G2 Hel 2024 season review ft. team manager KNOK1
How did Europe's most popular female LoL team perform in 2024?
G2 Hel, the female League of Legends team of G2 Esports, recently concluded its competitive season. Throughout 2024, G2 Hel competed in 5 events: 3 in the European female/non-binary scene, and 2 in the European Regional Leagues. This article will go over each of these events and G2 Hel’s results in them.
G2 Hel team manager Žygimantas “KNOK1” Kriščiūnas will be answering questions about each event.
Northern LoL Championship Division 2:
Going into 2024, G2 Hel were not expected to compete in the NLC Division 2. But when a spot opened up at the last moment, the tournament organizers decided to fill it though an application process. G2 Hel applied and was chosen, becoming one of the 10 teams to compete in the 2024 Spring Split.
G2 Hel started off with a lengthy loss streak. They broke it after 11 games, scoring a win over KAOS e-sport. G2 Hel would eventually manage one more win, finishing the split in 10th place with a 2-16 record.
A bottom 2 placement meant G2 Hel would need to defend its Division 2 spot by participating in the Regional Promotion Series. Starting off in the quarterfinal, G2 Hel were defeated 2-0 by Norwegian team Lazy in Life, being relegated out of the NLC Division 2. Out of the 5 national leagues below the NLC, G2 Hel chose the Swedish league to be relegated to.
G2 Hel made history by becoming the first-ever female team to compete in the 2nd division of a European Regional League. Do you believe that this will have a major positive long-term effect for women in LoL esports?
KNOK1: “One can only hope that we inspired other teams to compete against tougher competition. I can't tell what influence will it have for women LoL esports, but I can confidently say that our team has improved a lot if not the most in an entire year by playing in NLC 2. Thanks to the league ops for the opportunity and the teams challenging us!”
Storm Takeover:
Storm Takeover was a female tournament covering the France + Benelux regions. G2 Hel was one of 5 teams directly invited, while 3 more made it through the qualifier.
G2 Hel started the group stage with a defeat to Team GO Aurora, but recovered with victories over the Team BDS Valkyries and Team Paradox, finishing 2nd and qualifying for the lower bracket of the playoffs. In the playoffs, G2 Hel first scored a 2-0 win over NORD Polaris. Then, in the lower bracket final, they defeated the Team Vitality Rising Bees with a score of 3-1, progressing to the grand final. In a rematch of the opening match, G2 Hel got a 3-1 victory over Team GO Aurora, becoming the Storm Takeover champions.
G2 Hel was in excellent form in June, smashing both the 1st Coupe des Étoiles qualifier and the Storm Takeover playoffs in consecutive weekends. Did you notice anything particularly different about the team during that time?
KNOK1: “To be fair, nothing extraordinary. We take each tournament and each official game day more or less equally.”
Equal Esports Cup:
The Equal Esports Cup is the official European tournament for female & non-binary players. After finishing 4th the previous year, G2 Hel was one of 8 teams that received a direct invite for this year’s League Phase, while 2 more would join through a qualifier.
Hovering around the top spots throughout the League Phase, G2 Hel eventually finished 2nd with a 6-3 record, qualifying to the LAN semifinal in Cologne. Falling behind against Team GO Aurora, G2 Hel reverse-swept and won 2-1, qualifying to the final vs NNOwO. There it was G2 Hel that got reverse-swept, finishing in 2nd place as NNOwO lifted the trophy.
Despite having the biggest budget in the scene and winning both other events, G2 Hel was not able to lift the Equal Esports Cup trophy. What do you believe are the causes behind this result?
KNOK1: “Opponent was better on the day.”
Coupe des Étoiles:
The Coupe des Étoiles is the official French female tournament. Teams competde in 4 qualifiers to gather points based on placement, with the top 8 teams overall progressing to the main event.
G2 Hel smashed Qualifier #1 with a perfect 8-0 record, getting 1st place. After skipping the Qualifier #2, they were defeated 2-1 by Solary in the final of Qualifier #3, getting 2nd place. Finally, a 2-1 victory over the Team BDS Valkyries in the final of Qualifier #4 put G2 Hel on top of the qualification leaderboard.
In the main event, G2 Hel started with a 2-0 win over NORD Polaris in the quarterfinals. They followed up with another 2-0 win, this time over Team GO Aurora in the semifinals, therefore qualifying to the LAN final in Paris. There they fell behind vs the Team BDS Valkyries, but managed a reverse sweep, winning 2-1 and lifting the trophy.
How was the atmosphere inside the team right before the reverse sweep in the Coupe des Étoiles LAN final?
KNOK1: “We came into the series knowing that they will cook something we can't expect in draft. Sadly, many teams in the scene not only avoid to compete in other leagues, hence has very little games streamed that could be analyzed, but on top some players hide their soloQ accounts. So, in some cases we're entering series with little to none knowledge. That being said, not a single player felt defeated after game 1 and we bounced back with calmness and confidence in ourselves and each other.”
Svenska Onlineligan Division 1:
G2 Hel started their with a 2-0 defeat to Team CD. They then had to forfeit their 2nd match, vs INT Esports, and it was scheduled for the same day as the Equal Esports Cup LAN final.
G2 Hel proceeded with 8 more consecutive defeats, some of them with coach Emtest subbing in for botlaner Caltys due to Caltys being ill. The loss-stream was broken with a 2-0 victory over Bardicted to U. In the next match, Caltys returned to the starting lineup and G2 Hel scored another win as their match vs Asini finished 1-1. Losing the remaining few games, G2 Hel’s final record was 3-15, finishing in 10th (last) place.
Finishing in the bottom 3 meant that G2 Hel would once again have to defe. They started the promotion-relegation tournament with a 2-0 defeat to Division 2 team Silencio Esports, falling to the lower bracket. There, they were defeated 2-1 by Division 1 team Team CD, getting relegated to Division 2.
What were G2 Hel’s internal expectations coming into the Svenska Onlineligan Division 1?
KNOK1: “Even when discussing this opportunity, we've set an expectation that our main priority here is to improve as individuals and as a team, which we have achieved, hence once more, thanks to the SOL1 league ops and teams that have taught us valuable lessons.”
Stay tuned for news on G2 Hel for 2025!