G2 Esports superstar Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski has admitted he can see a future where he trades in European stardom for a place in the North American LCS, and it may be sooner than he’s previously let on.
When Jankos’ main jungle rival Mads ‘Broxah’ Brock-Pedersen left Fnatic for Team Liquid in a tumultuous offseason, the Polish star admitted he believed the LCS was a step down from LEC, and that it would “dull” even the best EU talent to go there.
He left the door open to a potential move to North America back then, however, even as he joked it may be a good retirement. Now, it looks like the reigning European MVP may have a clearer idea of when he’d make the potential defection.
According to Jankos, who discussed the potential switch in an interview with Esportmania on February 13, he wants to stay with LEC titans G2 “for as long as possible,” but admitted he’s “open to a change” if things don’t work out.
In regards to things not working out, Jankos added that he meant silverware for G2. The LEC champs snapped a near-decade international title drought for Europe with a 3–0 demolition of Liquid, but a world championship eluded them.
After being swept 3–0 by FunPlus Phoenix in the Worlds final in front of thousands of home fans in Paris, Jankos believes the team “will decide to make some changes.” If that happens, the Polish star may head to North America.
“It doesn’t matter for me where I’m going to live and play [after this G2 roster disbands], it doesn’t have to be Poland or Europe. If I consider it worth to go to the US, I’d do it in the last years of my career,” Jankos explained.
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“For now, however, I’d like to stay with G2, but once the season ends, we will see. Maybe I’ll end my career if we don’t succeed and the organisation will decide to make some changes. So, moving to America might happen.”
Right now, however, G2 doesn’t look like missing a beat. The squad made the bold move to role-swap Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković and Rasmus ‘Caps’ Winther heading into Spring. So far, it’s paid off: the team is 6–0 after three weeks.
Crucially, the defending champions have already played potential title contenders Fnatic and Origen. It may just be three weeks in, but it already looks like G2 could be on their way to 2020 MSI to defend their international throne.
While G2 doing well might be bad news for NA, both because LCS fans may want to see the Polish banshee arrive in Los Angeles, and because their championship team may potentially have to play the LEC leaders at MSI, there has been some good news for another EU jungler.
After three weeks of riding the pine, Liquid’s major offseason signing Broxah has finally had his visa approved, and is expected to start for the four-time champions this weekend against Immortals and Counter Logic Gaming.
Ironically enough, if he starts on Saturday, Broxah will face the man he replaced in Jake ‘Xmithie’ Puchero, as well as former Fnatic teammate Paul ‘sOAZ’ Boyer, with whom he went to the Worlds grand final—what a start for the Danish star.
