G2 Mikyx claims the West is “doomed” as other Western teams underperform at Worlds 2023

G2 Esports player Mihael ‘Mikyx’ Mehle spoke on North American and European team’s chances at Worlds 2023 after his squad started out 2-0.

Outside of G2, no other LEC or LCS team has started off Worlds 2023 hot. Team Liquid and Team BDS sit at 0-2 ahead of the third round of the Swiss Stage, and every other team except G2 is 1-1.

The LEC No. 1 seed took down Dplus KIA in their first matchup and then defeated the LPL’s No. 4 seed, Weibo, in the second round. While both matches were close, G2 came out on top.

When asked about how he thinks Western teams will fare for the rest of the tournament, G2 support Mikyx gave an honest assessment:

“The West is doomed. I have to admit everyone else in the West is really Bronze, so I don’t have any hope. I think we’re actually good. So I think we can win,” he told Inven Global.

G2 Mikyx calls other Western teams “Bronze”

Mikyx attributed his team’s good start to its understanding of the meta and drafting well, and other teams not really getting it quite yet.

“Maybe we learned some stuff from the top teams, but I think most teams are not very good at drafting for the meta. I don’t think they have the best read. We have a pretty decent one. I wouldn’t really say that we learned much from the Asian teams in terms of meta, I think more likely they learned from us. We had a pretty good read,” Mikyx explained.

G2 have showcased some unique picks so far at the event, like Steven ‘Hans Sama’ Liv’s Draven and Sergen ‘BrokenBlade’ Çelik’s Yone.

It’s a widely-held sentiment that the best way to beat Eastern teams may be to surprise them with picks they don’t know how to counter, and G2’s certainly the team that can put a strategy like that into practice.

The support player also said the top teams have their own meta and play to their own strengths, so finding the tournament meta is less important to their success than it may be for other Western teams.

Even Golden Guardian’s huhi gave G2 his vote of confidence when Dexerto interviewed him ahead of their match against Team BDS, with the NA support player claiming the LEC powerhouse was the West’s best chance of making a mark at Worlds 2023.

That said, Mikyx did claim could see Team Liquid doing decently well at the tournament at the time the interview was conducted. It’s unclear if Team Liquid’s one-sided loss at the hand of NRG would change his mind.

G2 and Mikyx will have their first real test of the tournament on October 21 as the LEC team is set to play against the top South Korean squad Gen.G Esports in the third round of the Swiss Stage.