Today, both major region seeds found their way into the World Championship Group Stage. G2 Esports edged out a close series with Infinity Esports 3-1, while G-Rex similarly defeated Supermassive 3-1. The World Championship group stage commences on October 10th in Busan, South Korea. G2 Esports and their jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski will be playing in Group A alongside Flash Wolves, Afreeca Freecs, and Phong Vũ Buffalo.

We had a chance to talk to Jankos after G2 Esports’ win against Infinity Esports and prior to the Group Draw.

What did you think of your performance today?

I mean, I think Infinity actually played better than Supermassive. They were more aware of side lanes and had better drafts… They were more aware of how to play the game. But that could be because we showed a lot in the group stage of play-ins, so maybe they had a better idea of how to play against us. We also scrimmed them before the knockout stage because we didn’t know if we would play them. But I also think that we didn’t play as well as we did on Day 2. Our drafts were really questionable in Game 4 so I’m really glad we won that game. In Game 1, I think we made mistakes early game and they just snowballed… then when we actually scaled and could have won the game, we threw. I think we misplayed a lot in the series and we need to pick up the slack otherwise we definitely won’t make it out of groups.

Emerging regions performed pretty well at this tournament. What did you think of their level and what did they do right?

I just think that the teams are a lot better than [last year]. Also, I think the meta is more straightforward. You don’t need to be insane at the meta game to play kind of decent. That’s why a lot of those teams when playing against EDG or Cloud9, they lose in farm a lot because we have better sidelane control. But even then, they can just go mid and snowball the game because it’s easy. The meta kind of suits a worst playstyle, but also it’s on us to not make those mistakes and lose those leads. We can still show that we’re good teams because, for example, EDG destroyed in their match because they were better players and showed it.

SolidSnake is respected in Latin America and even North American solo queue as a good jungler. What did you think of him?

First two games, he was kind of fine… he didn’t do anything special compared to anyone else. It was pretty straightforward to play against him. In Game 4, he killed me 1v1 because I made a mistake. He, for sure, is the best jungler I’ve played against so far in the tournament, but if I wasn’t able to match him, then I wouldn’t be able to match the best junglers that are waiting for me. I think overall my performance today was fine. Although, I did not play as well I did on Day 2.

Now that you’ve qualified for the group stage, what are the pros and cons of the groups?

I think that Group A is basically better than Group C… the teams are just way better so that’s why we, for sure, want to be in Group C. I think, even if we are in a group with kt, those teams are a lot easier to beat. They’re not bad or anything, but they are probably worse than Flash Wolves and the other teams. I also think team MAD could be worse than Buffalo. When it comes to Group A, all the teams are really strong but we can’t underestimate Group C.

Some people mentioned that the junglers at this tournament are weak apart from Spirit, Karsa, and Score. What do you think about that?

I think that the junglers are good. In Play-Ins, I didn’t meet really strong junglers, but I think no matter whether I go to Group A or Group C, I’ll play against good junglers. We still have Spirit, Karsa, and Score in those groups to play. Ambition is also in the other groups… he isn’t a 1v9 player, but he is really smart. There are still junglers that I can still learn from and even from Europe, Broxah and Kikis are kind of good. We have Xmithie from NA who is really good and Svenskeren who steps up when they need him. I think there’s a lot of good players here.

As far as groups, what about them are you looking forward to?

I think I would to go to Group C and play against Xmithie because last time we played at Rift Rivals, they didn’t perform that well and I feel he is generally smart when it comes to playing against the same. And yeah, Score for sure too. I’m not too familiar with MAD’s jungler but I am sure he will play well too. I think Group C has a lot of potential when it comes to jungler matchups.

And if we would go to Group A, Spirit is definitely a good player. Now, he’s nothing like he was in Europe because in EU, he was so much worse, but now he’s better.

Photo: (Riot Games, lolesports)