sAw: "We needed someone more aggressive"

sAw thinks that r1nkle can be a "more complete package" for G2.

G2 are set for a playoff campaign at Esports World Cup in Paris, their first since adding Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz to their number. The European squad have seen the best and the worst of r1nkle since his addition, but Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha thinks that it could be only a matter of time before they iron out any issues.

"It's going to be a question about experience," sAw told in the wake of his team's group stage efforts. "Some of these, let's say overpeeks and small situations that we need to iron out that will come with experience. I think if he can learn in that and get into our system, it's going to be really good for us."

The Finnish coach feels that, with time, r1nkle can be a more "complete player" than Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García was for G2 . "He's a young, aggressive AWPer with great mechanics who can also play rifle," he said. "He can also play, I would say, really good with pistols, with other guns as well. He will be able to be a more complete package, in a way."

You can listen to the full interview here .

Congratulations on making it to the playoffs, top 16. A couple of difficult moments against M80, then in the second map here. Can you tell me about it?

It's still early in the season, of course, and in that way, it's a bit of new things for us after the player change and so on. The M80 game on Mirage, it was mostly under control I would say, but sure, the scoreline was close. But we were able to close it down in the end. So since it was controlled in terms of economy, in terms of the scoreline mostly, it wasn't that stressful.

Then against BIG today, there were mostly good moments on Cache and then Inferno. But Ancient was a bit rough. We had a good start there, but then there were some sloppy mistakes on the end of the T side. And then CT side we needed to grind our way back into the game, we had a match point in regular time, but couldn't close that one out, and then we lost it in the overtime.

So yeah, a couple of close maps here, but we made it to the playoffs, so happy with that. In a way it's expected to have some of these close maps; the two maps where we were able to play it pretty smoothly, and then two close maps. It's a pretty decent showing, but we need to just keep growing from game to game in the tournament.

I wanted to ask about the off-season in general, and the decisions that you made during the off-season. First of all, to bench SunPayus. Can you tell me about what went into that decision, and why did you end up making a change?

Going into roster changes like that, there's always going to be multiple reasons for it, it's not only going to be one thing that would make us do the change. I think during the whole stay since I've been in G2, it's been pretty similar level for us. We haven't been able to reach exactly what we want to reach, and we are also... with SunPayus in the roster, we were at a point like 'Are we going to get any better with this roster, or are we going to make any changes? What is going to be the future of the roster? What's going to be the potential of the roster?' That's the situation we are looking at.

Of course we went through the roster, player by player, what we need to think about, what can we do, what can be the potential. I do think, of course, SunPayus is a good player. We know exactly what he can bring to the team, what he can bring with his voice, how he also had his struggles with adapting to CS2 and everything. I think he can still bring the right things to the right team, but I think for us we need something more aggressive because we have also other players who are a bit more on the passive side, who are a bit more not exactly maybe sacrificing for the team. It's not that you need an AWPer to sacrifice, but when you can bring in an AWPer like r1nkle who can be more aggressive, who can go for more plays and take space for the team and make opening picks, that can bring something else to our game, basically.

I think he [r1nkle] has this potential as an AWPer to take it to the next level and carry some games here and there. I think he's going to be inconsistent most likely for a while. It will take time for him to get used to us, us to get used to him, us to also then implement him in a way to adjust our system for an aggressive AWPer like that. So it will take some time, but he's a young, aggressive AWPer with great mechanics who can also play rifle, who can also play, I would say, really good with pistols, with other guns as well. He will be able to be a more complete package, in a way.

Then what we got with NertZ when we made that change was a more vocal player instead of malbsMd back then. So then when we had NertZ, SunPayus, and huNter-, obviously as an in-game leader, we already had three voices. So in that sense also, we don't need r1nkle to be the same kind of voice as SunPayus was. It's going to be a bit of a shift in direction in those terms, and then trying to gain extra percentage somewhere else where we maybe were lacking before. Of course it's a bit of a jump into the unknown at the same time, but I do think the potential of the last roster, it was mostly shown in Cologne. I don't think there was much left that we would have gained. Maybe in some way, sure, we could have stayed, kept the roster, stayed more or less the same, be happy with it. But at the same time, I think it's completely fine to try something else and go for it. Let's see what will happen. Obviously we need to just work hard right now and try to make sure we get on the same page, like the normal things, right?

You mentioned at the beginning that you felt you had a lot of passive players. From my point of view, that seems almost opposite of what I would expect out of G2. If I look at NertZ, he's a playmaker, and MATYS also likes to make plays. So where do you see that the balance needs to come in from then? Is it from the huNter- side? Or where did you need some aggression to fill in the gaps?

Yeah, a lot of it we also will need from huNter-'s side as an in-game leader, especially T side being in the pack. That's something we have been also working from the last season, and we will continue to work on, basically. It's a tough balance in that sense. Like you said, we are missing that exact entry type of player because NertZ is not your natural entry, MATYS is not your natural entry, huNter- is also not, and then obviously HeavyGod is not. And we are not going to make r1nkle be our entry (chuckles). In that way it's going to be a tough balance going into the future as well. But it's something we need to kind of puzzle out. It's something we have already known.

Interestingly enough we had malbsMd in the team, and he was a natural entry, so you can call it what you want. It was known what we did back then. Every roster move we have made is that we have known what we go into. It's not like it's random (laughs), but it's a tough balance, and there's like multiple factors going into it. It's not that you can always make it as you want, but you need to make the players adapt in different roles, try to make them grow in their new roles. NertZ, I knew exactly how he's gonna be coming in...

Of course, you worked with him before.

Yeah. huNter- is going to be shaped as he has been an IGL, and now he's still a work in progress in that way. MATYS has been changing roles back and forth a couple of times, and obviously I know how he is. HeavyGod, we get a really good performance all the time, and in that sense, you don't want to touch him too much, right? Since you know what you get from him, you don't want to touch that side. Because if you keep that, then you do some other changes with the roles, with pushing some other players to be more aggressive. If you gain there, then you can make it a really good system, right? So it's those kind of things we are working on right now with the factors, with the limitations we have, and that's pretty much it.

Do you not think that MATYS would've been the most natural replacement for the malbsMd role in that sense? Because I think we would've expected that in the first place, when that NertZ for malbsMd change came in. And obviously you've moved sort of in that direction, but it's been a lot of balancing acts. So can you explain a bit of that and what went into that decision?

We tried a bit also with MATYS in some of those more entry roles. Not all of them because some entry roles... depending on the map, some of them are more straightforward, some of them are more like a bit gimmicky, you need to play a bit more with nades. Some are more straightforward, some are a bit more calculated, I would say. So you need to be careful with that, but NertZ is really good with the calculated ones.

Then with MATYS also, he's not exactly this type of player who will just press W and run in and be like, I don't know, a bulldozer, just sending it into a site. He's a different type of a player. I think he works better actually when he's also able to take his time, in a way, and work the duels in. Obviously as a trade fragger also, it can work pretty good if he can then follow huNter- in that sense and be the second guy in. He has his strengths for sure and then weaknesses.

I wouldn't say he's a malbsMd type of player, not really close to it at all. He has insane mechanics, MATYS, but his type of mechanics is a bit different than what malbsMd had, for example. malbsMd was really good in creating space and actually swinging wide, and MATYS is a bit more calculated in those terms as well. I'm not saying he's not sacrificing for the team, because he is, it's just a different type of player in that sense.

I wanted to ask you about something that you said about r1nkle. In NIP, he fell short of the mark of what people expected out of him from his earlier days, where that aggressiveness and explosiveness was coming out. That inconsistency was coming through a lot. What do you see in him that you think you can bring more out of him?

Well, like I said, I think he's in a way a really complete player when it comes to mechanics and different guns and movement and these kind of things. If we can implement him into the system and use him in different positions where the other players already know what they are doing, then r1nkle will kind of slot in and fill the gaps. We don't need him to think so much about other players, the overview in that sense, but just to think about himself. Still, of course, in a way that he wouldn't do mistakes which will cost us the round, but more about he would bring more the X factor for us, the winning factor, clutch factor when he's in those positions, those situations.

Whether it's like 1vX or 3vX or these kind of situations where you know that the one extra kill will most likely win you the round, because it will turn the situation around. Instead of obviously losing the one next kill, which will then turn it for the opponent. In that sense also it's going to be a question about experience and some of these, let's say overpeeks and small situations that we need to iron out that will come with experience. I think if he can learn in that and get into our system, it's going to be really good for us.

Obviously it's going to be also that, like I said, we don't need him to call the shots for us, call the rounds for us, but we will need him to control himself and then know what he can do within the rounds and how he can, what starters he can do, what mid rounds he can do, and then kind of how the other players will slot in. So it's not only I peek A, I peek B, and simple as that. It needs to be a bit further than that, but not obviously fully controlling CT sides or anything like that. So it's going to be a balance like that, but I do think he can bring this extra factor for us.

Do you think it's also become a bit more balanced because of the voices that you were talking about, in terms of having NertZ and huNter- be the duo that work mid rounds and things like that? Have you noticed that in the matches that you've played so far?

Yeah. There is a factor of course when in a way you lose a voice and then you have a bit less. It will make it so that it's a bit more chill, a bit more on the same page, a bit less chaotic or competing against each other in that way. But then at the same time, you lose some of the ideas, maybe some of the factor, like counting economy, some of these small things that SunPayus was really good at.

So I have noticed some of the pluses, some of the minuses, of course. I think we need to also continue longer with the practice and with the officials because then I will continuously see more of it, and can try to adjust it more one or the other way, which I think is fitting at that point.