On the 10th (KST), G2 overcame Afreeca Freecs and have finished their first day of groups with a 1-0 score.

Despite G2 being famous for their Heimerdinger and seen as the underdogs for their group, G2 came out victorious due to immaculate macro and Afreeca not banning Heimerdinger. Hjarnan on Heimerdinger truly showed why it should be perma banned for the entirety of the World Championships.

After the game, we interviewed G2’s ADC, Hjarnan. Let’s see what he has to say about beating one of the best Korean teams at Worlds.

¤ How do you feel about the win against Afreeca Freecs?

I think we played pretty well. It feels great that we were able to play decent macro against a team that is already known to play good macro. It was a very cool and collected game I would say. We knew our Camille would win against Sion when it does come to the split push stage. This is why we didn’t want to do anything crazy like Baron at 20 mins, which is what we usually do we Heimer.


¤ I have talked with Jankos about G2 grabbing a free win if Heimerdinger is not banned. He said it is not necessarily a free win, but it looked really good this game. Is it really just a free win?

(laughs). I wouldn’t say us getting Heimerdinger is a free win. I think Heimer helps us overall as a team. This is because, as a team, we don’t need to try as hard to play around bot side or get vision through bot side. With Heimer, I can also 2v1 the lane as well.

In addition to all this, Heimerdinger allows decent support champions to be even more effective in the laning phase. This is due to the fact that Heimerdinger makes supports stronger. You can get away with picking teamfighting champions like Rakan. Heimerdinger can also allow you to do more than a normal ADC can do.


¤ Why do you think Afreeca did not ban Heimer?

Hmm, yeah. I believe they just thought Alistar Kai’Sa is just so strong. In the first 3 picks, they got Taliyah, Alistar, and Kai’Sa. On paper, this is an incredibly strong draft. Kai’Sa is strong late, and Taliyah + Alistar is the strongest early jungle-support synergy. Their idea was probably, ‘let’s ping a few times bot and camp their lane. Get a few kills and outscale them.’ But then, Afreeca couldn’t grab the kills they wanted from the bot lane. Even though they tried with Taliyah.

So overall, I think Afreeca didn’t ban Heimerdinger because they thought their lineup would be a lot stronger.


¤ Many people had doubt for G2 has you guys did look shaky in the Play-Ins. In today’s game against Afreeca, you guys looked as solid as ever. What really changed during the break between Play-In and Groups?

It is mainly because of the different styles of play between Play-Ins and Groups. Play-In teams play a lot more hectic. Leave bot lane and go all 5 mid to look for kills. It is hard for a pro player to adapt when all the enemy team wants to do is not macro but look for kills and plays everywhere on the map. At some point, this caught us off guard and gave kills here and there.

Against Afreeca, they knew how to play well behind and we knew how to play well ahead. However, our team comp scaled a lot better. Us and Afreeca both played well macro wise, but we just had an easier time playing clean due to our early game.


¤ Now that you have beaten Afreeca, what are your predictions/expectations for the rest of the teams in Group A?

For me, I personally don’t have any expectations. I think we should just play us a team. If we fail on what we are supposed to do as a team, we don’t deserve to win basically. If we play well, we obviously deserve to win. We’ll take it game by game and just see how well we can do.


¤ Lastly, is there anything you want to say to your fans?

I want to thank all the fans who have supported me through these tough times of hate from a lot of people.