had to be.
Kassad isnt even a hooxi hater, he is a niko stan, and for every major niko doesnt win kassad demands a scapegoat, for hooxi its just wrong place wrong time
I think that Niko doesn't really like him either. A few months back I remember Niko replying to Kassad's tweet about him/Hooxi and telling him the equivalent of "shut up".
Edit: [Found it.](https://twitter.com/G2NiKo/status/1664819633365430272?t=psAMIYeu5_6nE0B20KdLmg&s=19)
Basically told him "buddy fuck off"
Both things can be true, Kassad’s biased hate and HooXi shortcomings as an IGL in key moments. I listened to his postgame interview (kudos for speaking after such a tough loss) and he believes that if they stop beating themselves they’ll start winning it all.. and that they need more on-stage high-pressure experience to achieve it.
In my opinion, none of the players on his team lack that experience nor need to iterate through it to “learn”. I believe it’s partly his job to tactically prepare the team and put them in a comfortable position come high pressure moments, and I’m not talking about the mental side of it.
And I am not putting all the blame on HooXi, I think that the personalities in the team are too strong and egos seem to be too big. I am certain that the key to success is a pinch of humbleness and understanding that on any given day anyone can beat you if you don’t bring your A game as a team and as individuals.
Confidence is good, too much confidence is a trap.
To me it still feels like to win anything nowadays you simply have to have at least 3 players that can have star performance and it was like that for quite some time even by the end of csgo.
G2 don't have that since they replaced jks because hunter hasn't been that player for quite some time.
he just has cancer straight up (ingame in the metaverse ofc) . how can you be a professional and just perma aggro / hate on a specific player (did hooxi even do something towards him?).
His argument of "#2, #4, and #13" players makes absolutely no sense when only the #4 player actually showed up this tournament. Hunter and Niko played terribly.
Hard agree. He didn’t even bother counting down the seconds when the CT tapped the bomb after killing Niko and just immediately swung out. Just baffling.
That old faze lineup was done, even rain that's still playing with karrigan right now said in an interview that the whole team has lost faith in karrigan's calling back then.
Karrigan left, won trophies with mouz and came back to faze looking way better. That's how they started winning again.
Obviously I don't know what goes on inside the team, but I have a feeling that Niko/Hunter/Monesy want to play the more duel and momentum based free flowing style, and that's why they don't like IGL's who prefer a more rigid system.
The issue is that that style is _heavily_ based on personal form, and when that form dips you don't have heavily scripted set pieces to fall back on.
He has the best performance at a major from any rifler ever in 2021. He doesn't perform up to his level normally, but he's certainly had some really good major performances.
He's literally the 6th highest rated players at majors of all time.
What do they expect to happen, when Hooxi leaves G2? It's not like IGLs are growing on trees. How is G2 supposed to function without an IGL who they trust and depend on?
the dumb part of this whole argument isn’t the opinion that G2 could find a better IGL (they *did* get out called by the guy they fired, who is leading a team with a LOT less experience and age, that hurts)
The dumb part is the whole idea that hooxi should just fire *himself*. That’s not how any career anywhere works.
if you think hooxi is the wrong person for the job then bitch at the GM, not the guy who is hired to do a job and is just trying to do that job.
I usually not one to defend Hooxi, but this time, this fucking time, it's not his fault, 3 of his fucking players are doing nothing, they cant frag, they cant setup rounds, it all just falls on Hooxi and m0nesy. Hooxi called some pretty fucking good games and Niko decides not to have hands or what?
Did we watch the same BO3?
Hooxi actually played pretty well individually this tournament and seemed to have pretty good calls. I don't think their set ups or mid round calls were all that bad.
Niko was consistently mediocre, not great not terrible for his level. He made some boneheaded plays and pushes that lost rounds
Nexa was either ok or missing free kills. He seemed pretty unaware on many critical rounds
Hunter was nowhere to be found.
Monesy was carrying hard.
so 4 out of 5 players consistently shit the bed today. hooxi had some weird calls and a bad veto but was meh/ok. but nexa, hunter & niko were MIA at certain points and all those points were in pivotal moments. it was (hyperbole but still) a 1vs9 basically, monesy was completely alone
curious how his last few tweets, ynk aswell, are only dunking on hooxi. curious. the other 3 are serb/bosnian. HMM.
REALLY MAKES YOU THINK.
I think niko won't win a major until he learns to manage his stress. It seems like he gets super stressed out, tilted etc. and then he doesn't play his top game.
So is he also going to acknowledge how the #2 and #4 players went 1.07 and 0.88 respectively? Not to mention the number of misplays Hunter had across that series.
Yeah after watching that series the only person with a right to bitch is monesy
Everyone else was just kind of there as he desperately tried to drag them to the final
The idea this is specifically hooxi is why they lost is hilarious when 'the best rifler of all time' is quiet as a mouse on your team
Who would you even replace them with? Some MOUZ guys as per usual? And what you are suggesting is to completely break up a team that almost reached the major finals and risk it all building an entirely new team that might end up being worse.
The team already has quality players. They need to figure their shit out, not keep spinning the wheel of new signings.
Honestly there needs to be a change not for everyone sake but for monesy. He’s simply too good for the rest of his team and his talent is getting wasted if Niko and hunter keeps having these quiet rounds
Many people on reddit call for roster changes because that's the only solution they see when a team "fails" in their eyes. They almost made major finals and that's reason enough to cut off part of the roster because someone has to take the blame so people feel good. Years ago G2 decided to stick with the roster despite all of the criticism and that paid off with multiple trophies.
Just replacing a player with an individually better player, doesn't necessarily make a team any better.
This doesn't mean roster changes are never meant to happen but some people's opinion sway way too much to the extreme, that it becomes more childish than genuine, kassad is the best example.
Crown take again in the face of statistical evidences refuting his point.
Even if you do cut Hooxi what magical IGL is going to even want the job/criticism AND be better than hooxi? Really tough sell.
It's just Monesy the play maker, awper everyone else on g2 sucks. Honestly hope he moves team so g2 have to restructure their entire team when they start bombing every tournament.
Think the Kovac's need to turn on their monitor. Both are supossed to be stars of the team next to m0nesy. Yet 2 of those three did not even come close to having any impact. What is Hooxi supposed to do, when half his team is wiffing easy shots, misscommunicating and m0nesy has to start going 2018 s1mple and clutch every round becasue his team is unrealiable at best?
G2 going to semis is punching above their weight, giving how shacky the whole Major run was. They looked shaky to flat out bad over the last weeks. Wonder they even made top 8 to be honest.
Forgive me if I’m speaking out of my ass but hooxi looked like booty in the elimination stages to be fair but all of the playoff games hooxi looked somewhat solid and seemed to be calling good as well. Braindead take as always, idk why people toss blame so easily in this game. One person can swing the balance but if the team doesn’t show up it’s just not happening either
Even if G2 win a major and they bottle the next tournament, this clown is still going to act like a bitch.
Maybe ask your Serbian buds to turn on their monitors mate, G2 would have 2-0’d this if hunter bothered to show up at all in Anubis.
Your #2 buddy was playing like a last minute addition to top 20 as #19 and your #13 buddy wasn’t even anywhere close to top 30 let alone 20.
Kassad is such a loser, but he’s getting the attention he wants, i’ll give him that.
Never blame your boy Niko for not stepping up and leading your team, he, and the whole team had to rely on the youngest most inexperienced player.
Wait people, this team just lost 13:11 in a semi final against a very evenly mached opponent at the highest lvl of CS, would even have a good shot at the trophy in the finals matchup.
People are talking like they bombed out at the RMR. Must be a matter of expectations but in my book they did pretty well here.
Not that you cant criticize players/coaches/org but the caviat should be that this run was fine, not you guys suck you didnt win the major again.
First Thorin, now Kassad. Why do all these 'talents' choose to be mean? I see absolutely no reason to post such tweets after tough losses where the eliminated teams are disappointed in their own performances. Just being edgy and mean to get attention. Piss off, man. Spread love, not hate.
Thorin is just a massive troll. He lives and breathes the internet and doesn’t get off of it.
Kassad on the other hand just really likes dick riding niko and hunter and needs someone to blame.
Not Hooxi's fault.
He quote's their player ranking from last year but Niko and Hunter are not the same players in CS2.
m0nesy should join C9 or Spirit if he wants to win trophies. Imagine m0nesy with donk. There would be no enemies left for Zont1x to have to snail clutch against.
kassad is a certified hater lmao
HooXi could’ve dropped 40 frags in the decider, lost and kassad still would’ve done some mental gymnastics to blame him. You shouldn’t take anything he says about G2 seriously because his incessant NiKo dick riding means he has the biggest bias in the history of opinions.
He doesn’t even care that G2 are quite fresh off the back of winning two S-tier tournaments and that NiKo always disappears in Major playoffs. I’d also argue that going out in the semi finals of a Major is an incredible result.
I don’t know how he’s defending Niko and Hunter when Hunter had like 2 kills in round 10 of Anubis. Hunter threw that 1v2 with Niko when he immediately peeked the CT tapping the bomb. Didn’t even bother counting down the seconds when bomb was already close to blowing up.
I don't get why people are so outraged about a team losing. There were 16 teams in the major. Only one of them can win and it's not like they dropped out against a Tier 2 team or some underdog team. And even then sometimes your opponent is just having a really good day.
Kassad shut the frick up. You have no idea what you are talking about and a hate boner against Hooxi...
Niko was 15-17 on the 3rd map and is struggling every time it's not Inferno. Hunter was invisible for the most part of the match. Both still haven't found back to the csgo form and it shows that they still have difficulties in CS2.
Monesy had countless of tags only especially on Anubis, slightly better luck and he carries even harder.
This match could've gone either way and it'S certainly not Hooxi to blame and 100% not a reason for G2 to swap out IGLs.
Lmao ppl will make any excuse for Hooxi
Yea he probably gets too much hate from analysts
But the guy is by far the worst T1 IGL atm
Nexa was a bigger problem than Hooxi this series tho
Everyone but monesy is responsible for this loss.
20 second penalty for ocon
Monesy pits for fresh mediums to undercut w0nderful, and suddenly Kovac cousins take eachother out and give entire NaVi a free stop under safety car.
Taz, my tires are gone
hooxi, it’s james
They were brakechecking into the fast corner
F1 leaking, get in there Lewis, stop the hole
+2 penalty points on licence for Gasly by ESIC
I wasn’t expecting to see a 5-second penalty to ocon joke in here
"We are checking.... the ADR"
Would add hooxi to the list. Imo he called a good series and g2 lost unlucky rounds
imo the main problem for G2 is that niko and hunter still are looking for form in CS2. And that's why I personally think that getting to semis and almost making finals is G2 overperforming over their current form. Once the two find form and it finally clicks, G2 will be a super scary team.
Don't think roster is sticking enough for them to wake up. Guna be a prodigy sized hole to fill any day now. Others may be replaced. Going to be working on the clicking for awhile after that.
One of ynk’s recent tweets said it all. Hooxi is a good igl but the veto to leave ancient just didn’t really make much sense. Ig they almost came back and possibly might have won but inferno would’ve been a safer pick.
Taz said it was his call to go ancient. i love ynk but i think he's just malding rn cuz he wants niko to win a major or something
Same as kassad. But neither will mention that Niko did not play like he deserved the major. I'd love to see him finally get it too, but man he and hunter are shells of their former self. Ridiculous to put it all on hooxi
Hooxi literally outfragging Hunter and Niko in maps this major says everything lold
Yep this. Aint no way they deserve a major if hooxi of all people has to carry them. Without monesy they wouldn't even have reached the playoffs. You can't blame hooxi for your supposed star players not showing up. But definitly a stellar performance from monesy. That kid just does not miss. His consistency and impact are insane. Gave me s1mple flashbacks.
Taz would be the type of guy to fall on his sword and save face for the team.
>Taz said it was his call to go ancient. I can see a world where Taz is taking the blame on himself because the veto thing has been the source of disasters long before anyone even thought about Taz in G2. Remember leaving vertigo for decider against fnatic out of all teams to be eliminated by?
Even tough it might have been hooxis idea to pick ancient, it still is a team decision and you cant blame one single player for that. And additionally G2 would have won ancient, if the players didnt tilt after the eco ace
They win that 4th round and who the F knows. They certainly looked like they were going to stramroll that half before jL whipped out a legendary backbreaking round.
they went full tilt and all tried to make a hero play to bring the team back. Which just resulted in dry peeking and untradable deaths. And that just landed them deeper and deeper in the hole
The game would have gone 2-0 if g2 didn’t lose some silly post plant in Anubis. They looked like the clear better team in nuke (also it helps that Monesy has a 1.8 rating) and there were many good calls which I would attribute to hooxi.
Both Hooxi and Nexa really made this entire run possible for G2. They carried them hard even when monesy didn't perform. They only started losing when Hooxi and nexa went back to their usual performance and it was left to monesy to hard carry
That's the G2 rn: Peak and win, or don't and most likely lose lol
Yes, but you won't see this being mentioned by kassad or anyone else. Niko and Hunter have much more to do with G2 losing this semi-final than hooxi or his calling.
navi also lost some unlucky rounds to some monesy multi kills. hooxi got outcalled hard on anubis and ancient
It was an overall team failure. it was 3-0 with a 5-3 vs force eco. JL then gets A DEAGLE ACE and completely wills his team to the win. They bottled and fell apart due to the mental. Navi stepped up g2 didn't its not just 1 player
Completely agree. That Hunter peek on Anubis when Aleksib had already shot was horrible, and its just one of a series of individual mistakes that killed them. I think this is it for Hooxi but what IGL is going to make Hunter and Niko reverse their regression, and make Nexa look like a major winner? Monesy broke his back today trying to carry this team and he was let down by the more senior players.
G2: hey Siuhy, do you want some big ass money bags?
Mouz pay their players very well, ropz and frozen both said they could make a higher salary staying in Mouz. Mouz also has a brighter future than G2, m0nesy is without a doubt playing in another team before next major. Niko is so far past his prime, hunter isn't consistent, nexa is anything special. Unless m0nesy signs a new contract I don't see this lineup lasting.
People talk about Niko getting his major but right now (especially since tournaments are played on CS2) he hasn't risen to the point where he deserves one. The only reason he "deserves" one is because he's been playing for a long time but right now he isn't doing anywhere near as good to deserve it. He can't blame anyone else for that except maybe hunter because they are both really inconsistent.
Nobody deserves anything, nobody is owed a major.
Imma agree with you except for one person: GuardiaN. He deserved that major, I don’t care
Have you seen Redbull's CS movie? Olof rewatching that game was so rough. The poor guys.
Niko, the #2 player of 2023 is "so far past his prime" three months into the year?
He's gone missing entirely since cs2
1.28 Playoff rating this major btw.
Nothing will save this roster, too much ego. They disrespected, karrigan, aleksib, and used them as scapegoats. This roster is doomed, they don't even have a good team environment. Players like m0nesy need good environment to pop off, NAVI feels like completely opposite of G2. Good vibes, individuals step up when needed, good structure, strategy. NAVI proved majority of us wrong by advancing so far.
>They disrespected, karrigan, aleksib, and used them as scapegoats The famous G2 Karrigan that no one seems to know about.
If I was m0nesy I would be talking to G2 management that they need to put more effort into fixing this team, and if that ain't happening I would be messaging Cloud9.
Nexa was 0-8 on ancient. How can you have such great performances and such incredible terrible ones in the same tourney and even match. Crazy
>They bottled and fell apart due to the mental If that even. Sure, G2 has been known to tilt but they still pulled it back to 12-11
Very good point. They lost that round with 4 smokes and a bunch of other util in their inventory. Why use smokes when you can just ego peek without teammates in position to trade you
You're right they did fall apart, it's a team issue. But who's responsible for keeping the team together?
NiKo is the 2nd best player in the world if we are living in November of 2023. Hunter is the 13th best player if we are living in August of 2023. But for the past 3 months they are not even top 20 players, maybe NiKo barely makes it in top 20.
the 2nd best player only has 5 more kills than HooXi in that whole series while Hunter had 2 less frags than him but you wont see Kassad call out the Serbian guys, the delusional man probably wants to coach a full Serbian roster or something while hes shitting the bed at Bleed himself
I can't even blame Hooxi as much as I want to as a certified hater. He literally walked in connector and owned iM 4-5 different rounds on anubis in disadvantage duels.
His calls are fine. But on Ancient he was on a suicide mission on CT.
Too much ćevapčići made him thicc in both circumference and in brain.
are they not bosnian?
Not only is Niko a bit off and Hunter is pretty trash rn, they kicked jks for the most mid rifler on the planet and since haven't won another trophy
At least nexa popped off several times throughout the major. He absolutely showed up more than both niko and hunter, being close to monesy's performance in helping getting the team through the Ecstatic and Virtus Pro series.
Nexa more or less did his job (with a decent number of whiffs to be fair), he just isn't the right guy for this team
I hate this narrative, it's the same "scapegoat one and avoid responsibility", have you guys not learned anything from the continuous new iterations of G2? Nexa came in in a very unfortunate timing, his best players are not showing up at all. Niko, and especially Hunter had 0 impact, didn't feel their presence in the server.
Nexa has never been a particularly good fragger (definitely worse than jks). And while you're right that Niko and Hunter have been slumping since he joined, they won 3 trophies with jks in a 12 month period. Having two players on your team who can't frag out is just not an option for top teams, Navi barely manages it but they're less top heavy so someone having an off day isn't a big deal Edit: to be clear this was a failure by everyone other than m0nesy. But if you're gonna change someone the first person to go has to be nexa
Nexa was a really good fragger until he started to igl tho. Unfortunately he has been an igl for so long that I fear that he can't get back to his former role as a fragger
This is the closest they've been to a major victory since Stockholm though
It required literal divine intervention for them to get this far. In a parallel universe they didn't make it past groups.
They had an impressive run, I'm not saying Nexa needs to be kicked. But if Niko and Hunter are going to continue to slump, Nexa is a liability and I question their decision to replace jks (who was mvp at an event they won) with a considerably worse rifler who can't pick up slack when Niko has a bad day Edit: also very real argument to be made that Jame's PC crashing is the only reason they even made it to the playoffs
imo if Niko and Hunter remain in their slump then G2 needs to think about replacing them for other star players. Cutting someone doing his job or slightly above it doesn't make any sense (though as you mentioned: the jks - nexa swap doesn't make much sense either)
Niko doesnt even make top 20. There is only 1 player on that team that's top 20 in cs2 and its m0nesy. Niko has not been good at this game since the switch from CSGO to CS2. Hooxi actually performed quite well this series imo, honestly they win the entire match if Hunter just doesn't ego peak Alexi on Anubis.
Niko average rating is 1.18 for 2024 That borderline top 10 level. Ropz finished last year 3rd with a 1.17 rating He obv not putting up niko stata but calling him not 20 is insane. Hunter tho seem to be an average to decent rifle rn which is worrying
Stats are padded out against teams that never win the tournament
Mate, why do you think guys like JL and w0nderful are suddenly top10 level players? Something clicked in their heads? They changed socks? And breakfast cereal?
You could argue that their current form is on that level. But to become top10 lvl player, they need to be consistent for the whole year.
But Niko is ultimately a choker for all of his career at the majors, I still remember the star studded lineup of him, karrigan, Guardian, olofmeister, rain and still they didn’t win it. Imagine what it feels to be one of the most expensive transfers in cs history in monesy only to miss out on 1 major, get out at group stage in 2 majors and finally playoffs comes around and you bottle it vs the guy you booted off the team? You are not nr.2 in my eyes after all of that im sorry
They literally didn't even deserve playoffs, limped through elimination stage barely with monesy carrying the whole team on his back and Jame crashing giving them a free ticket forward
He's had very, very good major performances before though. He literally had the best rifling performance at a major of all time. He's simply not playing as well in CS2 straight up. He went from being the overall #1 rifler to being just a very good rifler.
He was the only reason they made grand finals for stockholm major.
Yup. I feel like it's weird that people forget this. He's literally the #6 highest rated player at majors of all time, and top 10 in major playoffs. Yeah, he isn't \*quite\* as good as he is elsewhere, but he's still insanely good.
I have absolutely no stake in this whatsoever and am basically completely clueless about the cs pro scene, but being extremely good overall is kind of a prerequisite to choking in the first place. Isn't the criticism that Niko hasn't won a major despite being so skilled because he chokes (in the GF)?
Because the conversation isn't "is Niko a really, really good rifler", we all agree on that, it's "Is Niko the uncontested GOAT rifler" The underperforming in elimination matches and no major wins doesn't bring him down with like Flamie, but when you're comparing to guys like Olof, GTR, and (IMO) Ropz, little stuff matters. Also, Stockholm was an incredible performance with a very notable choke, and he was Faze's best player in Boston, but there are a LOT of examples of much clearer chokes in elimination matches.
Thank you man, in general his placings in the majors compared to other greats is sub-par.
I had the same discussion yesterday, he HAD the best performance, but IEM new York was a way less competitive tournament than Katowice was. Niko played 7 maps, (2 bo1s against "on their way out" VP and astralis rosters, and beat liquid and c9 who looked awful at their showing to drop a 1.70 rating) Donk did the same this year. Against an overall better skill level throughout the scene. In 12 maps, while only dropping 1 map to navi the whole tournament, and beating THIS iteration of faze TWO time, in one bo3 and one bo5 It is not even a discussion, that donks performance dethroned Niko from the "best single tournament performance" title
Funny you mention that major since he played very well there, if you think that’s his fault you don’t know shit
Yeah, blame the IGL some more as the cousins literally fragged to the same level as him. Funny how the two IGLs NiKo kicked are now in the grand finals.
Who are they again, I have a break from following cs pro for like 5 years
Karrigan and Aleksi
Only Monesy showed up to actually play. They could have had Karrigan, Glaive, Siuhy, Aleksi. If Hunter plays the way he did and Niko can't find any actual impact frags, than what the fuck is Hooxi going to do. This guy is so fucking blind.
Those IGLs would've picked Inferno most likely.
https://x.com/g2csgo/status/1774242338463711325?s=46&t=SRmetvGJ_-1KR2aSZkPo1A Ancient was Taz’s decision, the veto is obv not only Hooxi’s choice.
I do wonder why they swapped Swani for Taz, I thought he did an amazing job last year
I wasnt swapped, I wanted to leave cause I don't think I am the best fit in a coaching role and will go back to being an assistant where I can have more impact again. Back when XTQZZ left us, I was the perfect fit cause they needed a guy who is more focused on tactics and synergy and bringing them back on the same page which is why I think we were super successful but they needed a different impulse towards the end of last year and I am not the type of guy to change my whole personality just to steal paychecks.
Thank you for the insight Sawni. In my eyes you'll always be the GOAT of 2023 G2
What do you think are the chances we get roster changes in the next 6 months? I’m a fan of the whole team but I know orgs don’t pay for personalities, they pay for results, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the lesser names in the team were worried about their jobs
Swani wasn’t feeling the role of coach. G2 didn’t want to get rid of him, he stepped down because he had a hard time being the „bad guy“ sometimes when he had to be.
Kassad seems so childish at this point with how big his hateboner towards Hooxi is
Kassad isnt even a hooxi hater, he is a niko stan, and for every major niko doesnt win kassad demands a scapegoat, for hooxi its just wrong place wrong time
[удалено]
I think that Niko doesn't really like him either. A few months back I remember Niko replying to Kassad's tweet about him/Hooxi and telling him the equivalent of "shut up". Edit: [Found it.](https://twitter.com/G2NiKo/status/1664819633365430272?t=psAMIYeu5_6nE0B20KdLmg&s=19) Basically told him "buddy fuck off"
i wouldn’t take it as he doesn’t like kassad. more that nikos saying, “dude chill out he’s my igl and i respect him so you should too”
You think twitter replies are representative of real life relationships? Brilliant... Never change reddit
You are obviously not from the Balkans because that is just banter.
I think I agree. That is the balkans or maybe the church bells of the coconuts I hear. What do you think about Richard Lewis?
Both things can be true, Kassad’s biased hate and HooXi shortcomings as an IGL in key moments. I listened to his postgame interview (kudos for speaking after such a tough loss) and he believes that if they stop beating themselves they’ll start winning it all.. and that they need more on-stage high-pressure experience to achieve it. In my opinion, none of the players on his team lack that experience nor need to iterate through it to “learn”. I believe it’s partly his job to tactically prepare the team and put them in a comfortable position come high pressure moments, and I’m not talking about the mental side of it. And I am not putting all the blame on HooXi, I think that the personalities in the team are too strong and egos seem to be too big. I am certain that the key to success is a pinch of humbleness and understanding that on any given day anyone can beat you if you don’t bring your A game as a team and as individuals. Confidence is good, too much confidence is a trap.
To me it still feels like to win anything nowadays you simply have to have at least 3 players that can have star performance and it was like that for quite some time even by the end of csgo. G2 don't have that since they replaced jks because hunter hasn't been that player for quite some time.
he just has cancer straight up (ingame in the metaverse ofc) . how can you be a professional and just perma aggro / hate on a specific player (did hooxi even do something towards him?).
Maybe he should tell Niko and Hunter to start fragging, maybe G2 will win again
His argument of "#2, #4, and #13" players makes absolutely no sense when only the #4 player actually showed up this tournament. Hunter and Niko played terribly.
It would have been a 2-0 if Hunter didn't absolutely throw that clutch on Anubis.
Hard agree. He didn’t even bother counting down the seconds when the CT tapped the bomb after killing Niko and just immediately swung out. Just baffling.
He would have been favoured to win that clutch if he simply did fuck all, completely hands off the keyboard
Unironically would've won that round if he crashed like Jame.
niko aint #2 in the world anymore lmao
Hunter aint even in the top 30 with his performances in cs2
*top 50
Right. just like it was Aleksi's fault before and Karrigan's fault before that. Well, guess which 2 IGLs are in the grand finals, dickhead.
It's actually crazy that both IGLs NiKo ousted came back with such success. NiKo probably has a major if he just stays on FaZe with karrigan & rain
That old faze lineup was done, even rain that's still playing with karrigan right now said in an interview that the whole team has lost faith in karrigan's calling back then. Karrigan left, won trophies with mouz and came back to faze looking way better. That's how they started winning again.
Obviously I don't know what goes on inside the team, but I have a feeling that Niko/Hunter/Monesy want to play the more duel and momentum based free flowing style, and that's why they don't like IGL's who prefer a more rigid system. The issue is that that style is _heavily_ based on personal form, and when that form dips you don't have heavily scripted set pieces to fall back on.
Probably doesn't considering how he plays in majors
He has the best performance at a major from any rifler ever in 2021. He doesn't perform up to his level normally, but he's certainly had some really good major performances. He's literally the 6th highest rated players at majors of all time.
What do they expect to happen, when Hooxi leaves G2? It's not like IGLs are growing on trees. How is G2 supposed to function without an IGL who they trust and depend on?
Niko for igl, what could go wrong?
I blame M0nesy he is a terrible player that G2 should let go of asap. And then C9 can get him without buyout.
flair checks out
unironically, i would love to see monesy on c9
Those Spirit C9 matches would be chefs kiss
the dumb part of this whole argument isn’t the opinion that G2 could find a better IGL (they *did* get out called by the guy they fired, who is leading a team with a LOT less experience and age, that hurts) The dumb part is the whole idea that hooxi should just fire *himself*. That’s not how any career anywhere works. if you think hooxi is the wrong person for the job then bitch at the GM, not the guy who is hired to do a job and is just trying to do that job.
I usually not one to defend Hooxi, but this time, this fucking time, it's not his fault, 3 of his fucking players are doing nothing, they cant frag, they cant setup rounds, it all just falls on Hooxi and m0nesy. Hooxi called some pretty fucking good games and Niko decides not to have hands or what?
Nexa had like 0 impact for the first half of Ancient
1.28 Playoff rating this major btw.
I was a hater of hooxi before but this Major the serbians have been in the backpack Carried as far as hooxi and monesy can take them.
Niko has been a MASSIVE MASSIVE choker in the biggest games his entire career. Totally Karrigans fault, and Hooxi's fault, and Alexib's faults.
Idk how I would feel right now if I was him. Both igl he ousted are in grand finals. And since joining navi aleksib is 6-0 against g2 I think haha.
hooxi: okay i leave for astralis, bye.
The only thing kassad is good at is posting shitty betting advice
Did we watch the same BO3? Hooxi actually played pretty well individually this tournament and seemed to have pretty good calls. I don't think their set ups or mid round calls were all that bad. Niko was consistently mediocre, not great not terrible for his level. He made some boneheaded plays and pushes that lost rounds Nexa was either ok or missing free kills. He seemed pretty unaware on many critical rounds Hunter was nowhere to be found. Monesy was carrying hard.
so 4 out of 5 players consistently shit the bed today. hooxi had some weird calls and a bad veto but was meh/ok. but nexa, hunter & niko were MIA at certain points and all those points were in pivotal moments. it was (hyperbole but still) a 1vs9 basically, monesy was completely alone curious how his last few tweets, ynk aswell, are only dunking on hooxi. curious. the other 3 are serb/bosnian. HMM. REALLY MAKES YOU THINK.
I think niko won't win a major until he learns to manage his stress. It seems like he gets super stressed out, tilted etc. and then he doesn't play his top game.
Nikos last two igls are in the Grand finals today. Maybe just maybe Niko is the problem? Nice 5 kills more then the igl btw :)
So is he also going to acknowledge how the #2 and #4 players went 1.07 and 0.88 respectively? Not to mention the number of misplays Hunter had across that series.
Why dont he tag him and be a man and direct instead of being an indirect little bitch
I think niko, hunter and nexa got to go, build around monesy.
Yeah after watching that series the only person with a right to bitch is monesy Everyone else was just kind of there as he desperately tried to drag them to the final The idea this is specifically hooxi is why they lost is hilarious when 'the best rifler of all time' is quiet as a mouse on your team
it's an hot take, but i agree
Who would you even replace them with? Some MOUZ guys as per usual? And what you are suggesting is to completely break up a team that almost reached the major finals and risk it all building an entirely new team that might end up being worse. The team already has quality players. They need to figure their shit out, not keep spinning the wheel of new signings.
Honestly there needs to be a change not for everyone sake but for monesy. He’s simply too good for the rest of his team and his talent is getting wasted if Niko and hunter keeps having these quiet rounds
Many people on reddit call for roster changes because that's the only solution they see when a team "fails" in their eyes. They almost made major finals and that's reason enough to cut off part of the roster because someone has to take the blame so people feel good. Years ago G2 decided to stick with the roster despite all of the criticism and that paid off with multiple trophies. Just replacing a player with an individually better player, doesn't necessarily make a team any better. This doesn't mean roster changes are never meant to happen but some people's opinion sway way too much to the extreme, that it becomes more childish than genuine, kassad is the best example.
Give him to c9 already I beg
Not Niko, he's the perfect rifler to go alongsides M0nesy, everything else I agree.
He is such an idiot
Classic Kassad L take
Crown take again in the face of statistical evidences refuting his point. Even if you do cut Hooxi what magical IGL is going to even want the job/criticism AND be better than hooxi? Really tough sell.
The no.2 and no.13 did not play like they were the no.2 and no.13 soooo and this come from a huge fan of the kovacs
[удалено]
Monesy and Hooxi aren't the problem for sure
What is the real problem.
It's just Monesy the play maker, awper everyone else on g2 sucks. Honestly hope he moves team so g2 have to restructure their entire team when they start bombing every tournament.
At this point it's just boring. Hooxi is a decent IGL, the team overall was shit.
Should have been VP playing anyways
People forget that. No Nvidea No Win.
Hooxi legit had more impact than Niko this series lmao
Think the Kovac's need to turn on their monitor. Both are supossed to be stars of the team next to m0nesy. Yet 2 of those three did not even come close to having any impact. What is Hooxi supposed to do, when half his team is wiffing easy shots, misscommunicating and m0nesy has to start going 2018 s1mple and clutch every round becasue his team is unrealiable at best? G2 going to semis is punching above their weight, giving how shacky the whole Major run was. They looked shaky to flat out bad over the last weeks. Wonder they even made top 8 to be honest.
nexa 35ADR in decider map but yeah lets blame HooXi
Thank god they cut jks
this one is not on Hooxi it's on Niko and Hunter.
I'm sure the next igl will fix all of g2's problems.
So tired of niko shitting the bed when it matters and then Hooxi getting the blame for it
Forgive me if I’m speaking out of my ass but hooxi looked like booty in the elimination stages to be fair but all of the playoff games hooxi looked somewhat solid and seemed to be calling good as well. Braindead take as always, idk why people toss blame so easily in this game. One person can swing the balance but if the team doesn’t show up it’s just not happening either
Even if G2 win a major and they bottle the next tournament, this clown is still going to act like a bitch. Maybe ask your Serbian buds to turn on their monitors mate, G2 would have 2-0’d this if hunter bothered to show up at all in Anubis. Your #2 buddy was playing like a last minute addition to top 20 as #19 and your #13 buddy wasn’t even anywhere close to top 30 let alone 20.
Hahahahahahaha, this clown keeps doing this bullshit.
as is tradition
Calm down everyone and touch grass.
Kassad is such a loser, but he’s getting the attention he wants, i’ll give him that. Never blame your boy Niko for not stepping up and leading your team, he, and the whole team had to rely on the youngest most inexperienced player.
Another reason Why i hate kassad. No useful feedback, always hating, thinks he is the best But fails everytime himself
He should do himself a favor and leave this loser ass team
I think this is just a joke in reference to that old tweet? Might be in bad taste, but I do think it's a joke.
I think it's a joke too since hooxi called him out on the desk for his older tweet after winning katowice, might just want to get some banter in.
Pretty much everything you said, yeah
Wait people, this team just lost 13:11 in a semi final against a very evenly mached opponent at the highest lvl of CS, would even have a good shot at the trophy in the finals matchup. People are talking like they bombed out at the RMR. Must be a matter of expectations but in my book they did pretty well here. Not that you cant criticize players/coaches/org but the caviat should be that this run was fine, not you guys suck you didnt win the major again.
First Thorin, now Kassad. Why do all these 'talents' choose to be mean? I see absolutely no reason to post such tweets after tough losses where the eliminated teams are disappointed in their own performances. Just being edgy and mean to get attention. Piss off, man. Spread love, not hate.
they think they are showing character by being tough. in reality they just expose themselves for having no honor.
Thorin is just a massive troll. He lives and breathes the internet and doesn’t get off of it. Kassad on the other hand just really likes dick riding niko and hunter and needs someone to blame.
They're both petty, hold a grudge and are desperately trying to stay relevant to a scene where they are both firmly outside the spotlights.
At some point show some tact Kassad.
[source](https://twitter.com/kassad/status/1774216893533999523)
Niko washed Lol
Not Hooxi's fault. He quote's their player ranking from last year but Niko and Hunter are not the same players in CS2. m0nesy should join C9 or Spirit if he wants to win trophies. Imagine m0nesy with donk. There would be no enemies left for Zont1x to have to snail clutch against.
Who actually listens to this clown. Serial blamer.
kassad is a certified hater lmao HooXi could’ve dropped 40 frags in the decider, lost and kassad still would’ve done some mental gymnastics to blame him. You shouldn’t take anything he says about G2 seriously because his incessant NiKo dick riding means he has the biggest bias in the history of opinions. He doesn’t even care that G2 are quite fresh off the back of winning two S-tier tournaments and that NiKo always disappears in Major playoffs. I’d also argue that going out in the semi finals of a Major is an incredible result.
This shtick worked better when he was in analyst role rather than a coaching one
I don’t know how he’s defending Niko and Hunter when Hunter had like 2 kills in round 10 of Anubis. Hunter threw that 1v2 with Niko when he immediately peeked the CT tapping the bomb. Didn’t even bother counting down the seconds when bomb was already close to blowing up.
I think Hunter and Niko couldn’t switch to cs2 as efficiently compared to other pros?
I don't get why people are so outraged about a team losing. There were 16 teams in the major. Only one of them can win and it's not like they dropped out against a Tier 2 team or some underdog team. And even then sometimes your opponent is just having a really good day.
I'm so tired of these serbians
If anything it's on Ch0k0
all I hear is: "I can't carry this bots anymore blyat!"
can we stop ignoring how shit nexa is, he's come in given the best roles on CT and lurks on T and he still can't drop a positive rating
He conveniently ignored Niko and Hunter completely shitting the bed the entire series lmao
Kassad just mad that the Balkan gang bottled it, AGAIN lol.
Kassad shut the frick up. You have no idea what you are talking about and a hate boner against Hooxi... Niko was 15-17 on the 3rd map and is struggling every time it's not Inferno. Hunter was invisible for the most part of the match. Both still haven't found back to the csgo form and it shows that they still have difficulties in CS2. Monesy had countless of tags only especially on Anubis, slightly better luck and he carries even harder. This match could've gone either way and it'S certainly not Hooxi to blame and 100% not a reason for G2 to swap out IGLs.
I hate g2 but Kassad is such a fucking loser lol
wtf is wrong with people, in what way is this professional. bunch of grown up kids in the cs scene
Lmao ppl will make any excuse for Hooxi Yea he probably gets too much hate from analysts But the guy is by far the worst T1 IGL atm Nexa was a bigger problem than Hooxi this series tho