After losing to MAD Lions KOI (2-3) in a massive upset, this sunday, G2 are now relegated to the lower bracket of the LEC Season Finals, the last EMEA's elite rendezvous of League of Legends this year. The Samurai will need to climb their way through the Munich Olympic Hall, starting this week-end against GIANTX in an eliminatory BO5. The toplaner, Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik, sat down with us to discuss the shock of losing the BO5, the difficult times G2 is going through and the Olympics Esports Games.

Obviously you are the first one that probably did not expect this result out of today. How do you feel after this defeat?

Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik: "My initial reaction is that I'm a bit shocked with the result. I think I'm also a bit shocked at how well MAD Lions played. They came in very prepared and showed that they had answers to what we were doing. I have to give a huge shout out to Mrwyn. I think he stepped it up this serie. Usually when I'm playing against him he's really... just not there, not present, but I think today he played very well. I have to give credit to him. He played better than me today and that was a big reason why they won, I think.

But overall, MDK were just sharper today and I'm still shocked. I'm still... needing time to reflect on what happened today. I think there's obviously reasons of why it happened, right? We played worse. We lost three games. So for us, it's important to understand why this is happening. Obviously our week prior to the LEC finals wasn't great and our series the last couple of months were not too great either. So this is not a good sign for us and for our team. This is something we don't want to have, obviously. We will need to change the way we play. But yeah, I mean for me it's hard to express my feelings, since I'm still a bit shocked.

A lot of people have been discussing the issues that have been plaguing G2 in recent times. What do you think is the reason behind G2 finding themselves in this position right now?

BrokenBlade: I even thought that this week was going to be a good week for us ! The practice went much better than we had, usually our practice is very great and it wasn't the case the week before LEC finals. But this week, it was indeed good. I still think that our ideas were good, but I feel like Mad Lions really showed up today. So, we need to go back and reflect on what happened.

How do you personally feel about the level of teams in EU right now? And especially about MDK ?

BrokenBlade: I think the level of Europe is similar to what it has been in the beginning of the year. I would like to believe that we are on the top with Fnatic. I mean, MDK maybe also does, I have to give them that. I hope they can show this kind of performance against Fnatic as well. This serie is going to be quite interesting. I think today, they were just confident in their style, and they embraced it very well. So I think if they can keep this up, they're going to be a dangerous team. Obviously, they are a team that flexes a lot of picks. They play a big variety of champions so it's hard to play against something you don't really play often against. Today, I don't think any of my matchups were traditional.

So obviously for me, it's always going to be a bit harder to understand how these matchups work than for the guy who is counterpicking these matchups. It's just the nature of it. And I think I am a person who also likes to create these kind of counterpicks. I also believe that's the reason they went on red side a lot. And in the last game, I picked Irelia into his nidalee blind pick, which is also not traditional blind pick. And I failed to counter pick. Well, obviously in my lane I died to a gank level 4, which made the lane phase a bit worse. For me, I'm taking a lot of responsibility for game 5 at least. For us, it's a very big upset as well. So we're gonna have to go home and talk about what we can do to win every single series from now on.

How do you feel about going into that lower bracket now, facing those other teams as well?

BrokenBlade: Obviously, I'm so confident we're going to win the tournament. It's not like... Because we lose a game, we are just shut down. This is not how G2 works. We are going to go back, come back stronger, beat Giants. By the way, I'm sad for Giants now that they have to face us. They are probably sad as well. But hopefully, we can prove ourselves worthy enough to make it to the season finals, just like we are supposed to. But obviously, put in the work as well, to get there. I think it's not just a given from us, that we are going to get to the finals just because we are G2, we also need to put the work in it and the effort.

How do you also deal with the pressure of having to perform to G2 standards, for example, being compared to 2019's roster ? And do you think it ever affects how you guys play as a team?

BrokenBlade: I think it's good that there is a standard for a team like G2. I feel like this should be our standard, this should be my standard. I want to always be in the talks about the best, in my lane and as a team. So for me it's important and if people want to compare ourselves to the 2019 roster, they can do it, you know, it's their free will, they can do whatever they want. I think it's more that we just have to go win every year and, wanting to win. And it will never change as long as G2 exists. Everyone will always be talking about being the best in G2.

Recently, you probably saw the Olympic committee voting that they would be starting the esports games, next year in 2025. Which country would you chose between Germany and Turkey, and what kind of roster would you want to send to represent your country to that tournament?

BrokenBlade: There's like two teams that could be possible. I don't really know how the process will work, and who will decide where I would be going because I have the double residency. But obviously I think there would be a good roster for both. For the Germany, there's no jungler that is available that is at the LEC level, at least. And for Turkey, the Turkish team would be very strong. I think there's a lot of very good Turkish players at the moment.

There's two good supports: Fleshy (Kadir Kemiksizand) and Parus (Polat Furkan Çiçek). For ADC, there's people like Kaori (Muhammed Hasan Şentürk), which I think is good. And for mid lane, there's Serin (Tolga Ölmez). And yeah, I think Turkey would be a very strong team with me as well in the roster. But, it is something that's so far away, I'm not thinking about it because it's not important to me right now. Once it comes close, I will be thinking about what is the best decision to take."