Beijing awaits, and the champions of the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) must answer its call. Sacrifices will have to be made at Worlds 2025—but will the eternal kings of Europe rise to the challenge and finally conquer their demons? Ahead of the Swiss Stage, G2 Esports’ toplaner Sergen “BrokenBlade” Çelik sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss mentality, expectations, and confidence going into the team’s first matches in China.

You’ve been in China for a bit now. How has the experience been so far? The travel, scrims, and preparation overall?

Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik: "Everything has been pretty good. We’ve been scrimming for about two weeks now; we arrived early so we could avoid jet lag and all that. I believe MKOI did the same. Aside from that, it’s been as usual, you know? We met a few teams just by walking around, we say hello and move on. I don’t want to jinx us too much, but we’re on a good path, especially after winning our first title in Europe after a long and arduous year. I’m just excited to find out who we’ll face in the Swiss Stage and play against them.

Rasmus "Caps" Winther and Rodrigo Oliveira have been pretty cautious about expectations for Worlds. Given your history at Worlds, and how you've unfortunately never made it to the bracket stage, what do you hope to achieve in 2025?

BrokenBlade: As you said, I’ve never managed to make it to the bracket stage, unfortunately. I’m going to take things a bit differently this time around—I’ll be going step by step. I was very close to making it a few times, and this year feels like it should finally be the year. We’ll obviously have to back it up with our gameplay, though. As many people know, I don’t use social media much anymore. I just want to live in the moment, and I plan to do that this year at Worlds. I’ll live every day like it’s the last day I’ll ever play at Worlds. I’m excited to give it my all.

How has your mentality in international tournaments changed over the years?

BrokenBlade: The first time I played professionally, I felt like my enemies were unapproachable. The more I started winning and qualifying for international events, the more I played against these famous players... that’s how I realized they could bleed, and I could win against them. We’ve also proved it this year against BLG at the Esports World Cup. We can take games from Gen.G and teams like that. I’m confident going into Worlds 2025. I just hope the other European teams also do well because, let’s be honest, the last few years haven’t been great. First of all, I want to show that Europe is better than the Americas—then we can talk about the rest of our goals.

Your first Worlds was in 2020 with TSM, also in China, though without a live audience because of COVID. Now, five years later, you’re back with a chance to redeem that experience. Does it feel special to compete in China again?

BrokenBlade: It would be such a cool storyline if I were to win it all—going from my first Worlds with a 0-6 scoreline to winning the Summoner’s Cup in the next edition held in China. But yeah, this time around, there’ll also be a crowd, and Asian crowds are usually insane, very similar to the Spanish crowd we had in Madrid—they’re very loud. I’m really looking forward to playing on stage here in Beijing.

There's always been people who've doubted your picks. How do you think your playstyle and unique champion pool will translate internationally, facing stronger opponents?

BrokenBlade: People will always talk, but when I solo-killed people on Zac or Rek’Sai, those same people called me a genius afterward. I just pick what I think is best for my team. Kled, for example, is a strong champion, and I fully expect to get some wins on him this tournament. If people want to doubt that—especially my opponents—it’ll be to my advantage. If I end up losing, then obviously it’ll mean I was wrong, but I’m confident in my picks. A random person doubting me won’t make me lose confidence. Whenever I can find advantages through my champion pool, I won’t hesitate.

Who do you see as your biggest opponents or main contenders for the Worlds title? And are there any teams you personally want to face or take down?

BrokenBlade: There are a lot of strong teams at this tournament. Gen.G, obviously, is one of the strongest teams in the world. Still, I have to point out that, last time we checked, Canyon was almost exclusively playing Arena—I don’t know if people noticed that. Maybe he’s getting a little rusty; he dropped all the way down to around Diamond 1 while playing only Arena. It was quite funny to be honest—you don’t see a match history like his very often. Aside from them, I’m also excited to play against teams like BLG and others. AL are also a great team.

After MSI, you mentioned how difficult that tournament was for you emotionally and in terms of confidence. Are you planning to approach Worlds differently this time compared to MSI earlier this year?

BrokenBlade: MSI was a lot about confidence—mine was at an all-time low. I’m usually a very optimistic player, but I realized then that you can’t fake confidence, no matter how much you want to. To be confident, you need to earn it, and that comes from preparation. For this Worlds, it’s the first time I haven’t really had time off before the tournament. I didn’t get to relax after the season, so I’m still in that same mindset. I’ll still strive to learn new things and perform, but I also have the advantage of not needing to readapt to the meta. The current meta is very similar to what I’m already used to, so I feel even more confident going into Worlds because I have a good idea of what’s best and how the game should be played.

Do you have any hot takes for this year’s Worlds?

BrokenBlade: GIANTX will not win Worlds.

Do you have a message for the G2 fans, especially those traveling to China to support you at Worlds?

BrokenBlade: To whoever came all the way to China to support us in person, I hope you’ll scream so loud that we can all hear you. It always means a lot, especially when we see familiar faces. It’s so cool that people travel across the world to support their favorite team. We always appreciate our fans, both online and offline, especially when they give us words of motivation."