G2N Toasty on his future: "This year will only really be a success if I get picked up in Tier 1"

With only 16 teams left, the 2026 Summer edition of EMEA Masters is entering its final stages, and we may be witnessing the future of the LEC in real time. Among these teams are , the academy division of Europe’s reigning champions, who—against all odds—will attempt to defy expectations and finally establish themselves at the top of the European Tier 2 ecosystem. Standing in their way, however, are multiple difficult matchups: first, followed by the recent WSCI finalists in a potential Round 2. Can G2N overcome their underdog status?

In an exclusive interview, the team’s import midlaner sat down with Sheep Esports to recap his year with the organization and discuss his growth. He then reflects on the upcoming offseason, his goals and aspirations for 2027, before taking a more holistic look at his career and its future.

Victor Alexander "Toasty" Chea: “It feels good to make playoffs. I think it was pretty expected though. But yeah, we had a bit of a hiccup in Swiss and we managed to come back from it, and I feel like we were playing a lot better coming into our games after that. So we're just hoping—I'm just hoping—to ride the momentum into playoffs.

Like you said, it's single elimination, so it's pretty high pressure. I honestly didn't even know what the format was until I saw the bracket. But yeah, I’m pretty excited. If we win it all, it’ll have to be versus all the good teams. If we win, we deserve it, and if we lose, we didn't deserve it as much as another team anyways, so it's fine. But yeah, I'm gonna enjoy what comes next.

Toasty: I think they’re pretty solid. We’ve scrimmed them a good amount of times. We haven’t gotten to play them in officials a single time this year, though. So not sure what their level is in terms of how they play in officials, because it's a bit different between them and scrims for a lot of teams. So we'll just have to show up on the day and see how they play, but it should be it should be a fun one.

Toasty: Like I said before, if we lose to Solary then we didn't deserve to win anyways. But I mean I feel like we've been improving a lot as a team. Our goal has always been to challenge top ERL teams and win it all.

If we went far into the tournament but didn't play against Galions or Solary—teams that we considered to be really good—then it wouldn't feel as good, you know? Still, I feel like our draws have been pretty unlucky compared to others—we never really had good draws in these types of tournaments.

But yeah, I feel like we've improved a lot compared to when we faced them in Spring. I think we could get it done.

Toasty: I've been pretty happy with my growth overall here, and yeah, I feel like I've done enough to get picked up. But, you know, I feel like offseason is mostly about luck, at least in North America. You have to compete with a lot of people, especially imports. Perhaps if some of them decide to go elsewhere, then there’ll be a spot open for me. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Toasty: I'm prioritizing the best team available. If there’s a really good European project I believe in and they want me, then I’ll go there for sure. Speaking about Tier 1 perspectives. I’ll just join the team I can improve on the most, and just the best ones overall.

If I don’t make Tier 1 again, which would be really sad, then I’d prefer to play in Europe’s ERLs over North America’s Challenger League. I feel like ERLs are just much better for talent development.

Toasty: It's always like a tricky situation. It really just depends on how much I believe in the project. If I get an offer from a team whose player I don’t think are good or think differently about the game than I do, then I might have to think about staying in Tier 2. But overall, it’s hard to say what will happen for now.

Toasty: Well, I'm not too sure. I didn't even make the tournament, right? I feel like I'd have like a lot stronger stance if I played there versus the other teams.

But I think for sure it should have a bit of an impact, even if I don't think it'll change it to the to the point where all the General Managers start picking up nothing but native Western talents. These LCK CL players are getting picked up for a reason, and I feel like their structure is quite good in terms of development. Usually the players that come out of Korea are very fresh and show a lot of promise mechanically. So it makes sense why people pair them with native veterans.

Right now was a good timing for the tournament to happen in order for EU and NA talents to be seen more. There's been so many LCK CL promotions in the past two years, and I felt like their level was just not as high as before. I think if this tournament happened two years ago, the LCK CL would probably have fisted everybody. I feel like we caught them at a time where, after so many promotions, their level wasn’t as strong as it used to be.

But yeah, hopefully people will start looking at Western Tier 2 teams more.

Toasty: I'm not really sure. It feels hard to recap the entire year as I'm still playing. I wouldn't say it was a failure, but I think it would only really be a success if I get picked up in a Tier 1 team. My main priority coming to Europe was making my chances of getting picked up to Tier 1 as high as possible.

Even if it means going to a foreign country where I didn’t know anyone, I felt like I had to make a jump and take a risk in order for my career not to be stagnant. The entire goal was to get picked up for a Tier 1 team, and I'm not sure if that's gonna happen yet. We’ll have to see if that decision will end up being a success or not.

But overall, I’m definitely happy with how I've grown as a player and human. Living alone in a foreign country for the past year has been helpful in terms of my independent growth. And yeah, if I don't get picked up, at least there's that. I've improved as a human and globally as a competitor, so I'm happy with that at least.

Toasty: Personally, I don't really have many hobbies and interests outside of competing in League of Legends, so, you know, when I've thought about what I would do if things didn't work out, it just made me feel really depressed and sad. I just feel like I don't have anything outside of what's going on right now. It might be kind of a blessing and also curse if things don't work out.

But yeah, I'm pretty fortunate to be in a situation where I can sustain this type of lifestyle. I have a lot of support financially and for housing. In the worst case, I could even go to NA collegiate—I feel like NA has a pretty good system there.

But yeah, it's not more of a financial burden reasoning, rather than just losing passion. A lot of people in Tier 2 quit because they just have to move on with their life and get a degree or get a job. But for me, I feel like I'll only leave if I really just think I'm trash and won't ever make it, or if I just lose passion.

Toasty: Hopefully it’ll be winning EMEA Masters [laughs]. Aside from that, I feel like beating twice was a pretty fun moment. They had just come from their LEC split, and they had in as well. It just felt like it was a really tall task to beat them, and there were a lot of eyes glued onto us. It felt really really fun and really exhilarating to win those series, especially in the ways we won. That's something I'll remember for a while.”