‘Pressure suits us’ – interview with G2 Scottish assistant coach Duffman on behind-the-scenes insights, playing on home turf & how London’s Worlds 2024 final can boost staff in UK scene

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For G2 Esports the 2024 League of Legends World Championship isn’t just another tournament. It’s an opportunity to return to the international dominance they once sought to establish in 2019, when Worlds was last held in Europe and G2 reached the finals in Paris, only to fall just short of the trophy. Now, with Worlds once again in Europe, the expectations are higher than ever, especially after G2’s incredible Grand Slam in LEC 2024.

G2’s first match at Worlds saw them cruise to victory over PaiN Gaming, but they stumbled against Hanwha Life Esports in the second round of the Swiss stage, despite showing some fight. G2 are under pressure to succeed against the best teams globally – pressure that suits them, says G2 Esports’ Scottish Assistant Coach Christopher ‘Duffman’ Duff.

A large part of G2’s improved gameplay this year has been credited to their refined macro and in-game discipline, improvements which have been attributed to Duffman, who rejoined the coaching staff at the beginning of the 2024 season.

Players like Yike and BrokenBlade have spoken about Duffman’s positive impact on the team, helping them develop smarter decision-making on the map and a more structured approach during key moments. We ask Duffman about the team’s Worlds 2024 campaign, his coaching insights, playing on home turf, being a Brit on the team and the London final.

Cecilia Ciocchetti: Hello Duffman, thank you for your time. Can you share your reflections on the match vs HLE?

G2 Duffman: The early game went a bit poorly, shall we say, but I’m really happy with how the players reacted. I think we were really looking for plays.

I think one of the things coming into these events is people are saying like, ‘oh, you’ll play against better teams, they won’t make these same mistakes, you won’t get to come back.’  And I think we’ve seen that these teams make the same mistakes. They’re not really just that much better.

I think we found a lot of plays in a lot of really difficult positions. I think Brokenblade and Caps especially played really well, but yeah, we didn’t win in the end. Smolder was a bit strong. We didn’t get the right plays to finish the game, so it’s disappointing, but I’m happy with the reaction after we fell behind.

In what way do you and the other staff help the players prepare for a situation like this, in which the early game was not going as planned, but then you need to find a way to turn the tides back to your favour?

I think a lot of it is just having good fundamentals of like understanding a lot of the logical patterns. If they want to do something, it means they have to give something else up and then trying to make sure we’re in position to punish that. Making sure the players know to base ahead of the waves that they need to contest.

If they want to play for an objective, we need to be ready to contest the same wave on the opposite side of the map, so they don’t get it for free. That’s kind of the main process for it. Other than that, it’s the players’ own creativity. I think a lot of it does come down to Brokenblade and Caps, just finding a lot of angles that other players don’t necessarily see. So it’s kind of a little bit of our preparation and then a lot of it is the creativity of the players.

Looking to a bigger picture of the year and the future of this roster. Where do you think these tournaments – so international tournaments like Worlds – take place in their growth?

I think these tournaments are huge. We spend a lot of time in Europe practicing, kind of isolated from the rest of the world, so we can see how other teams are playing, but we can’t necessarily feel what it feels like to play against them.

So these tournaments are just really huge, just to get you a really quick shot into, okay, we need to be much faster, we need to be much better than we necessarily have to be in Europe, where things are a lot slower and teams are a lot less certain.

I think a big part of that is when you come to these events, you play winning teams. And in our region, we are the winning team, so teams tend to give us a lot more respect than what we necessarily deserve. They think we know something when sometimes we’re just inting! And when we come to these events, every team is trying to take those small advantages. So it’s very important for our growth, so we don’t just get caught trying to flex, when, in Europe it would pay off, and at Worlds, it just doesn’t.

Every team has their own characteristics and strengths, of course. What do you think G2 have learned from other teams?

I think just how we play sidelines in general. I think a lot of teams do just leave the sidelines even and then group and just play the game from there. I think that’s a big part of why we won in Europe so consistently.

And I think even on a world stage, I think we’re a lot more willing to play the sideline game. I think that made this game playable. For example, if we were just grouping and trying to fight because maybe we win, maybe we don’t, then I think we lose this game very fast.

So I think our main characteristic is how wide we play the map, making sure they can’t just take stuff for free when we can make them have to think. That would be the main thing – we make teams think, we ask them questions, sometimes they don’t answer them and we get a free Nash, we get a couple of kills that we shouldn’t have, and I think that’s probably our main characteristic.

How is G2 handling the pressure of being seen by many fans as Europe’s only hope at Worlds?

Yeah, it is a lot of pressure, especially in our format where we have four tournaments in the year to win.

You add MSI, EWC and Worlds on top of that, and you have to peak a lot of times.

You can win as much as you want, but if you’re bad on one day, you just lose. So I think it’s a lot of pressure. I think we are just used to it. We’ve all been doing this a long time.

I think we are used to that sort of pressure – being expected to win. So I think it kind of suits us, it makes sure we don’t take things too lightly. We are kind of a very serious group in that respect.

What does it mean for you that Worlds is back in Europe, with the Worlds 2024 Finals in London?

Yeah, I mean that just sounds really cool. If we could get to play there, that would be a dream. It would be great, with all the family there, it would be really nice.

I think being back in Europe especially, it’s very helpful for us because we’re used to just everything. We’re playing in our own studio. We don’t have to ask questions like ‘what will it be like at the studio? How will this work?’

So it frees a lot of space to think about other things when we’re just very comfortable. It’s very nice.

Following on from MSI London in 2023, how do you feel about the growing presence of major League of Legends events in the UK?

It’s great. From a performance side of view, it’s just very fun when we can go to an event and I’m the local guy! I’m not very used to that.

Normally we’re going to Korea, to China, all these places – I’m just lost! But for the UK it’s great where I can be the one that’s going, ‘okay, we’re going to go here, we’re going to go out’ and I’ll make sure we get where we’re going.

It’s a lot of fun and I think it’s especially good because when I started in esports, there wasn’t so much of a UK scene. I think we had a couple of events. I think Worlds had some group stage matches or something back in the day. But I think just to see these big events come to good places and in London is really fun.

What impact do you think hosting Worlds in London will have on the UK esports scene?

I think these events are inspiring to people. I think when people are playing the game just casually and then they see, ‘oh, it’s coming to London,’ I think that gives a lot of like, ‘oh, maybe this is something I can pursue.’

So I think that’s very big. I think especially on the staff side, I think when people get excited about it but they’re not necessarily the best players or they’re not the most experienced, I think it gives a lot of hope to staff as well, which is good.

What are your hopes for the team if you make it to the finals in London?

I hope we put on a better show than our last World Finals! That’s all I’m hoping for at this point. I don’t want to aim too high, but fingers crossed we make it and I hope we put on a better show for the fans.

Is there anything about the team you’d like to highlight for G2’s fans?

I’d say Mikyx and Yike. I think when we go to these events, I think Caps gets a lot of the limelight. Brokenblade is very outspoken. I think Mikyx and Yike are the things I would like international fans especially to know more about. I think they’re very entertaining human beings.

I think the limelight kind of gets shown elsewhere. So I think some more attention on those guys would be good.

Cecilia Ciocchetti

Hi, I’m Cecilia! A freelance writer mainly focusing on League of Legends and its esports scenes. Find me at events interviewing anyone who has a story to tell, from players to the talented people working behind the scenes. Do you also have a story to share? Reach out to me via Twitter.