G2 Esports has just beaten Gen.G 3-0. The best team in the world, the favorite to win everything, the undefeated roster has fallen. G2 now advances to the finals where their final challenge will be an LPL representative.
Gen.G has been the best team in the world for over a year, only pausing their dominance at the LoL World Championship. To recap their achievements until this series in 2026:
The LCK’s first seed was an inevitability. Even when killing their laners, they somehow jumped ahead in gold regardless.
G2, the representative from a region that’s been in a slump since 2021, didn’t stand a single chance. Even taking one single game was seen as a far stretch. The odds were 1.03 to 10.13.
The heavy favorite Gen.G is eliminated from LoL First Stand. Image source: Cesar Galeao / Riot Games
Game 1 started with G2’s bot lane jumping ahead. From then on, the LEC representative made sure to play exclusively around the bot lane. The rest of the team played support and G2’s advantage spread to every player.
Despite a strong lead at 20 minutes, fans and casters still didn’t believe in G2. Gen.G is one of the best teamfighting teams in the world, and they would just need one single poor setup to make that entire lead disappear. But G2 outplayed them even in the fights, and in 32 minutes, game 1 was theirs with a score of 16-4.
In the second game, Gen.G went for a more aggressive comp with a top lane Vayne and mid lane Ahri. While G2 once again built a lead in the bot lane, the eventuality of a splitpushing AD carry for Kim “Kiin” Gi-in was terrifying.
However, the second map went down a similar path. G2 got more picks, played better around the map, took cleaner fights. 2-0 for the LEC.
Game 3 was the most surprising given the context for these two teams. Simultaneously, it was also the least surprising seeing how the series went. G2 started playing with the confidence they had in 2019 and it was Gen.G who looked shaky and crumbled under the pressure.
G2 went for a Kog’Maw comp with a mid lane Akali. Rasmus “Caps” Winther played right into Gen.G’s face without fear. At that point, G2 knew that they had become the favorite. 30 minutes later, the LEC representative had eliminated Gen.G 3-0.
Caps outperformed Jeong Ji-hoon at First Stand 2026. Image source: Cesar Galeao
G2 now has one final match ahead of them, against either Bilibili Gaming or JD Gaming. BLG has already beaten G2 3-0, but with the way the Europeans played in their last two series, they’ve become a wholly different team. At the same time, G2 has always fared better against the LCK than the LPL. All European fans remember 2019 when they took out the LCK before being humbled by FunPlus Phoenix in the grand finals.
That said, their chances are better than ever. Is there any better momentum boost than beating the best LoL team in the world? Tune in on March 22, 2 pm CET / 6 am PST to witness the final chapter of LoL First Stand 2026.
Featured image source: Cesar Galeao / Riot Games
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