Insider Gaming spoke to Trent ‘trent’ Cairns after G2’s agonizing elimination in the Esports World Cup 2026, which saw G2 squander multiple map and series points before falling to Nongshim RedForce.
The result meant consecutive painful eliminations for G2 at an international event, after a faltering and illness-stricken campaign at Valorant Masters London.
It was an extremely dramatic match, from the first map to the last. You had chances to close out the series. You made a great comeback in the last map but couldn’t quite get to overtime. How are you feeling overall?
Feeling down, obviously. Hate losing. So when we lose, I don’t feel good, obviously.
I don’t think it was the worst tournament for us. I think we could have won both games versus Nongshim, and this recent game should have been a 2-0. We should have won on Sunset.
I mean, we had to do a lot of rethinking after London, and we didn’t have a lot of time. We had to change some of our comps, change our identity leading into the meta.
So we only had like a week of practice, but still had a lot of mistakes that we have got to clean up for Stage 2 and hopefully Champs.
You mentioned the meta, and it’s something which I don’t think I really remember a year in Valorant where the meta has shifted so dramatically three times. How hard is it to make those adjustments?
It’s very difficult, but, you know, that’s Valorant. Every team has to go through the same problems. Every team has to adjust to the meta that comes every single time, and that’s just Valorant.
There have been like two or three different metas in the last year. So there’s no other option besides just adapt or die.
So we’re just trying to figure it out, and we died this time, but hopefully we can scale up for a better Stage 2 and Champs.
In terms of the specific things you worked on after London, what were the major issues that you were targeting?
We kind of just played one archetype for all of London, just a double-Controller/Sentinel or putting leaf on the flex, and it just wasn’t working out for us.
So we decided to put babybay on the duelist for full time, pretty much. Obviously, if we’re going to play Chamber, he plays the Chamber like on Sunset. But that was kind of our idea to just lean into the meta that’s happening right now to make everyone comfortable.
So we had three agent swaps with babybay, jawgemo, and leaf. They kind of just were filling around the meta. So we had to like fully change a majority of our comps to be where we are.
Do you think the roster has the kind of versatility in it to be able to kind of make those changes and still be at the same level?
Yeah, I think so. I mean, we’ve all been here for so long. It’s not our first international, it’s not our second. So we kind of know what it takes to have to adjust and figure out what the meta is, and adhere to it in a short amount of time.
I think we played all right. You know, we had some mistakes here and there, and it cost us the game. Nongshim was very good at capitalizing on those mistakes and kind of just took it and ran with it. So just got to fix up some mistakes, and hopefully it’ll be better.
There is a feeling that there is a difference between G2 internationally and domestically. Is there anything in the server that is different in international tournaments, like confidence?
No, I think we’re just better than all the Americas teams, so the mistakes kind of wash away. It doesn’t really show up as much against those teams.
And against the international teams, that’s why everyone’s here. So if teams make mistakes against us in Americas or here, we capitalize on it, but you can’t be the team that makes more mistakes.
I think we just have to improve. But I don’t think there’s less confidence, more stress, or nerves. I’ve been here so many times, I’m just going out there and playing the same game that I play every time. So don’t feel nervous. I don’t feel pressure. It’s just Valorant.
It’s Valorant, right? So there’s no perfect play. I don’t know, it’s hard. Valorant is a different game from any other game.
You just have to make less mistakes. There’s too much utility in the game to make a mistake, and you just lose your round.
Yeah, so you know, so you mentioned that utility kind of coming back.
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In terms of the meta, do you think it’s going to be a lot about focusing on those utility recharges and timings and stuff like that?
As of now, I don’t think so as much. I mean, as you can see, most of these teams are just playing double duelist on like every map, and they have the duelists have the strongest pieces of util. So if you use it and you capitalize, then that’s the entire role of the duelist.
So you only have, usually you only have one shot at it. So if you make it work and you get your kill, then your round is significantly easier.
So, on the other side, you have to make sure that you’re not too far forward by yourself and getting caught off guard.
I think it’s not more so the initiator changes, but it’s just like the duelists are too strong right now, all of them almost. So you can really pick and choose any duelist that you want, and if your util wins, the round is just easier.
So you’ll be going into another domestic split now. How are you going to stop yourself from becoming complacent and really focus in and hone in on those mistakes when you’re not being punished for them?
I mean, we haven’t won anything yet, so there’s not really a choice to be complacent. The goal is to win an international, to win the Champions, EWC, whatever it may be. So winning a domestic doesn’t really do anything. You just make it to the next one. It’s just a qualifier.
I don’t see it as I can be complacent because the ultimate goal hasn’t been accomplished. It’s not like we’ve gotten to the top and won something, and then we’ve started to drift away. We’re just making it there and not continuing our runs there.
So for me, it’s just that I continue to play and practice every single day as hard as I can and make sure that I’m getting better every day and learning something or understanding what I’m being taught every single day to try and just improve my gameplay.
End of Interview
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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