G2 Esports didn’t have the best League of Legends season in 2021, which caused fans to point fingers at several of the team’s members. Top laner Wunder, in particular, was at the forefront of that criticism.
But head coach GrabbZ defended his top laner on Twitter yesterday, mentioning that the claims of his lack of work ethic were a nonissue.
For G2 and its fans, this past year was an immense letdown. After the organization ruled the European region in recent years, winning the LEC eight times and having historic international performances, G2 just weren’t able to make their usual impact in 2021. G2 missed out on both the 2021 LEC Spring and Summer Split finals and topped that off with failing to make Worlds. This decline in play led to a lot of criticism from fans.
Each player on G2’s roster was criticized in some form. But when it comes to Wunder, it’s a bit different. Wunder is known to sink numerous hours into World of Warcraft in his free time, which led fans to point out that his level of play has declined.
Even when G2 were at the end of their dynasty, namely 2020, Wunder still produced some of his strongest statistical performances. With a KDA of 3.0, according to Oracle’s Elixir, this was undoubtedly still a solid year for the G2 top laner. But this came after two years of great play that over time seemed to decline, following a 3.9 KDA in 2018 and a 3.4 KDA in 2019. In 2021, his KDA dropped down to a 2.6, signifying an overall decline in play. Pundits have attributed this to many reasons, but one of them was rumors surrounding Wunder allegedly not giving his all during scrims.
In response to those allegations, though, GrabbZ decided yesterday to explain his view on the criticism the top laner has received and discussed what he saw from his perspective as his coach.
“I thought it was mainly a small part of the french fanbase but it seems like overall delusions about Wunder are reaching an all-time high,” GrabbZ said. “You all see one screenshot out of 4 years and assume this is his scrim work ethic. He banters himself and him getting meme’d is ‘deserved’ because of it, but I can’t let the narrative stand that he ‘switched off’ or behaved unprofessionally in scrims. Far from it. He was one of the most consistent performers in scrims over the years – that fact stands even if he had a poor end to the year.”
At his best, Wunder has looked like one of the strongest top laners in the West, a world-beater who could contend with the other great top laners from across the globe. And at international events, he showcased that ability time and time again, whether it was during the years G2 went to Worlds—including the team’s one grand finals appearance—or the year they won MSI.
Even with the year-long criticism, Wunder has been a boon to the European scene and will possibly continue to be, whether it’s with G2 or another team. And with the reported talks of G2 looking to potentially offload some of its contracts to other pro League teams, Wunder could still have time to bounce back.
