G2 Esports. Pro League Season 4 champions, Season 5 champions, Season 8 champions. DreamHack Winter 2018 champions. Six Major Paris champions, and most importantly, two-times Six Invitational champions -- world champions -- in 2018 and 2019.
Niclas “Pengu” Mouritzen, all that, and also the Nordic Championship Season 2 champion and the Season 1 Pro League champion.
G2 Esports and Pengu. At home for the Season 9 Finals.
G2 Esports lifting the Caber at the Six Invitational earlier this year (via ESL)
For the first time since this core roster was formed, the team missed out on a LAN event. For the first time since they started winning, the star-studded roster of Pengu, Fabian “Fabian” Hallsten, Joonas “jNSzki” Savolainen, Daniel "Goga" Mazorra Romero -- and now Juhani “Kantoraketti” Toivonen -- would not be at a Pro League Finals.
An unthinkable scenario at the start of Season 9, especially after their incredible dominance in 2017 and 2018, the warning signs began to show when G2 Esports’ Season 9 Pro League title defence got off to a poor start. They were saving strats, said fans, and sure enough, they were, and once again won the Six Invitational. But the acceleration that many were expecting in the second half of the season never came, and Team Empire -- their Six Invitational Grand Final opponents -- and LeStream Esport went to the first European Pro League Finals in four seasons instead.
Pengu (via G2 Esports)
With the end of Season 9 just two weeks away, SiegeGG had a chat with Pengu to talk about his season and the Pro League Finals in Milan:
G2 Esports is undoubtedly the best team in Rainbow Six history, and is especially fearsome offline. What are the key differences from online to offline as a professional player?
This is the first time ever the core of this roster has failed to make it to any LAN event. Was this really an intentional, much-needed break, a realization of certain weaknesses online as well, or both?
At the Invitational you nearly lost a map to mantisFPS (now Cloud9) and then lost the same map and very nearly the series to Spacestation Gaming. Was that the rest of the scene catching up somewhat, or your team having what can be considered an “off-day”?
Given that the Season 9 Finals are in Europe, is your team still going to make the trip as spectators?
NORA-Rengo and Team Empire both go into the event with significant changes from the Invitational. What do you make of their prospects?
Who is a team to watch out for at Milan?
How much of a do-or-die is this event for Evil Geniuses, now that their biggest rival -- your team -- isn't there?
Evil Geniuses at the Six Invitational 2019 (via Peter Chau)
What are your predictions for the event?
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The Milan finals will be held on the 18th and 19th of May, and while G2 Esports will not be attending, eight very capable teams will be there to strut their stuff. Catch our coverage in the run-up to Milan, and be sure to check back during the event for more Siege action right here at SiegeGG.