G2 came agonizingly close to reaching another Major Grand Final but fell short at the final hurdle as NAVI clinched victory by winning the decisive map of Ancient.

After the game, G2’s in-game leader, Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen, shared his thoughts on the match.

- We are throwing away a lot of afterplants left and right which is of course our own mistake. We are losing to ourselves, Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen said about losing on their own map pick of Anubis.

[twitchClip:MushyAwkwardGoblinGingerPower-qaEtjFOIX3NwckWs]

The issue of internal struggle was also addressed by G2's coach, Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, during a team discussion, as mentioned by Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen in the interview.

- TAZ, our coach, said that “If we overcome this thing of fighting ourselves so much, we will win every tournament that we participate in”, and I think that is true, he added. 

[twitchClip:BillowingColorfulGrouseWholeWheat-GPNuiEydJlI9w7QP]

HooXi

G2 Esports

The remarkable journey of ECSTATIC came to an end at the PGL Copenhagen Major after the Danish underdogs suffered a 2-1 defeat to G2 in the Elimination Stage of the tournament.

Throughout the match, G2’s in-game leader Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen attempted to unsettle the ECSTATIC players by shouting at them, but as ECSTATIC’s in-game leader Patrick "Patti" Larsen expressed in an exit interview after the match, that's just part of the game.

- I didn’t really hear if he said any words or anything, but I heard him screaming and his annoying laugh. But apart from that, I didn’t really hear him at all," Patti told James Banks in the interview, acknowledging that the shouting did affect him during the match.

- Sometimes I was like ‘Shut the fuck up,’ but it’s good banter, and I would do the same if I was winning, so it’s all good.

[twitchClip:GenerousBovineTarsierShazBotstix-TaNE-fNfK3Nvjyb7]

While the exit from the Major may sting for ECSTATIC at present, the Danish roster can draw many positive takeaways from their experience in Copenhagen.

- It’s been one hell of an experience and something we would dream of going to Major and ending up in the top 16 in your first Major," Patti said before discussing the team's future.

- I can only speak for myself, but reaching the top 16 at a Major gives us confidence that we are doing something right and that we are on the right path. From now on, it will only go in the right direction, so I think it’s a positive sign for all of us.

[twitchClip:SassyYummyGarageDatSheffy-wy0L0Rm3GbF1Pp2E]

Patti

ECSTATIC

The Summer of 2023 will forever go down in the history books of Counter-Strike as one of the craziest times in competitive CS. The countless roster moves left the number of teams that did not change their roster clearly outnumbered. One of them was G2. The IEM Katowice champions chose to stick with their lineup despite a couple of bad results towards the end of the season with BLAST Paris Major and IEM Dallas being the absolute low points of the season.

On the podcast "Talking Counter" G2's in-game leader Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen spoke about the end of the last season when he began to feel burned out.

- The tournaments (IEM Dallas and BLAST Spring Finals) after (the Paris Major) were a mix of disappointment of all the hard work that didn’t pay off, and also me burning out completely. It was my first season of travelling this much and a lot of shit happened in my personal life. I don’t know how depression feels, but I think that was the start of a depression for me. If the player break didn’t come it was “GG” for me, HooXi explained to Janko "YNk" Paunović and Jason "moses" O'Toole.

The Danish in-game leader was mentioned during the summer as the most likely candidate to be switched out on the team if G2 were to make any roster move. That never happened and perhaps it was because HooXi was honest about his need for a break.

- To be fair. The smartest decision for me would have been to skip the NA events, the G2 IGL told in the podcast, where he also explained the conversation, he had with the G2 management after the season was over, where he stated, that he hoped to get another chance to prove his worth, which immediately paid off with a win at IEM Cologne.

HooXi and G2 went through the group phase of the ESL Pro League winning all three matches. They are qualified directly for the Quarter-Finals of the tournament on Friday.

You can watch the entire episode with Hooxi down below.

It is no secret that the amount of rosters with five players from the same nationality seems to dwindling faster and faster. The player pool is, of course, bigger with more nationalities to choose from and many organization has looked to create the perfect roster by mixing different nationalities and languages. One of these organizations is the famous Natus Vincere. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"navi-confirms-international-roster","isNewTab":true}]

Not many would have anticipated that there would ever be a day when both "Aleksib" and "s1mple" would be playing under the same banner, however, with the recent changes to the Natus Vincere roster, exactly that happened. Going international and switching to English as the main language for communication, the new-look NaVi roster left us all surprised and perhaps perplexed. 

A roster that once made the same shift to become international is the former team of "Aleksib" G2. Now led by Danish "HooXi", G2 has managed to succeed in its transition to becoming an international roster with different nationalities onboard. 

When asked in a BLAST Premier interview about the recent NaVi changes, the Danish IGL had the following to say: 

The 28-year-old continued by speaking on the advantages and disadvantages of going international with a CS:GO roster: 

Finish 7-8th at the just-finished IEM Cologne 2023 event it is difficult to say whether or not Natus Vincere and their new international project is going to be a success or not. We will have to wait to find out whether or not Natus Vincere are able to become the new G2 and successfully transfer into an international roster. 

You can watch the entire interview with "HooXi" and "jks" down below: 

Natus Vincere

The community around CS:GO has multiple times shown that it is capable of achieving big things outside of the server.

Clutch Cancer is the latest initiative where Counter-Strike is being used as a platform to help other people. The man behind the initiative is Morten 'ZukwiZ' Byskov. The co-founder of GamerPay launched the initiative after his own experience of losing a family member due to the disease.

On Clutchcancer.com you can register if you want to be a part of the project. In season 1 the two chosen projects to support are "Danish Cancer Society" & "Cancer Is Not For Children".

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"misc/ClutchCancer_ls5gmh","originalWidth":2024,"originalHeight":1012,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg"}]

As seen in the image above there are several big names within the CS:GO community who are committed to the project. All of them have signed up to donate a fixed amount every time they get a kill with their stattrack weapon of choice. You can also sign up to support. The first season runs from the 1st of March until the 1st of June.

Here at Pley.gg we wish everyone happy fragging!

Read more on [link:{"url":"https://www.clutchcancer.com/","isNewTab":true,"text":"Clutchcancer.com"}]

dupreeh

Twistzz

olofmeister

Ever since Valve revealed the highly-anticipated Counter-Strike 2 earlier this week, the entire Counter-Strike community has been busy testing, dissecting, and especially discussing the new [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/counter-strike-2-announced","isNewTab":true,"text":"update"}].

Where a new and innovative smoke mechanic that lets you create gaps in the smoke itself and a major overhaul of the overall appearance and graphics of the maps, clearly seem to be the biggest talking points.

G2 in-game leader Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen has also chimed in with his opinion with the Danish captain expressing his dislike for a couple of aspects including the above-mentioned features, he notes in a Twitlonger.

- While I think I stand pretty alone with this, I think the game looks a bit too cartoon-ish. I like the fact that it is way brighter and it has more colours - CSGO looks very boring compared to CS2, but I think this could've been achieved without taking inspiration from Fortnite and Valorant. I hope and think most of it is about getting used to it, HooXi states about the overall look of the game.

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The smoke update is also a worrying sight for HooXi despite seeing some positives though.

- I actually like the idea that you can shoot the smoke and it is more revealing for whoever initiates the spam battle. I think that is a good and fair replacement removing oneway smokes and the HE bug, where you could see "shadows" of people through the smoke that you were not supposed to, HooXi explains but continues:

- BUT the new HE mechanic of making the smoke literally disappear for 3-4 sec. is too much. It will change the way CS is played forever and you have to be very careful when changing fundamental parts of CS that has been there since the beginning. I am not a fan and I hope they come up with something else or just remove this completely and this is not just me being your typical CS player that hates changed I put a lot of thoughts into it, I tried and I am coming to the same conclusion over and over.

You can read HooXi's lengthy read about Counter-Strike down below, where he also pinpoints multiple positive things about the new update.

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If you hold a partner spot in ESL or BLAST - or perhaps even both – then you’re secured to feature in multiple top-tier tournaments during the calendar year. Holding a franchise spot of this calibre simply means that you have some advantages that other teams don’t.

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That’s a question that the G2 IGL Rasmus “HooXi” Pallisgaard Nielsen touches on in a recent podcast episode of ‘Ace – A CS:GO podcast’. Here HooXi outlines why he believes “it’s much easier to be a tier-1 team” and how some of the big tournaments by ESL and BLAST favour the top teams too much.

The G2 captain starts off by highlighting the direct invites top-tier teams are getting due to their franchise spots.

- It’s, in any way, easier to just pack your suitcase and go to the tournament instead of going through eight qualifiers to get to a BLAST event, that's for sure. When you're at a BLAST event and you're a tier-1 team and have a franchise spot, you almost can't be eliminated. You have one chance, so if you get eliminated, you just get one more chance, HooXi said and continued.

- For our latest event here in Copenhagen [BLAST Spring Groups], you can be last in the group but still have one more chance, and if you lose that, you still have one more chance. Well, why not? But come on… we are also professional players, and if you do poorly, you lose your shot. That's the way it is.

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HooXi (to the left) together with Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov (to the left) after G2's big triumph at BLAST Premier World Final in Abu Dhabi last year

As HooXi explains, the structure of BLAST Premier Spring Groups, a qualifying tournament for the prestigious main event held in Washington, D.C, USA, seem to favor the 12 partner teams.

You can lose all your matches at BLAST Premier Spring Groups but still qualify due to being directly invited to the next qualifier which is the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. Here four EU teams and two NA teams will join the party respectively for the two regional events.

Some of the same tendencies can also be seen in the second big tournament organizer ESL, HooXi explains.

- Here for the ESL Pro League, there is an upper and lower bracket and if you get kicked out of the lower bracket, there is also a last-chance stage. And if you can't get through that, then you should probably just go home and train a bit instead, HooXi said while laughing.

- It's just much easier to be a tier-1 team. It was definitely also something that played a role in the whole decision around the Flames lineup not continuing together, I think. Because nicoodoz and roeJ got the chance to go to Fnatic, which has an ESL Pro League spot... It means a lot because that you can skip all the gambols and focus on the Major and other HLTV tournaments, HooXi concluded. 

Astralis – BIG – Complexity – ENCE – Evil Geniuses – FaZe – Fnatic – FURIA – G2 – Heroic – MOUZ – NAVI – NIP – Liquid – Vitality

Astralis – BIG – Complexity – Evil Geniuses – FaZe – G2 – Heroic – OG – NAVI – NIP – Liquid – Vitality

You can hear the entire episode with HooXi [link:{"url":"https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/ace-en-cs-go-podcast-episode-127-m-hooxi/id1520187852?i=1000604765525","isNewTab":true,"text":"here"}]. It’s worth mentioning that the podcast is in Danish. 

In the interview below, ENCE's IGL Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer touches on the same topic discussing how difficult it is for a non-partnered team to qualify for some top-tier events. 

NAVI’s coach, B1ad3, has recently shared his opinion on G2’s Danish IGL, HooXi. In a video on ESL’s YouTube channel, various pro in-game leaders were asked to rate HooXi’s abilities as an IGL, and B1ad3 commented that he sees HooXi as a tier-2 or tier-3 IGL who is rapidly improving.

However, despite B1ad3’s assessment, other pro in-game leaders in the video spoke highly of HooXi’s abilities as a captain. They praised his strategic thinking, communication skills, and ability to adapt to different situations during matches.

HooXi himself is currently considered one of the top IGL’s in the CS:GO world, having led G2 to numerous victories and a top-ranking position on HLTV’s World Ranking. He is credited with bringing structure and discipline to the team’s gameplay, as well as introducing new strategies that have caught many of their opponents off guard.

Overall, while opinions on HooXi’s abilities as an IGL may vary, it is clear that he is a key player in G2’s success and a force to be reckoned with in the competitive CS:GO scene. Fans can check out the video to see what other pro in-game leaders had to say about him right here:

G2’s Bosnian star, Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, recently spoke in a post-match interview about his team’s IGL, Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen, after securing a win against Eternal Fire in the opening matchup of the ESL Pro League Group A. The victory marked G2’s 16th win in a row, and NiKo took the time to discuss the importance of HooXi to the team.

In the interview, NiKo praised HooXi as the “perfect fit” for G2, emphasizing that the team needed an IGL who was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. According to NiKo, HooXi’s ability to play bad positions, entry frag, and do whatever it takes to benefit the team made him the clear choice for G2. NiKo event went so far as to compare HooXi to former teammate karrigan, highlighting the similarities in their playstyles.

NiKo also spoke about the team’s need for an IGL who was willing to take on a more selfless role, given the number of stars on the G2 roster. With players like NiKo himself, huNter-, m0NESY, and jks, the team needed someone who was always willing to make sacrifices and put the team’s needs first.

Watch the post-match interview with NiKo right here:

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NiKo

G2’s captain Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen has come forward to address the “flag gate” incident, where the team was pictured with a flag that was later discovered to be associated with a political conflict. In a TwitLonger post, HooXi clarified that the team had no knowledge of the flag’s meaning and that they regretted being involved in such way. The post went on to explain the event leading up to the photo and how the team had learned from the incident.

- “We came back to the hotel and as we were about to take the elevator to our pracc room we got asked by a few guys in the lobby for a photo. As always we said yes, we always try to give back to our fans whatever small gesture we can for them. Since we kinda got caught of the blue we were not as aware as we should’ve been.”

The Danish IGL also defended Russian and Ukrainian players who have been criticized for taking pictures together at event, emphasizing that friendship and kindness should not be limited by nationality or political affiliation. G2 has yet to comment on the incident, but HooXi’s post offers insight into the team’s perspective on the matter.

- “Last thing I want to touch on is the people who’s hating on the Russian and Ukrainian players having a good relationship taking pictures together at events and so on. Stop going after these people. They have nothing to do with what’s going on and if anything, I think it shows faith in humanity that we can see beyond that as normal human beings and still have a good relationship because the difference is not where you’re from or what you look like but if you are a good person.”

You can read HooXi’s full TwitLonger post [link:{"url":"https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss88b8","isNewTab":true,"text":"right here"}]. 

Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov, the captain of forZe, has stepped forward to reveal a little secret about the improvement of G2’s map pool. In a recent conversation, Jerry was approached by G2’s captain, Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen, who was searching for answers to their struggles against forZe in practice matches.

Jerry documented their conversation and shared it on socials, showing his joy in being able to help a fellow CS:GO team make history. In the chatlog, it’s evident that HooXi was seeking an explanation for forZe’s ability to make his team struggle, a thing that no other team had been able to do so far. The screenshot, although not giving away all of Jerry’s advice, reveals that G2 had trouble with Mirage and Inferno and that they were not applying enough pressure on Inferno.

Jerry’s admission highlights the collaborative efforts and sportsmanship that exist within the competitive gaming world. His assistance allowed G2 to identify their weaknesses and make the necessary improvements, leading to their title victory at IEM Katowice 2023.

Jerry

forZe

Nemanja "huNter-" Kovac just won his first top-tier title with G2 after a dominant showing against Liquid at BLAST World Final in Abu Dhabi. The win ended the long, long trophy draught that both huNter and G2 has experienced during the past couple of years.

For the Bosnian, the win was extra special due to the fact that he did it alongside his cousin, Nikola "NiKo" Kovač. The two of them grew up playing the game together and were finally put on the same team last year when NiKo joined G2.

- Lifting the trophy with my brother. This was our dream. This was my dream when I started to play this game. I didn't care about winning trophies without him or anything else. I just wanted to play with him and do it with him. This is what we did, and I hope we keep doing it.

The win for G2 was also extra special given the circumstances surrounding Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen, who lost his father the day before the tournament started.

- What happened to HooXi and all the circumstances that he went through, of course, the emotions were even higher after winning this trophy, huNter stated.

huNter

Minutes after G2's victory against Team Vitality at BLAST Premier World Finals we spoke with a very emotional Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen. The G2 in-game leader learned shortly before the start of the tournament that his father had passed away in an untimely death. 

In accordance with his family's wishes, the 27-year-old Dane is playing the tournament in Abu Dhabi, but obviously under big emotional pressure.

- I'm just really happy to finally pull through in G2. Obviously with my dad passing away... The only reason why I played is to distract myself and to distract my sister and mom at home. I'm just happy that we finally made somewhat of a deep run at a tournament for once. 

The Semi-Final spot in BLAST World Finals comes after a difficult time for G2. The star-studded roster missed out on IEM Rio, and crashed out of BLAST Fall Finals early on. 

- It means a lot to finally get a little bit of wind in our sails. We had some shitty prac days at home. Long days that I think nobody really enjoyed. But we pulled through and it is paying off a little bit now, and hopefully, we are not done yet.

You can see the full interview with Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen here.

G2 will play against FaZe in the Semi-Final tomorrow at BLAST World Finals in the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

In Counter-Strike, being a captain on a top team is very difficult. As an IGL, you spend so much time thinking about the other side that your own fragging can take a back seat. But when you don’t put up the stats or don’t deliver enough kills as your fans expect, they can get vicious.

Every team in CS:GO wants a captain who can frag, but there are only so many seasoned veterans with brilliant minds and stellar aim to go around, so some teams have had to get creative.

Enter Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen, a Dane who by all accounts, is not the mythical fragging in-game leader. In fact, the 27-year-old Dane spent several important games on G2 at the bottom of the server.

Have you ever thought about what professional Counter-Strike players are doing when preparing for a big tournament? Posted on G2´s own Youtube channel, the players and staff are preparing for the last big tournament in 2022. BLAST World Finals are on the calendar for eight top teams in the world, who will be competing for a World Final trophy as well as $1,000,000 in prize pool.

Many fans in the community believe that CSGO players spend every hour on the server practicing executes and retakes to best their opponents, but in reality, the players from G2 use team building and mental performance as a big part of their training before going into top-tier tournaments. A 2022 year with ups and downs from the mixed European team now leads to one last tournament with hopes to give something back to all the fans who have witnessed G2 crumble on the big stage in recent tournaments. 

No days off, give you an insight into how G2 uses their time preparing for World Finals. Watch the VLOG, produced by the G2 team down below:

m0NESY

The iconic Dust2 map is currently on its last voyage through the competitive CS:GO landscape at the BLAST Fall Finals in Copenhagen. Next month at BLAST World Finals, a new update from Valve will be implemented, which will see Anubis replace Dust2 in the competitive map pool.

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The reaction from the professional CS:GO scene has been mixed. Most of the players have not yet tried out the new map. The top teams on Dust2 in 2022 have been NAVI, G2, Liquid, FaZe, and OG.

- I had a whole team whining about it, but I am happy about it because I don't like the map too much. But I think it is bad for our team because we are good on Dust2, in-game leader from G2 Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen told Pley.gg at BLAST Fall Finals.

You can see both Hooxi and m0NESY's answers on the update here.

FaZe Clan´s IGL Finn "karrigan" Andersen has made it possible for the fans to get an insight into how well the worlds best are communicating while playing some intense rounds against a well-rounded G2 team with HooXi in the line-up. Both in-game leaders are currently the two most hyped IGLs in the game of CounterStrike. HooXi who recently joined the G2 side after some great performances for Copenhagen Flames, and karrigan whose story is a bit different and more legendary. When the 32-year-old IGL Finn "karrigan" Andersen is going to retire, he will be going down as one of the best, if not the best IGL of all time.

Watch the voice comms from karrigan in the video below: 

The match ended with a 0-2 victory for the GIGACHAD HooXi and co.

karrigan

FaZe

Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen has both become a meme as well as the new IGL of G2, who recently fell short of qualifying for the Major in Rio. The 27-year-old IGL is currently one of the most spoken names in the CSGO community. In his recent performances for G2, the IGL has been slightly inconsistent which has led to some bad results for the G2 side. 

HooXi is averaging 0.87 Rating / 0.50 Kills per round / 61.8 ADR the past three months. The stats are not impressive at all, but you have to give a new IGL some time. In this case, HooXi not only needs to adapt to the game style of G2 but also turn his communication to all English. HooXi is loved in the CSGO community, and we all hope that he will continue as the IGL of G2. 

Check out this funny Youtube video about HooXi from "SuperstituM" right here:

G2's exit at the RU RMR was one of the biggest surprises in recent memory. The star-studded roster was eliminated by a completely newly formed GamerLegion, who took G2 out after three hectic maps.

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After the match, several of the G2 players made statements on their Twitter accounts including the two Bosnian cousins, NiKo and huNter.

Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen has been the talk of the town in CS:GO for some time now. The Danish IGL is busy being the captain of the star-studded G2 squad, which features profiles like Nikola “NiKo” Kovac and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, while he in the meantime also have to get used to being a kind of cult figure in the CS:GO community.

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Since HooXi took over the helm at G2, the European team have showed a promising level of Counter-Strike with the playstyle and mindset having shifted into a completely other direction after the benching of Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen.  

We have asked our CS:GO analyst Niels Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen to analyze G2 before and after picking up HooXi to highlight the biggest changes within the team. You can watch it in the video below.

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	30 days	90 days
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Maps count	0	0

HooXi

Player stats

Articles mentioning HooXi

Hooxi: We are losing to ourselves

Patti: I heard HooXi's screaming and his annoying laugh

HooXi: If the player break didn’t come it would have been “GG” for me

HooXi on new NaVi: It's going to be a huge uphill battle at the start

Clutch Cancer! CS:GO stars joins the fight against Cancer

HooXi on Counter-Strike 2: I think it looks a bit too cartoon-ish

HooXi criticizes BLAST and ESL for being too forgiven towards tier-1 and franchise teams

B1ad3: For me, HooXi is a tier-2, tier-3 IGL who is evolving pretty fast

NiKo: HooXi was the perfect fit for our team

HooXi explains “flag gate”

forZe captain reveals how he helped fix G2’s map pool

huNter: I just wanted to lift a trophy with my brother. This was our dream

Emotional HooXi: I only play to distract myself and my family

Video: How a Bottom-Fragging IGL became the GigaChad of CS:GO

Video: Come behind the scenes with NiKo and the rest of G2

Hooxi on Dust2 removal: I had the whole team whining about it

Voice comms: Can Karrigan Defeat GIGACHAD HOOXI?!

Video: How HooXi The GigaChad Really Plays CS:GO

huNter: Worst feeling ever in my career

The HooXi effect! What has he changed on G2?

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