The faithful shall be rewarded. G2 Esports have found victory against Bilibili Gaming, earning themselves a 2-1 scoreline at Worlds 2025. Now only one victory away from the bracket stage, the champions of the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) will need to keep up the pace in order to defy history and punch their ticket among the greatest that the world has to offer. In an exclusive interview, jungler Rudy "SkewMond" Semaan sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss the reinvigorating victory, the growth of G2 in Beijing, and what awaits the squad next.

How does it feel to secure such an important win against BLG?

Rudy “SkewMond” Semaan: “I’m so happy with the win, for sure. Especially because we started with a bad fight, which was completely my bad. I really overstepped and we gave three free kills. Thankfully, even after that, we showed really good resilience and knew the strength of our comp. I’m really happy that we fought until the end. G2 had a lot of stories against BLG in past Worlds, so I’m happy we finally took our win. Most importantly, we need to focus on the next games and make it out of Swiss.

Your first match at Worlds was against Top Esports, which didn’t go well. What changed for you and the team since that opening match against them?

SkewMond: We reviewed our games and took some good conclusions from them. We looked at our mistakes and what we could have done better during the game. We also learned a lot from drafting because our draft wasn’t the best, and we maybe made some wrong decisions in the moment.

Today you drafted Anivia alongside Poppy. Was this a deliberate attempt to bring more creativity into your drafts to find success at Worlds?

SkewMond: Yes, indirectly. But it’s more that we know how to play these champs, and we just see the angles during the draft. That’s what makes the difference, because in high-pressure games, both coaches and players can make mistakes by missing certain opportunities in drafts. For example, today we were really calm and present during the draft, and that’s what made it look so good. Our draft was definitely better than theirs. Even though we were pretty behind early, it was really hard for them to actually advance into our champions. Creativity, yes—but most importantly, staying in the present.

Against Eastern teams, Western squads often fall behind in gold even when the games look competitive. In your match today, G2 was behind for most of the game—around 3k gold even during Atakhan. Why do you think that happens so often?

SkewMond: To be fair, this game just snowballed really hard. They had champs that let them play really aggressively—Ryze, Qiyana—they can just move from mid to sides really fast. If you’re not active enough on the map or don’t play defensively the right way, you lose a lot. We did a pretty good job at playing it slow and with control until we could actually fight them back with our vision and our items. It was really good, and I’m really happy with how we played.

You mentioned that you try not to play too passively, but some people felt that issue resurfaced in your first two games at Worlds. What do you think caused you to fall back into that more passive style early on?

SkewMond: I don’t want to make any excuses, but both games started really on the wrong foot. For example, in the first game we got dove bot, I died trying to help my bot lane, and the enemy jungler started with two kills. In the game against MKOI, I died level one, then we made a similar mistake, and out of nowhere by five minutes both games the jungle was already snowballed. I don’t want make up excuses—I could have played way better in both games, and I totally agree—but it just wasn’t the best way to start. And actually, today it started like that again, but thank God the kills weren’t on the Qiyana, so it was easier to see our windows and openings to actually play the game.

Before your match, BLG’s jungler Zhao "Shad0w" Zhi-Qiang said, “Europe is so easy to beat. I hope they get better so it’s more fun to beat them.” Do you have any response to that?

SkewMond: I can’t really flame him for that because, in a way, he’s right. When you look at our past performances internationally, we were usually the first teams to get knocked out. It’s easy for him to see it that way, and since they’re the first seed of the LPL, they should be confident. But I truly believe our team is special and that we can perform really well against the best teams in the world on our good days. But, as an overall statement, it’s not that wrong.

Some people might downplay your win since BLG is the only Eastern team to lose to Western teams so far—they lost to 100 Thieves earlier and now to you. What’s your take on BLG? Do you think they’re just underperforming, or have Western teams stepped up?

SkewMond: I’m not really sure, to be honest. In their game against 100 Thieves, it was a bit weird how they threw it, and their draft wasn’t really optimal either. The first thing I’d say is they need to fix their drafts—they need better plans. Their players are very good; they won the LPL, which is insane. But for sure, for example today, when we made that big mistake and Ryze got three kills at six minutes, I thought the game would be much harder. I’m not sure if we defended well or if they just weren’t aggressive enough, but the game felt pretty much under control from our side, even though we were behind in gold. So yeah, I can’t really tell, but if anything, fixing their drafts would be a good start.

How’s the mood within G2 right now? You’re 2-1 after this win, and while there’s still pressure to secure that last victory for bracket qualification, do you feel the atmosphere improving?

SkewMond: The mood is going pretty well. Everyone really realizes how important this tournament is—the pressure of everything, and G2 wanting to do better than in past Worlds. Obviously, everyone is probably happy after what we did today, but the hardest part is still to come. The most important thing is to win that best-of-three to make it out of Swiss. We’ll just stay present and focus on the next game.

G2 recently announced that they’ve renewed the contracts of their entire coaching staff. Do you think you currently have the best European staff?

SkewMond: Oh yeah, for European staff, by far. I can’t say about the Asian teams—LPL or LCK or whatever—but I can confidently say they’re the best at what they do. I’m really, really grateful to work with each one of them. They’ve brought me so much, both in-game and outside the game, and I can’t thank them enough. The work they put in every day is really impressive, so thank you.

Do you have any words for the fans to keep them excited?

SkewMond: I truly believe we’re on a good path. We’re scaling into the tournament, and I really believe we can make it out of Swiss this year. As for opponents, I know there’s Gen.G waiting at 2-1. I’d prefer to play them maybe in a best-of-five in quarters or something like that, but facing them would be cool for sure. I really believe we can actually win against them on a good day—we already showed that at MSI and EWC when we managed to take a game off them.”