Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen is an in-game leader that undoubtedly elevated G2 Esports to another level in CS:GO, and their star Nikola “NiKo” Kovač couldn’t agree more.
The team began their journey in ESL Pro League season 17 yesterday with a 2-0 victory over Eternal Fire. After the game concluded, NiKo shared some thoughts on the current G2 roster, comparing their IGL HooXi to another legendary player in CS:GO, FaZe Clan’s Finn “karrigan” Andersen.
NiKo shed some light on when G2 was searching for a new IGL following the departure of Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen. He claimed that HooXi has all the values that were synonymous with karrigan. “We were trying to find the best fit possible, I think HooXi was a clear option for me. […] He reminded me a lot of karrigan back then, that’s what we needed in our lineup as well,” NiKo said, via HLTV.
The Bosnian went in-depth into HooXi’s values, explaining that he has all the characteristics that G2 lacked before signing him. “If you look at how he played for CPH Flames, he was sacrificing a lot for the team, he was entry-fragging, and he was not asking for positions where stars need to be, he’s going to do everything for the team,” NiKo added.
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With such a star-heavy roster, many thought that the last thing G2 needed is another exceptional individual, but a leader who can take the bullet in games. This is something that’s often said about karrigan, who’s also an in-game leader and an entry fragger.
The Dane has a reputation for leading different teams to victories as he did with FaZe and mousesports in the last six years. In that timeframe, he won numerous titles like IEM Katowice 2022, two ESL Pro Leagues, IEM Cologne, and PGL Antwerp CS:GO Major.
HooXi was added to G2 in August last year, and while his first months with the organization were tricky since G2 failed to qualify for the first Major in the org’s history by not advancing to IEM Rio Major, they picked up steam by the end of the year.
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They are actually on a championship run after securing BLAST Premier World Final 2022 and IEM Katowice 2023. They claimed the latter on the back of the second-longest map win streak in CS:GO’s history.
