Stat check: G2 throws roles out the window

Snax and malbsMd arrive to a team full of talent, but even more full of position overlaps.

G2 are an organization that need trophies. In Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, they have either the best player in the world or top three, depending on who you ask. Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač is a legacy rifler, and was a top two player just one year ago.

The manner of G2's win at IEM Dallas, their first title for nine months, was always going to have consequences. First, they proved they could win without Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen. Secondly, Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip's maniacal aggression helped unlock G2's other riflers.

It's not hard to see them celebrating that night, just wondering how good they could be if they could get someone who was as aggressive as Stewie2K, but far more capable of shooting back.

Enter Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa. The Guetemalan is super-aggressive on both sides, and it doesn't take a genius scout to notice a player who hit a 1.29 rating in M80's slog of a win over G2 at ESL Pro League.

malbsMd has torn teams to shreds with impeccable first bullet aim this year, but has only played 33 maps at notable LANs, and just 6 maps against top 10 teams.

When it comes to roles, too, there are problems. The assumption after Dallas was that a rifler like malbsMd would be replacing HooXi, and one of NiKo or Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač would take over in-game leadership to translate their miracle run into the next season.

Then, a specialist anchor like Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy could come in for Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković to create a high-octane all-fragging superteam.

Instead, malbsMd has come in for nexa — G2's ultra-passive, supportive, lurker — and Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski will be the new captain (and expect the roles that come with that).

malbsMd's aggression is what attracted G2 to him, but unless there are some fairly heavy role changes it is hard to see him being able to have the same impact.

The puzzle is helped if Snax — who played some star roles himself on GamerLegion — can slot into HooXi's bottom of the barrel CT roles, but you still need an extra anchor.

NiKo is NiKo, and any changes to his CT positions would be insane. So that leaves huNter- or malbsMd, or a combination of the two.

"People are saying huNter- should anchor, and I think that is so stupid," weighed in Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy on YouTube. "huNter- is like a squirrel, have you ever seen him play CS? He is one of the most mobile players ever."

launders' comment rings true, but it's not like malbsMd is a turret. Combine this with huNter-'s middling form (he has a 1.05 CT rating in positions where you would expect a 1.06 rating), and you can see the case for a position swap.

History, however, would indicate it's malbsMd, the young fragger, who is more likely to have to sacrifice his spots.

On some maps, that won't be too huge of an issue. He can play A Anchor on Ancient, and still do plenty of aggressive work in Middle (his old spot) at the start of the round.

He already plays Ramp on Nuke, where he has a 0.84 rating in a tiny sample size of 26 rounds. If this low rating is due to the sample size and not any discomfort, you can see him moving to more anchor spots in the future. Long on Dust2 might suit his space-taking, too.

But it's these crucial small sites, where executes in swing rounds onto a single CT player often decide entire maps, that should concern G2. There was a clamor in the community for Perfecto in this team for a reason.

Move too much, peek too wide, and the round is over in positions like A on Anubis or Pit on Inferno.

These spots call for specialist anchors, ones who do not die cheaply and are capable of round-winning multi-frags. Neither malbsMd or huNter- will be natural fits in these positions.

Even if it is huNter- taking the hit, malbsMd might struggle to call his own plays in a team with domineering CT playmakers like m0NESY and NiKo.

You can point to firepower, the way Astralis did when they signed Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard to create a quadruple-rotator rifling core themselves. But we saw what happened there: Form dropping off a cliff in new spots, a power struggle, and then more roster changes.

What's more, we have not even begun to talk about the changes required on the T side.

nexa was criticized often in his second stint at G2, sometimes unfairly because of the affection many hold for Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage, considering they had similar CT ratings, but on T side he had clear faults as a lurker.

"jks had the ability to single-handedly open up a site for G2, much like ropz does for FaZe," tweeted Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita in April. "On the flip side, nexa isn't that type of player. He is more of an old-school lurker, patiently waiting to execute the correct macro-play rather than seizing upon micro-timings."

"Opponents facing G2 can reliably anticipate little action from nexas positions, allowing them to concentrate their utility and manpower where the group most likely will come, forcing them, and NiKo especially into challenging battles around nades."

So nexa has gone. Fine. But malbsMd is not a lurker. In-game leader Snax is not anymore, either.

huNter-, again, seems the likeliest candidate to take the hit and move to pure lurker roles. In CS:GO, huNter- was a specialist in the 'flex' role, in spots like Boiler on Inferno, Silo on Nuke, or B on Anubis.

These are almost half-lurk spots, where you are usually the lurker who joins the '4' in 4-1 defaults and in late-rounds when executes happen. It will not be easy for him to become a full-time lurker, though his more active style will exploit the 'micro-timings' pita speaks of far more than nexa.

NiKo, two-time Opener of the year, could also undergo a change to make his spots more in line with his old FaZe and MOUZ days.

He already is a bit of a lurker in spots like B on Ancient, Banana on Inferno, or Outside on Nuke for 1-4 defaults. NiKo is at his best prowling for openings on his own, and can do that from any position on the map.

Mirage will be a good example. It makes sense for NiKo to become the B Apps and Underpass player, huNter- A, and leave malbsMd and Snax taking Mid. On Ancient, huNter- can become the A lurker (who is more of a supportive Mid rifler) and malbsMd can take Mid. On Anubis, Snax could take B lurking (as some IGLs already do) and leave huNter- A, NiKo Mid, and malbsMd in Canals.

It is not as hard a puzzle as CT side, even before you consider how fluid positions are as the Ts in 2024's Counter-Strike.

It's probably easier to think outside of lurker-pack dimensions for the new G2's T side, with Snax as the supportive grenadier, huNter- the key trade fragger, NiKo the lone wolf, and malbsMd as the bomb-site entry. That can be the case from any 'default' spread.

Here, we can see that nexa, in spite of low openers and his lurker roles, was getting his deaths traded more than huNter- and supposed entry NiKo.

Even if malbsMd, for some reason, is the one shifted to lurking in defaults, we should expect him to continue being the bomb-site entry nexa often was.

Snax's presence in the bottom left of the chart is more of a concern, considering how sacrificial HooXi often was. From this chart, we see Snax is more of an individualistic space taker, rarely having a teammate there to trade him.

With malbsMd happy to take up that duty, this might not be a problem.

But as with Astralis, there is another warning from the last off-season in the form of Liquid and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis. malbsMd profiles similarly to YEKINDAR, a star space taker more than a willing bomb-site entry-fragging soldier.

If Snax is a more passive (and less selfless) IGL like he was in GamerLegion, more like the supportive Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire style captain than HooXi's 'just-trade-me' entry fragging, malbsMd's duels will be far tougher than he is used to — and it will be a challenge to get him used to this.

So it is easier than CT side, but far from easy. This puts pressure on G2, and on malbsMd especially.

Young players, especially confidence-based duellers like malbsMd, can easily struggle under the stress of so much change. This piece has rarely lingered on his obvious individual quality precisely because, such is the role change expected, it might not even matter.

You can argue that firepower was a problem for G2 with huNter-'s drop-off, and after nexa came in for jks. But it seemed like they needed a passive star, a better version of jks like Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa, Nikita "⁠HeavyGod⁠" Martynenko, or Perfecto, rather than a firebrand like malbsMd if a traditional IGL like HooXi or Snax would remain.

Instead, general manager Petar "⁠peca⁠" Marković and coach Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas have decided to overturn any existing structure entirely.

NiKo and huNter-, remember, extended their contracts for "a fuckton of years and a half" in May 2022, but GM peca confirmed to HLTV that their deals go "well over 2024", so this is not as immediate a concern as some have thought.

This lowers the likelihood of any conspiracy theory behind the malbsMd move that would have him be the long-term NiKo replacement as G2 rebuild around m0NESY as their new franchise star.

Which makes sense. It would be folly for any organization to consider NiKo surplus to requirements. Only Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets has matched his ceiling at the very top of tier one as a pure rifler, and that is true in CS2 as well.

We must, therefore, take this move at face value. malbsMd is an addition to this G2, not a futureproofing plan. This leaves them open to scrutiny. HooXi was a lightning rod for criticism, but his departure has opened the whole team and backroom staff to that pressure.

m0NESY is too good not to have a team around him capable of a charge at the top spot. His peak is currently being wasted, and frustration will rightly grow inside of him if G2 continues to meander into playoffs but no further in CS2's biggest events.

Can malbsMd, out of his comfort zone in new roles, and Snax, who did not achieve anything too special at GamerLegion, really be the ones to drive G2 there?

It is perhaps unsurprising that TaZ and Snax, who swapped roles every five seconds in Virtus.pro, will be the conductors of this chaotic orchestra. But Counter-Strike has changed. Roles matter, even in a team with m0NESY and NiKo.

G2 required changes this off-season, but there were routes to go down with just as much upside and far less risk. Signing malbsMd is more than a gamble; it's an unnecessary one.

At IEM Dallas, G2 showed they had the talent to defy logic. Next season, that will be their full-time job.