It’s no secret
is the most decorated team in the
LEC, and while it might bring home the trophy most of the times, the road to reach the Finals is usually not without challenges.
The
2026 LEC Spring Split upper bracket finals posed a threat to G2’s 11th consecutive Finals record, as
outperformed the EMEA powerhouse in the first two games of the series. But with a
Mid-Season Invitational ticket up for grabs, G2 pushed through and reverse-swept MKOI for the first time in the Spanish organization’s history.
In an interview with
Sheep Esports, G2’s toplane
Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik talks about what it took for his team to come back from an almost impossible position. Though not very “rock solid,” BrokenBlade shares how his mental resilience helped G2 reach yet another
LoL Esports’ international event.
Congratulation for qualifying for MSI and LEC Spring Finals! What are your thoughts right after the match?
G2 BrokenBlade: "Obviously, very happy. I'm not happy that we won necessarily, but the way we won from such a hard moment, being down till zero, really on the verge of losing, we find, and we have the balls to pull off such a play. To me, that shows that we are really in it to win it, and that is what made me so happy. And I think I'm very sure that made everyone so happy that we can pull off a game like this, and we didn't win the split, that was not the joy of winning a split. That was the joy of being a team. That was really a showcase of what it means to be a team. And to me, that was really beautiful, and I really enjoyed this moment, and I thought it was beautiful.
In the first game of the match you didn't look like the G2 who finished the match, if that makes sense.
BrokenBlade: Make sense. I will have to be honest with you. I think the game was very hard because I feel like what we had to do was very hard against their champs, and we got caught off guard by how they are playing the game. I think we adapted very well throughout the series. They just dropped a lot of side lanes just to team fight.
And in the first game, Kai'Sa got a lot of kills, and if Kai'Sa gets a lot of kills, it's going to be much harder to kill her as well. And I think they got us with the swap in the first game, which again, we adapted really well in the other games — I think we actually got ahead from these swaps after. And I think the game one was just very hard to play based on how our champions interact with their champions in the games that we've had. I'm not saying that we got out-drafted or anything. Obviously, that's how I see it, and people can have different opinions.
Going into game 2, on the broadcast you said: "Just play simple. We're making it too hard on ourselves." Can you maybe tell me about what role you have in your team when it comes to difficult moments?
BrokenBlade: For me, what's really important is how the team is feeling mentally. When I feel like someone is not in it, I will look to bring them back. I just didn't want us to feel demotivated because we were the ones getting these leads, but we were also the ones throwing these leads. When you go in a series, and you're down 2-0, the next game is going to be really hard because if you lose, you're just out or you lose the series.
I really wanted to make sure that our team is in it mentally because I knew that if you don't think about negative stuff and think about positive stuff and how we win the game instead of why we lost the game 1 and game 2, we will make it. That was my thought process. And despite game five looking very hard in the early game, we managed to put it off, and I'm very happy about this.
Does that have anything to do with your Kled pick in game three? It seemed like you were the training force of the team during the turnaround in the match.
BrokenBlade: Very well said! [laughs] I have to say I do think I know this Kled gameplay very well. I think this is something I have been optimizing throughout the time. I mean, people still do it and give me Kled in good scenarios, I guess they don't want to learn. I think that I was very strong in this game, and I knew for a fact that we were going to win game three based on the draft. So I was very happy about this.
However, when it came to game five, it was kind of like a back-and-forth until your last Malphite ult. You spoke about that specific play on the broadcast interview, so can you talk to me about all the previous ones? How do you evaluate when it's best to use arguably the best tool that the champion has offensively or defensively?
BrokenBlade: I mean, obviously, in this game, most of my ultimates were not very solid, if that makes sense. I mean, it really depends. If you play a fight and there's an Azir hitting you and you don't have that much magic resist because you're really behind in the game, you're forced to either ult in and die or ult out and not die. And for me, I was constantly talking with my teammates about, like, how can we make use of my champion? And then
was really saying like, "
Oh, I need you in the front, Soraka in the back," and then we would play as a three men.
So I was really looking to position myself to threaten the Azir, but at the same time being the front line for my carries, which in this game, it was not the easiest thing to do because Azir was just very, very, very strong, and I was, again, behind. So that puts me even at a bigger disadvantage because I don't like to buy magic res on Malphite. But yeah, I mean, in the end, if you find the ultimate on the Azir you probably just win the game, and we did, and I'm very happy about how we found it.
We found it by problem-solving, creating good scenarios, and being creative. It took many tries. I mean, we had a lot of failed ultimately with a lot of failed plays, but in the end, the only one that mattered to win the game and we did it. The Jinx scaled up really well and if she gets reset in late game, it doesn't matter what they have, it's going to be hitting really hard, and their strongest member just died. So there was no coming back from that fight. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm very happy how we found it.
Who do you think you're going to face in the last finals and why?
BrokenBlade: I think we will be facing MKOI again because KC is right now in a slump from the looks of it, from my perception. So if they don't come back from this, I think it's going to be MKOI 100%, but if they find their form back of how they usually play, I will say that KC will meet us in the finals. That's what I think.
Then let's move on, looking forward to MSI. Romain Bigeard said that you're going to bootcamp to T1. Considering also how you performed in First Stand, there's going to be high expectations placed on you and your team. What are your expectations going into MSI?
BrokenBlade: I learned that going into a tournament with expectations is not good because you can only be let down. I think usually what I like to do nowadays is like I go in there, I evaluate my form, I evaluate how much better I need to get or how much I need to adapt to the meta, because the meta is always different. You go into international stage, people will play different stuff. It's just how it is.
Here I played Yasuo, Yone, TF, obviously I would look to play those things as well, but the toplane meta is really weird right now. And I think for me as a toplaner, if I play against the best toplaners in the world, I will have to make sure that — especially right now when people are playing all these range toplanes, Anivia, Cassiopeia, Twisted Fate — it's going to be important that I make sure my scenario is good because it can be very, very one-sided. I mean, we've seen it today. When I played the Twisted Fate, I was up a lot of gold because it's just strong and I'm good at it as well.
As a last question, a lot of people were surprised you chose Turkey instead of Germany when it came to ENC. So can you maybe share what was your thought process or if there was not even a question for you?
BrokenBlade: For me, there was not really a question. Again, I don't think I have to justify myself to anyone for choosing the country that I want to play for. I have started my career in Turkey and that is for me a way to give them back. That doesn't disregard anything. I thought about the national team for Germany, but that's just what I chose to do. I know that obviously some people are upset, but whatever side I would've chosen, I think people would've been upset. So for me, I'll just go with what I believe in and I'm happy that I can represent Turkey and that's it.”
