G2N Toasty: "I would never really get challenged in NA unless I was scrimming LCS teams"

Against all odds, has toppled in the upper bracket of the 2026 Winter EMEA Masters. However, the squad will need to defeat their nemesis a second time to advance to the playoffs. Having arrived in Europe just two months ago, , the team’s midlaner, sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss the differences he noticed coming from North America, his adaptation to European culture, playing alongside Caps, and his aspirations as a professional player.

Victor Alexander "Toasty" Chea: “So far my experience in EMEA Masters has been really fun. I feel like if I stayed in NA I wouldn’t have this type of competition at all, especially so soon. It’s already March and the NACL hasn’t even started yet, so I’m really, really happy that I’m here.

In terms of the group, Witchcraft is obviously a very, very strong team, and is a very good player. And even though we beat them, we still had quite a rough game—like a rough couple of games—and it wasn’t clean at all. So we still have to beat them one more time before we get far enough, and I’m just excited that I get to play against them again.

Toasty: I’m the only one in the office and then we just have bootcamps planned for important times of the season. Living in Berlin so far has been pretty solid. I wouldn’t say it’s anything insane because I mostly just go to the office, play games, then go back to my apartment and sleep. So I haven’t really gotten to experience the city that much.

But I will say that the resources that I’ve gotten from G2, and being able to interact with their team at the facility, and involve myself in their morning workouts and stuff like that… I’m really grateful to be a part of this organization and get the resources that they’re willing to give me.

The LAN experience was really, really fun. It was my first LAN playing in person, so I didn’t really know how I was going to feel. I didn’t know if I was going to be nervous or if I’d have stage fright or anything. But it honestly felt really similar to my experience competing in traditional sports in high school. I played volleyball for three years in high school, so it was very similar to that, and I really enjoyed my experience there.

I was just in a position where I could have fun and try my best, and I really enjoyed it even though we lost. Obviously it sucks to lose, but it was a good experience. I knew that when we lost I’d be able to take a lot from the experience, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Toasty: In NA I’ve never been on an LCS-affiliate team, right? So I never had a main team to watch VODs from and stuff like that. So that’s a resource that I’ve never been able to get, and it’s super helpful.

On Maryville I was in person, so that was a very good experience and I felt like we could learn a lot quicker than in my previous teams. But it’s quite different here in G2. When playing for Maryville, you still have to take classes and you have to play in collegiate matches as well, so you definitely have quite the busier schedule and it was harder to focus on myself, especially compared to my current team. In G2, I can mostly just focus on myself and make sure I’m doing the right things. The people around me will help me if I need help.

And like I said before, obviously the competition in EU feels much stronger. In NA, I feel like there are usually only one or two good teams that you feel challenged by or that are actually doing good things. So it feels like you don’t get good practice often. Compared to EU, I feel like I get a lot of good practice almost every day.

Toasty: Honestly, a good amount of them. I haven’t played everyone, so I don’t have a good grasp on every team, but I think I have a good grasp on the upper end of the other leagues.

I mostly think their overall standard and quality is higher. Their minimum standard or level is a lot higher than what I expected, because a lot of the ERL teams have ex-LEC players with a lot of experience scattered throughout the ecosystem. With that experience coming in from different players, it just brings the overall level much, much higher.

Whereas in NA, if LCS players go down, they usually just stick with the same people. So there might be one or two teams that have five ex-LCS players, and then everyone else is just normal tier-two players. It feels very top-heavy in tier two.

So it’s really interesting how the teams and players spread out here, because it feels like there’s a really good mix of development and talent as well. The games just feel like better quality.

And at least from the midlaners, it feels like there are so many more players that challenge me. Before, I would never really get challenged unless I was scrimming LCS teams. So it was kind of an early wake-up call when I first got here and was getting kind of shit on by players I didn’t even know. At that point I just had to focus on myself.

Toasty: Definitely not practice, but every day they’re in the office and I share the same space as them. Obviously there are going to be a good amount of interactions. I try to eat the same meals as them, so I eat with them if I’m not busy when they’re free and stuff like that. And in the morning I also do the morning exercises with them, so I’m at least somewhat integrated.

… he has so much aura. So far I haven’t asked for advice or anything, especially when they had their rough patch early in the split before playoffs. I felt like I wanted to give them a little bit of space. But I mean, I have the best Western midlaner in the room playing right next to me, so I’m bound to start asking more—as long as I man up and stop being a little introvert.

Toasty: I’ve had some issues like that, but because my lifestyle is very uninteractive, I don’t run into it too often. Sometimes if you order food or if you have a package or something like that, you can encounter those types of problems.

But fortunately for me, my meals are catered by the G2 staff, so I don’t have to focus on making food or ordering food a lot. And like I said before, I mostly just go to the office in the morning, then go back to my apartment and sleep. So I don’t have that many interactions with people in general.

But I will say we’ve had a good amount of community outreach with G2 fans and stuff, because we played in person. In the same place where the in-person finals were, there’s usually a watch party. So I got to go there one day, talk to the fans, and sign some stuff. In terms of interactions with the fanbase, it’s actually been really, really pleasant, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot.

Toasty: I haven’t thought about it too much. I’m kind of just taking it day by day. But I will say that I want to make this my career, and hopefully I can have a long career. I don’t want to be the type of guy who comes in for a year, burns out, and then everyone thinks he’s dog shit. So hopefully I can stay around for a while, because I really do enjoy this and I have a lot of fun.

In terms of EU vs NA, I haven’t really thought too much about having a preference. I’ll just go to any team that wants me. Mostly I’ll be thinking about how strong the roster is and how many resources I’m able to get, and making sure I’m in a good position to thrive.

Whether it’s in EU, NA, or even somewhere like CBLOL on a tier-one team, I’d have to consider it for sure. But I will say that I have a lot of friends in NA and my family is obviously closer there. So if there were equivalent offers from EU and NA, I would probably lean toward NA a bit more.

Toasty: Yeah, that’s a great question. In terms of studies—my parents won’t like to hear this—but I didn’t really enjoy school as a whole. I did go to university for about a year and I didn’t mind it, but it definitely wasn’t something I liked that much. So when I got this opportunity, I didn’t really think about it like, “Oh, I’m not going to school anymore.” I feel like if I really need to, university is something you can always go back to. It doesn’t really have a time limit, so in that aspect I’m not too worried about it.

In my everyday life and routines, I feel like ever since I was about 15 or 16 and COVID hit, there was online school. When I was maybe a freshman or sophomore, it was fully online. Because of that, the way I structure my days has honestly been quite similar to what I do now. I don’t think it’s been that big of a difference. For the past three or four years I’ve kind of just been doing the same thing where I play, play, play—and I enjoy it.

I guess the main difference is that I have to develop some life skills because I’m living on my own. But my previous experiences after graduating high school were really helpful for that. I went to Maryville for a year and had to live on my own while managing schoolwork on top of a heavy workload from playing League. That helped a lot.

I also had two different Korean bootcamps. One time I went for two months and had to live on my own, and another time I went for one month with DarkZero. I think that helped me learn how to function in a foreign environment as well.

Obviously I’m not perfect. I still have some hiccups, like showing up late every once in a while and stuff like that, and I’m working on it. But I think so far I have a pretty good foundation for making this kind of move.

Toasty: I don’t think I have an outrageous lack of skill at anything. I can cook basic stuff for myself like rice, steak, meat, ground beef and things like that. I can cook very basic meals if I need to, and I can do my own laundry and clean my own apartment. So in terms of just living on my own as a human being, I don’t think I’m lacking too much.

But I will say that my confidence when it comes to doing things on my own was pretty frightening. When I first got here, I asked a lot of questions and I was just very scared overall doing basic things like going out to get groceries, traveling on my own, taking the train and stuff like that.

Now that I’ve been here for maybe three months or so, I’m definitely more acclimated to it. But when I first got here I had a very uneasy feeling doing those things, even though they’re very normal things you need to do when you live on your own. Also, grocery stores, apps, and ordering food aren’t super English-friendly, so that made things a bit uncomfortable at first.

Toasty: I definitely want to make it to tier one as soon as possible. I also have step-by-step goals. Obviously, when you make it to LEC or LCS, you want to win your league. And after you win your league, you want to perform internationally. That’s definitely the farthest goal. I want to be able to match the Eastern teams internationally and maybe put up performances.

I don’t feel comfortable being stagnant. I don’t want to just go into tier one, have a long career, and just kind of paycheck steal for a while. I’m the type of person who wants to keep being challenged. As I move up in my career, the biggest goal is obviously to win internationally, make it far, or do something that hasn’t really been done before. So yeah, that’s definitely the main goal.

Toasty: If we want to beat them again, we really have to improve. If we play the same way we did in our first encounter, it’s definitely going to be a challenging fight. These types of players, with the experience they have, when they have their backs to the wall, they just play so much better than newer people like me and Shelfie (Shelfmade—Francesco Cardia), I guess.

So, we’re obviously going to scrim and practice, and then watch their games. It’s really good to be able to watch all their scrims and matches. We’ll definitely take some notes, try to improve, and do our best when it comes to the match on Saturday.

Toasty: Our form right now isn’t necessarily super impressive, but we’re definitely strong enough to win versus any team. It kind of just depends on how we show up on the day. We’re a little inconsistent in terms of how we play on stage—definitely because of our hiccup in Prime League Finals. I feel like versus BIG, we should have won, but we played really, really badly. So I mean, if we make it into playoffs, I’m confident we can have a deep run. We just need to show up and do our jobs.”