The Blame Game: Is huNter- the New Scapegoat for G2 Esports?
Ever since he joined G2 Esports in August 2022, HooXi has been the main scapegoat for the Counter-Strike’s team failures. But, recently, the community seems to blame another member of the squad.
G2’s fans have been pointing fingers at huNter-, one of the riflers in the team, who according to them has been lackluster for a few months. In a Reddit post from April 18, redditors discussed his poor stats in CS2. Ever since the game released in September last year, the Bosnian player has accumulated a KD ratio of 0.96 and average damage of 70, according to HLTV. Obviously, there’s a much bigger sample size when it comes to huNter-‘s CS:GO stats, where he had 84 average damage, 1.16 KD ratio, and a 1.12 rating, according to HLTV. But these stats are fairly similar for what the rifler put up in 2022, suggesting that so far he just can’t adapt to CS2 as well as to the previous version of the game.
Fans pointed out how odd it is that huNter- has fallen off in CS2, given that rifles received an overall buff compared to the AWP. As a result, numerous riflers started playing way better by the end of last year, and continue doing so. But, they believe there’s more to huNter-‘s form lately than just stats.
“His numbers also don’t tell the whole story. Imo he’s worse than they show,” one of the players wrote on Reddit. “He so seldomly has any heavy impact rounds. So few impactful frags.” More players piled on, calling for huNter- to take his place on the chopping block over players like HooXi and nexa. In their defense, though, it’s often only m0NESY has been standing out in G2’s recent losses.
At the PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major semifinal, where G2 fell to eventual champions Natus Vincere, m0NESY boasted a 1.47 rating, according to HLTV. NiKo finished with a 1.07 rating, while nexa, huNter- and HooXi were all below one. The story was similar during the recent loss against Liquid at IEM Chengdu 2024, where m0NESY was the single G2 individual to have a rating above one (1.30), while everyone else finished below 0.90, with huNter- dead last at 0.84.
This doesn’t mean HooXi and nexa are completely off the hook with G2 fans for their performances as of late. The players were among those least popular with fans after the European squad were eliminated from the Danish Major, but judging by social media reactions, huNter- seems to have also joined the infamous blame squad.
No changes are set in stone for G2 with the team currently competing in Chengdu. They will play either FURIA or Heroic on April 10 for a place in the quarterfinals, or end up eliminated in case of a loss.