Ex6TenZ: "I would like for us to be at our best after one year or more"

The new G2 are still alive in London after eliminating Luminosity at the ECS Season 5 Finals. We managed to ask their new captain Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans about the challenge of leading the team after being inactive since February.

The 28-year-old Belgian is back in G2, forming the new lineup alongside Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon, Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro, Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub and former coach Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux.

The squad entered the ECS Finals in London after a long period of speculation about who shox would be playing with as he returned from inactivity after wrist surgery.

They lost their initial matchup in groups against NRG but managed to 2-0 the Brazilians in Luminosity. Next up, G2 will meet FaZe in a battle to reach the playoffs.

The French team has confirmed that Ex6TenZ, who is currently listed as a standin, will continue as the team's captain after the tournament until a 'final decision is made'. We sat down with the 28-year-old and quizzed him about the new lineup:

So, you're a new team now and you obviously have two players, yourself included, that don't have recent experience. What were your own expectations going into this event?

We're trying to do our best, we had like no preparation with only ten days of practice. We knew it was gonna be a very big challenge, so yeah, we're going to try out best. Afterwards, we're gonna watch all the games and treat them as reference games.

How long do you think it will take before you reach your potential, before you stop being rusty?

Usually, it's like three to five months. I expect this team to keep improving in the long term. Usually, in French teams, we reach our peak at like five months. I would like us to be at our best after one year or maybe even longer than that.

So, you and SmithZz don't have that much experience from the last months. Do you think that it will be hard to come back after not playing for a while?

Yeah, it will be hard in the beginning. I think it will be harder for SmithZz because he didn't play for like a whole year. For me, it was around 5 months. So yes, it's gonna be hard at first, we will need at least 1 month before we're back [individually].

So, you've been named captain for this event at least. Did you expect to come back as captain or just as a player?

Usually I'm the captain, and I've always had that role. So it's an obligation, it's my role, so it would be very difficult to change that.

I'm asking because looking from the outside, the in game leader for this team might as well have been shox. Why didn't you guys go for shox for the role?

Firstly, it was his own choice. And he preferred it to be me. He wanted to come back as a player because of his two years of experience in that role. He came to the conclusion that I would do a better job in the long term.