G2 player Guy NertZ Iluz gave an interview to Players ahead of the CS2 IEM Cologne Major 2026 playoffs. He spoke about his emotions after losing a 1v4 clutch to Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov, as well as his team's steady improvement.
In the playoffs, you will be playing against Team Spirit, who are arguably the strongest team in the world right now. What is the key to beating them, and do you think their lack of a permanent coach could become an important factor?
Maybe the absence of a permanent coach will make things a bit different for them. However, I think these playoffs will be heavily about handling pressure. Right now, in my opinion, Spirit are in the best form at this tournament, and they are the best in the world — at least for me. Of course, beating them would give us a massive confidence boost.
NAVI pulled off a comeback against you thanks to a 1v4 clutch by w0nderful, which could have completely broken your morale and shifted the momentum of the game. How did the team manage to mentally reset and bounce back after such a difficult moment?
I would say it was really hard. We went outside during the break, and it wasn’t easy. We had to give our absolute best to reset and talk through what we felt about how we lost that round on Dust2. It remained like that for the entire match — both on Inferno and Mirage. It was a constant back-and-forth and incredibly tough. Mentally, it was definitely one of the hardest games.
What emotions did you experience at the exact moment you lost that round?
To be honest, I didn't feel that bad. For some people, playing the game brings out far more intense emotions than just watching it as a viewer. But as for me, I remained calm and truly believed we could still win, so it didn't hit me that hard at the moment.
G2 hadn't reached the playoffs for three tournaments in a row, but now you are here. What was the key to this breakthrough?
Maybe me? (laughs) Nah, I'm just joking. Honestly, I don't know. We just gave it our all, and we are playing really well right now. I hope we will continue to improve as a team. I'm happy we made the playoffs, but this is definitely not our ultimate goal.
When you joined G2, malbsMd moved in the opposite direction to Team Liquid. Which team do you think benefited more from this roster move?
I think it was a boost for both teams. But as I've told everyone who asks me, malbsMd is an insane player, no doubt about it. I feel like Team Liquid might gain the most out of this because they got an incredibly aggressive player, which is something they previously lacked. He is also a great teammate. So, in my opinion, Liquid might benefit slightly more from this swap than G2.
From an outside perspective, it looks like G2 is improving with every single match. How close do you think this roster is to reaching its peak form, and what areas still need work before you can confidently contend for titles?
It is purely a matter of time. Since I joined, we have changed a few things, and it has helped us significantly. It's incredibly important for us to keep building on that, but we just need more time. Unfortunately, we haven't had enough of it yet. I hope that in two or three months, we will have the opportunity to fix everything. When you are constantly traveling from tournament to tournament, you don't have the time to fix many of the maps. Even a one-week bootcamp isn't enough because your practice time is so limited. So, for me, it all comes down to time.
