Facing a heartbreaking loss to Bilibili Gaming, G2 Esports now embarks on a painful return home after being eliminated from League of Legends Worlds 2024. The most difficult part is that history repeated itself once again for the Samurai on Sunday: G2 had already been eliminated in the Swiss Stage by BLG in the previous edition. In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle reflects on this latest failure while also assessing the contrasting performances of the past two years for this roster, which remained unchanged in 2024: almost unrivaled success in Europe, but a glaring lack of results on the international stage.

What are your first thoughts after this heartbreaking loss against BLG, especially considering it’s a repeat of last year?

Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle: "Yeah, it feels quite disappointing because I felt like we were much better than what we showed during this tournament. I think especially in the T1 and HLE series. Even against Weibo, I think we were just lucky they were worse than us because we were just kind of bad this whole tournament. So, yeah, it’s for sure a shame.

There’s a lot of talk about the results, with some saying it’s a bad draw. What do you think contributed to the outcome? Is it the draw or underperformance from your team?

Mikyx: I think it’s for sure a bit of both. If we had won today, I feel like we could have fixed our issues in time because we would have had one more week to practice. So, in that sense, it was a bit unlucky. I guess if BLG is the best team still here, maybe other teams are even better, so you never know. On paper, it seemed a bit unlucky, but then again, if we can’t win them, we shouldn’t really have that much of a chance afterward. Even though I feel like we had the potential to win it all, what we showed was pretty pathetic.

What were the issues that contributed to your defeats against T1, HLE, and ultimately BLG? What do you think was the catalyst for these losses?

Mikyx: I would say, against T1 specifically, we weren’t really playing on the side lanes enough; we were kind of grouping mid. I think that's a bit due to nerves. HLE was kind of similar. Usually, in scrims, we were good at playing side lanes, but we just didn’t have very productive games. A lot of the time, we either lost early and got shut down or didn’t communicate as much as we would on stage, which meant we couldn’t practice certain situations. Overall, I feel like our drafts weren’t the greatest, especially in game one against BLG. I think that draft made it a hard game to win.

There was criticism about the Orianna-Nocturne draft. Did you and your team agree on this draft before the match? What was the reasoning for using this composition again despite its previous failures?

Mikyx: A lot of it had to do with not wanting to give it to the enemy team because it felt like a very strong combo. I think we were just very bad at utilizing it. We were kind of just praying that they would misstep instead of forcing plays when they were split up. It felt like we were afraid to pull the trigger. When we played against it, we usually struggled, so that's why we decided to pick it again. I feel like we should have pivoted once we had the Orianna and they picked Skarner and Jax because Nocturne doesn’t match up well against Jax. And yeah, I guess the Neeko ban was also a bit useless.

How did the team stay focused after a rough game one when it seemed like everyone was tilted? You managed to come back in game two and had a close game three. Can you walk me through the team's mindset throughout the best of five?

Mikyx: Yeah, game one was just a rough one, starting from the draft already. We were thinking about what we could do for the next game to avoid repeating that. It felt like we still made some good plays, even when we were behind, especially on the sidelines where we got decent picks onto Kai'Sa. So, we were basically saying, "We played decently, and if we just fix the draft, we can win". For game two, we did adjust the draft and won pretty convincingly, I’d say. Then, game three was just super close. Every fight could have gone either way, so it came down to small details. In the end, they were just a bit better.

Do you have a specific regret about this best-of-three? What would you change if you could play it again?

Mikyx: I think a lot of it is probably from the draft for game one. I feel like we could have drafted to counter their champions instead of just going for a combo and being scared of them doing it, even though they had already picked their jungler. We didn't actually have to pick Nocturne. We might have been over-respecting that and thought it was too strong. Also, for the last game, we could have considered banning Ezreal instead of Miss Fortune because Taric is way better against Miss Fortune than Ezreal. We kind of knew we were going to go for Taric on pick four or five. Those are the two regrets I can think of right now from a draft perspective. For the gameplay, I would have to rewatch it, but there were definitely a lot of cases where we took unfavorable fights.

Many will look back at the Nashor decision in game 3 after winning a fight. What happened in that moment?

Mikyx: I think for sure that’s my biggest regret because it should have been a winning fight for us. It started very badly—I got chunked already, and we were just tanking Nashor and taking free damage. I feel like if we had turned before even starting Nashor, we probably could have killed them because they had no flash for most of their team. That’s a very big one; I kind of forgot that happened.

Was the decision to go for Nashor a team call or made by a specific person?

Mikyx: We just kind of decided to go for Nash. I don’t know who said what, but we had a plan for me to hit it so I could heal everyone up. We also wanted to turn when they were walking up. It started off with me not going in immediately to hit Nash and heal people. I got caught, and then I went to Nash when everyone else was turning. I just kept hitting Nash to try to heal people, but they were kiting us around, and we lost.

Many will remember the pause in game 3 as a major turning point, especially after Zhao "Elk" Jiahao's performance on Ezreal. How did the pause affect the team, and do you think it contributed to the team's downfall, given how quickly the game ended afterward?

Mikyx: I’m not sure. After the pause, I don’t know if we could do much about it. We thought we would win the next fight because they used almost all their flashes, except one. We probably didn’t make the best decisions, especially with our Ryze TP; they just turned and one-shot us. With our comp, it’s hard to start a fight. It’s up to them to engage, but they don’t even have to do that because they have Ezreal. In general, it was just a bit awkward trying to force our way back into the game when we were behind, except by playing side lane with Ryze maybe.

How do you feel about this year? Do you think 2024 was still a good year, considering your regional records and MSI results?

Mikyx: I would still say it was quite a failure, yeah. I think winning in Europe is not a big thing to be proud of. I mean, it's nice, right? But ultimately, if you just go out in Swiss two years in a row... Winning one best-of-five was nice against Top Esports, for example, but it didn’t really amount to anything as well. I think we could have won games against T1 and basically all of our other losses, but in the end, maybe we were just not good enough.

How do you feel about your personal performance? Some people criticized your play in game one. Are you happy with how you played, or do you think you could have done better?

Mikyx: For sure I could have done better, but I think the series was at least better than my other performances. In the other games, I was playing quite badly overall. It wasn’t a great tournament for me, but the Rakan game felt nice. I feel like I should probably pick that champ more—it felt very easy to start fights and just be useful. As for the Taric game, I could’ve played a lot better. I got one shot a lot at the start of fights, which wasn’t optimal. The Rell game... I had one really bad fight at Herald, but besides that, it was just way too hard to play well into the enemy comp. We tried to get some picks on Kai’Sa, and it kind of worked, but yeah, it was just a hard one.

Do you see any positives from this tournament or the year overall?

Mikyx: No.

You'll need time to process everything, but you'll soon have to move on and think about 2025. What do you foresee for your future and G2's future?

Mikyx: I have no clue about next year, but I’d be surprised if everything stays the same since we failed to qualify for the quarterfinals and out of Swiss two years in a row, which is quite a disappointment. Yeah, I’d be surprised if we just run it back again, right? Maybe the third time’s the charm...

Do you feel like fan opinions may have affected your team's performance today?

Mikyx: For me, not really. I am my own harshest critic, so whatever I read is usually not as bad as what I already think. I'm not sure about the rest of my teammates. I hope they don’t get affected, even if they read stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, of course, there are always thoughts about what’s going to happen the year after, especially when it’s this close to the end of the year. So for sure, that doesn’t help in terms of performance when you have to think about what you're actually going to do next year if you don’t perform and all that.

Do you have any final words for your fans or anyone who follows you?

Mikyx: Well, I'm sorry you had to witness another failure from us. Not making it out of Swiss is quite tragic. I think despite the draw, it doesn’t actually matter. I think if we were good, we would’ve won our first two series already, like HLE and T1. I think they were not great in those series. So, for sure, it was ours to win. It’s a shame that this is how the year ended. It should have been one of the best chances we had of making it. So, that for sure sucks, right? But I hope you keep supporting everyone."