When G2 signed Artem “r1nkle” Moroz, the move came with plenty of questions. The Ukrainian AWPer had spent the previous two months on the Ninjas in Pyjamas bench after a difficult start to 2026, and G2 were replacing Álvaro “SunPayus” García with a player who was far from being at the peak of his career.
The first matches did little to silence those doubts. But only a few weeks later, r1nkle’s first LAN with G2 at Esports World Cup 2026 showed a completely different picture. He is still adapting, and there will inevitably be bad maps and series along the way, but G2 are already beginning to see why they decided to take the risk.
A Difficult Start in G2
r1nkle officially joined G2 on June 25 after the organization decided to bench SunPayus. It was a surprising opportunity for a player whose trajectory had gone in the opposite direction only a few months earlier.
After joining NIP from B8 in 2024, r1nkle had shown enough potential to establish himself as one of the more interesting young AWPers in Europe. However, the beginning of 2026 was difficult. He averaged just a 1.02 rating against top-50 opposition before NIP eventually moved him to the bench in April.
His G2 debut at BLAST Bounty Season 2 was hardly a perfect comeback either. Across five maps, r1nkle averaged only a 0.91 rating, the lowest rating among G2 players at the tournament. His first series against Nemiga was particularly shaky, with ratings of 0.79, 1.02 and 0.76 across the three maps. G2 survived that match, but their run ended shortly afterward with a 0-2 loss to Liquid.
For a new AWPer joining one of the biggest organizations in Counter-Strike, it was not exactly the start he would have wanted. But G2 did not sign r1nkle expecting him to become another SunPayus. They wanted something different.
G2 Wanted More Aggression
The decision to replace SunPayus was not simply about individual numbers. G2 wanted to change the way their AWPer affected rounds.
SunPayus brought experience and communication, but G2 already had several players who were comfortable playing more passively. The team wanted its new sniper to be willing to take space, search for opening kills and create opportunities rather than wait for the round to come to him.
Speaking to HLTV during Esports World Cup, G2 coach Eetu “sAw” Saha explained what the team was looking for when choosing its new AWPer:
We needed someone more aggressive
That sentence explains much of the logic behind the transfer.
r1nkle is naturally capable of playing with more freedom. He has the mechanics to take difficult fights, and G2 believe his ceiling extends beyond simply being a reliable AWPer who holds angles and provides consistent numbers.
sAw also told HLTV that he sees considerable room for r1nkle to develop:
I think he has this potential as an AWPer to take it to the next level and carry some games here and there
The important word is potential. G2 did not sign a finished product. They signed a 21-year-old AWPer whose characteristics potentially fit what the team needs better, knowing that there would be a period of adjustment.
The Adaptation Was Never Going to Be Instant
That makes the 0.91 rating at BLAST Bounty easier to put into context. r1nkle had been inactive for several months, entered a completely new system and immediately had to learn how to play alongside four new teammates. At the same time, G2 also had to learn how to use a significantly more aggressive AWPer.
sAw did not hide the fact that mistakes would happen. Speaking to HLTV at EWC, the Finnish coach pointed specifically to r1nkle’s experience and some of the unnecessary fights he was taking:
Some of these, let’s say overpeeks and small situations that we need to iron out that will come with experience
He followed it by explaining what G2 could gain once that process is complete:
I think if he can learn in that and get into our system, it’s going to be really good for us
That is perhaps the most important context around r1nkle’s first weeks in G2. The organization was not expecting immediate consistency. Both sides needed time. And at EWC, the first signs of progress became visible.
EWC Showed a Different r1nkle
r1nkle’s first LAN tournament with G2 started with exactly the kind of performance the organization hoped he could eventually produce consistently. Against M80, he finished Mirage with 24 kills, 13 deaths and a 1.48 rating, helping G2 begin their EWC campaign with a victory. The following series against BIG was less convincing individually, but G2 still advanced.
Then came Astralis. In arguably his best series since joining the team, r1nkle finished with 42 kills, 29 deaths, 83 ADR and a 1.31 rating, narrowly outperforming huNter- to become G2’s highest-rated player in the series.
More importantly, this was not r1nkle farming numbers in an easy match. G2 lost Ancient and needed to reverse the series to stay alive. The Ukrainian stepped up when they needed him, helping G2 dominate Dust2 before closing the series on Inferno.
It was exactly the kind of match sAw was talking about when he mentioned r1nkle’s ability to eventually “carry some games.” The tournament was not flawless. r1nkle struggled in G2’s quarter-final loss to FURIA, and his final EWC rating dropped to 1.07 across ten maps. But even that represented a significant improvement over the 0.91 he posted at BLAST Bounty.
For a player still learning the system, the direction is more important than pretending the adaptation is already complete.
r1nkle Is Starting to Feel Like Himself Again
The change is visible not only in the statistics. After G2 eliminated Astralis, r1nkle himself admitted that he already felt significantly more comfortable in the new team. Speaking to HLTV after the series, r1nkle explained the adjustment he had to make after joining G2:
I’m feeling a lot better than before because G2 have a lot of stuff as a team that I had to learn
That adaptation also applies to his individual role. There seems to be little confusion between the player and coaching staff about what kind of AWPer G2 want him to become. In the same HLTV interview, r1nkle explained what huNter- and sAw expect from him:
They want a more aggressive player, a more active player
And most importantly, he believes that style fits him naturally:
And I am this player when I have the right mentality, and I have it right now
That confidence may ultimately be just as important as the numbers. G2 do not need r1nkle to imitate SunPayus. They need him to become comfortable enough to play his own game inside their system.
The Risk Is Starting to Make Sense
It is still far too early to call the r1nkle experiment a complete success. One strong LAN does not erase the inconsistency that followed him during his final months in NIP, and the FURIA series showed that G2 still cannot expect their new AWPer to deliver every time.
There will likely be more difficult matches while both r1nkle and the team continue adjusting. But the conversation around the transfer already looks different. After BLAST Bounty, a 0.91 rating made it easy to question why G2 had gambled on a benched AWPer instead of searching for a safer option. At EWC, r1nkle provided the first real answer.
G2 wanted aggression. They wanted an AWPer capable of creating advantages rather than simply maintaining them. They wanted a young player with enough mechanical ability to occasionally take over a series. Against M80 and, especially, Astralis, that player finally appeared.
The consistency still needs to come. The adaptation is still ongoing. But only weeks into his time with G2, r1nkle is already beginning to look much closer to the AWPer sAw wanted when the organization decided to take the risk.
