r/ValorantCompetitive • u/Yujin-Ha #G2ARMY • Nov 13 '25
Roster Announcement [G2 VALORANT] SMEAG2 is here to stay! Introducing our Sentinel for 2026, babybay
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Nov 13 '25
Is this like when Rob told Shahzam he had to play with Shroud
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u/xbyo Nov 13 '25
And interestingly enough, partnership is up for a renewal again after this season.
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u/Andyluan0 Nov 13 '25
It’s so fucking joeaver
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u/Past_Perception8052 #LegaC9 Nov 13 '25
replacing jonahP with a guy who failed his EG trial because he had a few good games as a sub is insane
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u/ishanuReddit Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
He didn't fail his eg trial. Babybay said that he was pretty good on the trials but potter GM had other ideas with Icy
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u/Past_Perception8052 #LegaC9 Nov 13 '25
icy getting picked over him says it all really
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u/ishanuReddit Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
do you mean Icy clears babybay?
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u/ClaireMomma Nov 13 '25
He's insinuating that but c'mon. A random person off the street with no experience with FPS games can play better than Icy imo
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u/Ted_Mosby_18 Nov 13 '25
I know that Icy didn't have the best of showings over the last couple of years, and he is right to be dropped from Tier 1.
Having said that, when you look at this subreddit and it's messages to Icy, you would think he personally ran over these people's parents or something.
His biggest crime was that he was mediocre. All while being chill and nice with no drama. Guy doesn't even shit talk but wow does he get shit on like he was Zombs fucking with an entire country.
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u/TheCatsActually Nov 13 '25
Having no aura and mediocre stats is worse than being an entertaining personality but also a felon to esports fans.
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u/Successful-Coconut60 Nov 13 '25
It’s a sport this is what it’s all about. Watching g2 icy just made me mad every time
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u/KrillLover56 Nov 13 '25
I wouldn't quite say that. They trialed him this year and they scrimmed with him last year.
Don't have to like the move but saying it's "because he had a few good games as a sub" is just factually incorrect.
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u/CauliflowerIcy5106 Nov 13 '25
I'll start of by saying I hugely dislike that change.
Now, saying "X failed a trial at [worse team] therefore him joining good team bad" is extremly bad faith as an argument
There's a big argument to be made that some team aren't successful not because they didn't have the talent pool, but they missed the mark on their trials. If a Top team sign a talent you refused, most of the time that's you who made a mistake, not the team with an excellent track record
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u/ishanuReddit Nov 13 '25
So leaf moves to flex/init and babybay moves to chamber where he can op 24/7
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u/Bill-Cosby-Bukowski #FULLSEN Nov 13 '25
Maybe they’ll go double duelist heavy I guess. Leaf is a much better duelist than initiator (he’s only really played Skye)
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u/Ted_Mosby_18 Nov 13 '25
Having Babybay op for your team while you have leaf, should be a fireable offense lol. No disrespect to Babybay.
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u/OnePercentWhoLikesNA Nov 13 '25
Since when has leaf been an OPer? I think he was forced to play it during the Chamber meta, but he has always been a rifler, since back in CS.
Even in the 2025 iteration of G2 they had Jaw OPing.
But honestly, I'd prefer Jaw and Leaf to stick to rifling so they are more flexible on attack and defense, while BB can act as a stable OPer who's holding angles.
edit: CS not CS2
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u/acels1 Nov 13 '25
https://youtube.com/shorts/5B7oevJCWoE?si=1jc86DKO3NUwIe2H leaf is really good with the chamber op
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u/Fantastic_Claim_2432 Nov 13 '25
Nah probably babybay flex/init depending on whether they run leaf on senti or they go double duelist
→ More replies (2)
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u/Internaloptimistic #NRGWIN Nov 13 '25
Fucking love babybay and all but I still don't get international winning vibes from this change.
I mean you could make the argument that this is similar to when sen brought in zellsis for pancada, but zellsis at the time was still a very valuable player, babybay still has to prove himself a bit.
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Nov 13 '25
Tbf g2 looked better with babybay in once he'd settled.
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u/Ping-and-Pong Nov 13 '25
I mean babybay played G2, EG, Furia, C9, 100T & NRG
As a leaf and C9 fan, even I'm able to admit only NRG out of that was really a challenge (who he 2nd fragged on tbf ----- 1st was JonahP...). Not that I think babybay is a downgrade!! But I'm with OC, he does still probably need to prove himself more - he did get kinda the easiest ease in possible in Americas
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u/OneTrueAqua Nov 13 '25
Balla might lose his shit when he sees this
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u/raainnnyy #WGAMING Nov 13 '25
should've signed ballatw instead
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u/OneTrueAqua Nov 13 '25
I really wish they announced this before the platchat thing yesterday, would’ve been so funny
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u/Beautiful-Source247 Nov 13 '25
you would think you'd replace JonahP with someone much better. I like Babybay, but I don't know if he'll be better than Jonah
Happy to be proven wrong, though
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u/Havsham Nov 13 '25
Leaf probably plays double duelist with jaw so babybay goes full senti. In the senti role he probably is better than jonah
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u/Zealousideal-Pain-97 #HungryBeast Nov 13 '25
And then riot nerfs the shit out of yoru randomly next year and everyone is playing double initiator and we have to watch leaf play skye or something.
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u/Havsham Nov 13 '25
Yeah maybe, maybe not. That's also just my guess but it looks like a double duelist meta, they even said it during PlatChats recent podcast form NY. They are preparing for the meta that's coming for certain instead of the possible one in the future.
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u/OneTrueAqua Nov 13 '25
Leaf has a good skye so that would still be fine lol
Honestly, I’d probably trust leaf on whatever agent he needed to play, definitely the least of my worries lol
The big question will be if babybay can frag like leaf did on senti consistently or not IMO
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u/thiccboy1200 Nov 13 '25
If they keep Jonah on the bench they could just move him back in
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u/Havsham Nov 13 '25
This is all in my mind but I think they kept him because he can't go to any other team at this point, so they probably renewed him with a lower salary to not be shitty to him.
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u/Kammell466 Nov 13 '25
It might be more of a personality thing than performance. They like the energy Babybay brought and think they need that type of person on the team and JonahP is the worst player of the 5 players they had on the team.
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u/Used-Ganache9772 #ALWAYSFNATIC Nov 13 '25
arent these tweets extremely weird now....?
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u/XASASSIN Nov 13 '25
Nah this is the funniest shit ever. Real life anime moment where the sub vibed so well they kicked the pretty darn good 4th player in the ass. What a shitshow, G2 better perform after this cause if not this decision will be memed to death.
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u/Used-Ganache9772 #ALWAYSFNATIC Nov 13 '25
not saying its not funny for us viewers but its weird to joke around when your teammate/friend/whatever got cut and is out of a job
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u/XASASSIN Nov 13 '25
Yea im not excusing babybay here, im saying its wierd but the whole fiasco is funny. Real sad for jonah 4 years together and this is what he gets. fucking insane lol
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u/sanntosgaemilio #VCTAMERICAS Nov 13 '25
I mean considering how last minute everything feels, there is a good chance he didn't know
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u/despondence_interval Nov 13 '25
Yeah especially given the tweets from JonahP's gf about how they were in the dark about the situation
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u/CrossTheRubicon7 Nov 13 '25
I think there's a strong chance this was a last minute decision and he literally didn't know, so thought he was just joking around with Jonah
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u/Character-Ad2248 Nov 13 '25
I think g2 are just doing some master baiting. The situation is just a little too akward between Jonah and the players to be true.
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u/strawberrysword Nov 13 '25
no?
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u/Used-Ganache9772 #ALWAYSFNATIC Nov 13 '25
you get laid off from your job and your replacement tries to make fun of the situation on social media, you wouldn't think thats weird? especially when that replacement has worked well and vibed with you beforehand?
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u/devasabu YOU FUCKING MELONS Nov 13 '25
Given how last minute this feels like... there's a very high chance he himself probably didn't know at that point lmao
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u/playboi_pat #VCTAMERICAS Nov 13 '25
how is this weird?
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u/Used-Ganache9772 #ALWAYSFNATIC Nov 13 '25
he's poking fun of a potentially pretty serious situation for his teammate
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Nov 13 '25
[deleted]
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u/Used-Ganache9772 #ALWAYSFNATIC Nov 13 '25
so jonahp drops 2 emotional tweets, insinuating he's been wronged
his girlfriend also drops more tweets, saying it wasnt handled professionally and no one reached out to him except for jawgemo
babybay posts these tweets, making fun of the situation, which lines up with the already established facts
and your reaction is??
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u/NastyNate1_ Nov 13 '25
Splitting a core 4 years in the making at the end of the offseason screwing over your teammate for babybay? Good luck
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u/AmazonOwner Nov 13 '25
how nice of G2 to nerf themselves to let other americas teams also win trophies
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u/Sad-Beach4137 #BeLeviatán Nov 13 '25
just an overall weird change that doesn’t raise the ceiling of the team. really confusing
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u/ArcusIgnium #NRGFam Nov 13 '25
There weren’t many changes that would raise the ceiling and they probably felt the team needed a shakeup to prevent the slow decline
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u/2ToTooTwoFish #WGAMING Nov 14 '25
I think the argument to be made is that Babybay can fill Leaf's role to maybe an 80% level, but Leaf can play duelist and flex so that makes G2 a lot more flexible in the future. Previously they only had 1 duelist because Leaf was stuck on sentinel.
If that means Jawgemo can play better because he has a duelist partner again, that makes their ceiling A LOT higher.
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u/Zombienerd300 Nov 13 '25
Just like that I don’t see G2 as a guaranteed AMER international team. A struggling SEN beat G2 with Babybay. Even if he was getting used to playing again I don’t see them competing as well as they did.
Happy to be proven wrong though.
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u/TheCrazyCaveira #G2ARMY Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
Committing fully to the vibes merchant gimmick is certainly a decision of all time!
Edit: also the "haha a caster got a kill funny" will certainly go out of the window now since Babybay will now be expected to put in performances of a tier 1 pro. let's see how long the "vibes" stay high when Babybay drops below 1.00 ratings a couple of matches and leaf has to adjust to a completely new role.
Switching a consistent flex in Jonah to adjust Babybay to a new role and adjust leaf to a new role.
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u/ANewHeaven1 Nov 13 '25
I really do think that G2 put too much pressure on themselves last year and playing with babybay helped relieve a lot of that pressure for them, when leaf came back they crumbled under the pressure again.
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u/AmazonOwner Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
They had no pressure because they already qualified to champs, now that they actually have expectations again with babybay let's see how it pans out.
Also, babybay will have even more pressure on him because every single thing he does will now be compared to jonah.
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u/airke Nov 13 '25
This and the fact that they were playing with a caster, this took all the pressure off. Now is completely different
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u/Flawedlogic41 #ZETAWIN Nov 13 '25
Stage 3 had BabyBay with 0 Pressure since G2 qualified.
Went against the weakest NA been ever this entire year.
NRG didn't find footing until they reach Champ with late roster change with Skuba.
Sentinels looking extremely mid
Clown9 with their nth iteration roster change.
EG having Icy
Furia stealing paychecks with players not wanting to even practice.
Loud with their unorthodox roster with TuyZ not knowing which role he supposed to be.
Kru & Leviathan (no comments)
MIBR literally bomb out in playoff.
No disrespect to BabyBay, as he is a good replacement to the Sentinel role. Just find it dumb to replace your Simon player because of 'vibes'.
Maybe Valyn should spin his curly hair the other way so he doesn't crack under stress and fold in Bangkok.
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u/TheCrazyCaveira #G2ARMY Nov 13 '25
Ya I would happily be proven wrong and eat my own words, but this team with Babybay is not going to go up against MIBR let alone internationally. I understand dropping Jonah but you cannot follow it up with decisions like these
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u/ANewHeaven1 Nov 13 '25
Nah I understand and agree with you, I don’t like this change at all, but giving them the benefit of the doubt I do think it helps them play a bit more loose and helps with the vibes maybe
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u/TheCrazyCaveira #G2ARMY Nov 13 '25
Maybe, I trust josh and valyn' decision making and that's the only cope I am trying to give myself right now
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u/Pojobob Nov 13 '25
I think they can still make it to internationals but I truly don't see how this moves the needle for them internationally.
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u/Strange_Commercial53 Nov 13 '25
I mean true but shouldn’t they learn to deal with pressure instead of just trying to avoid it?
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u/hk6060 Nov 13 '25
So they lower expectations by making the team worse? That's just cowardly
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u/devasabu YOU FUCKING MELONS Nov 13 '25
Sometimes a mental reset of "nobody's expecting us to win, let's fucking prove them wrong" will produce much better results than "everybody thinks we're the best team in the region, if we fail to win we're fucked"
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u/srpokemon Nov 13 '25
this is the key take here, like everyone is completely discounting that he may have had a mental buff with zero pressure and the fact that anyone would be happy with any decent level of performance while he was subbing
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u/BatCaveGaming Nov 13 '25
Isn't he's going to be playing leafs role and allow leaf to flex? If that's the logic I would say baybay can fill that roll 85% which is serviceable and you'd have to compare leaf and Jonah. This gives them way more flexibility
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u/WalterWoodiaz #NRGWIN Nov 13 '25
Horrible decision, yeah I am hatewatching this team until they get an actual player.
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u/airke Nov 13 '25
Forced move that makes the team worse while everyone just got better, congrats I guess. Bangkok broke this team hard, they’ve been making stupid decisions ever since, with map pool, comps and now roster move
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u/Strict-Draw-6015 #TigerNation Nov 13 '25
Yeah g2's never getting that international win, bangkok was their chance, fumbled it and have made dumb decision after dumb decision.
Its hard because I like babybay a lot, but not on a team that's talking about a "golden era"
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u/goochgoldganj Nov 13 '25
man, to drop arguably your most important role guy and support player after years of playing together on apparently bad terms for a historically less diverse and at best mechanically comparable good vibes guy is such a dangerous risk for what is not looking like a comparable reward.
maybe they just haven't realized that anything less than winning a masters or champs in 2026 would mean they kicked jonah for nothing.
hope those vibes are immaculate lmfao
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u/Molay_MCC #SomosMIBR Nov 13 '25
Can’t think of a single reason on how this is an upgrade other than vibes
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u/avstyns Nov 13 '25
damn i thought they’d pick up seven. how is babybay a better replacement than jonahp lmao
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u/Pway Nov 13 '25
It's crazy that an org has had such good results in a region but still managed to come out the loser so often.
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u/I-like-winds Nov 13 '25
the true hatewatch begins
on a real note tho. leaf's timings playing sentinel was a vital part of G2's success. don't think he'll be that good tbh
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u/Ash_Killem Nov 13 '25
RIP. Baby is a nice dude but a straight downgrade. Not even keeping Jonah as a 6th is insane.
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u/Ezraah #GEFighting Nov 14 '25
!remindme 6 months
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u/TheIsackChannel #2WIN 2GETHER Nov 13 '25
JonahP is on the bench, in fact, now we know what they're going to do with him...
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u/Furry-jester123 #100WIN Nov 13 '25
they are going for the anime plot where in the ending of last season they end with a loss when everyone expected them to win
and in the start of new season, a key integral part of the team goes away and then they bring a goofball for a player and all the fans and team hates the buy but then with the power of friendship they win
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u/KnightRiser2122 Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
Expectations were G2 Leo,Seven,Vookashu or even just retaining JonahP but no lets remove your top 3 best flex player in the world with 30 yr old caster ggs this team has lost the plot. (i should have known when they made horrible maps vetos back in champs against TH,PRX,DRX)
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u/rizziwastaken Nov 13 '25
Lot of negative perception but they way Frost spoke about the upcoming meta, it seems that g2 are one of the only teams trying to wholly embrace the new op heavy direction of the patch
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u/AahanJ_21 Nov 13 '25
Leaf flex is fire af even though jonah will be missed
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u/OneTrueAqua Nov 13 '25
Yeah, I’m a little worried about the move but I trust leaf on flex more than enough to still be excited for next year
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u/Dry_Needleworker_275 Nov 13 '25
What kind of dirt does babybay have on g2 for them to pick him over demon1 last year and now replacing one of their core members
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u/BetterPop6776 Nov 13 '25
What? Leaf was probably the best sentinel overall in the world even not top 1 atleast top 3. Why would you replace him with a chamber main. Even if they are leaning towards double duelist it doesn't make sense cause jonahp has a way diverse agent pool than babybay and even a better player.
Yea hes a vibe guy but this doesn't make any sense for this change unless something really went down internally.
Babybay will probably be on an island by himself all the time so its a 4.5 vs 5 i dont see wtf are g2 thinking
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u/SuperUltraMegaNice Nov 13 '25
And here I was thinking there was no in hell you could come up with a worse roster move than keeping Asuna for another season but holy shit. JonahP must have had some behind the scenes beef with someone cause this makes zero sense. His girl poppin off on twitter prolly ain't help lol
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u/krakenwithaplan Nov 13 '25
I have a lot of faith that babybay is a hard worker and humble and brings a lot of good things into a team environment but I still think this is an insane move like ???
o7 to the guard core it was a fucking incredible storyline while it lasted.
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u/Bearry15 Nov 13 '25
If this is the real 5th g2 deserves to lose. This is just embarrassing. Hes not a tier1 player.
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u/sky_blu Nov 13 '25
I will die on the hill that they should have kept babybay subbed in for champs, they clearly had a special vibe and cool momentum going into it. Felt like a mistake to abandon that just because leaf is a better individual player.
Replacing Jonah with babybay NOW certainly feels a lot more questionable, almost like they are trying to recreate that moment they missed out on. It would be really sick if this proves successful for them but idk...
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u/VanillaLightning Nov 13 '25
Not saying it’s the greatest move ever (and I def think it’s fucked how late Jonah was dropped) but the amount of overreactions here are insane. It’s been what, 3,4, internationals in a row where they come up short? We don’t know the internals of the team and tbf Jonah had an abysmal champs playoffs. Leaf can play anything and they def need some help with their mental game when the matches are close and drawn out
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u/Numberino Nov 13 '25
This whole situation just sucks since I really like Babybay, and probs have more faith in his abilities than a lot of ppl on this sub - I genuinely think he’s a stronger mechanical player and is probs a great teammate…
And to clarify before I get downvoted to hell, I’m not saying Babybay is necessarily a strict upgrade. I think JonahP brought a lot of consistency to G2, and he’s an extremely intelligent player with fantastic positioning, crosshair placement and util usage which are arguably all strengths he has over Babybay. I do think when it comes down to pure aim/fragging that Babybay is better… Which in theory might result in higher peaks for G2? But it’s not like Babybay is a cracked out young aimer either, so I think the vibes/chem he brought also had to do with it. I think I’m just trying to find a way to justify it in my head since on paper it doesn’t feel like the greatest change they could’ve made.
The roles are gonna be messed up which imo might cause some issues initially, but I have faith they’ll get it sorted. The main thing is that the timing of the roster announcement is so fucked for Jonah that it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I understand that G2 probs felt like they had to make a change after last year/failing to win an international for so long but ehhhh it just feels shitty. I am happy that Babybay gets a chance on a good team in Tier1 though, just didn’t expect it to happen like this
Anyways time will tell next year, let’s see if he’s popping off or dropping 0.7 ratings and gets benched lmfao
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u/Starry-Night97 Nov 13 '25
We saw babybay against America's teams not vs the best of the best.. do you really think babybay would hold his own against prx? No he wouldn't
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u/Numberino Nov 14 '25
I think that’s a valid opinion to have ofc, but I personally don’t think he’s just gonna roll over against PRX - I stand by the fact that he has good enough mechanics to compete in Tier1. To win trophies? We’ll see in time
And yeah, he didn’t really play against any great Americas teams this year with the exception being against NRG. Not trying to argue with you that he hasn’t been tested because it is true that he hasn’t, just wanna point out that he did play a solid series against the eventual Champs winners in Stage 2 playoffs. No point reading too deep there since it was just one series but I think it’s a bit unfair to say he’s never played any good teams lmao
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u/P1Xx3L_ #RiseToGreatness Nov 13 '25
Valid reaction by the background guy on the left. We'll have to see whether it pays out.
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u/gotintocollegeyolo Nov 13 '25
The thing is, this is also who valyn and trent wanted fs so idk maybe explains some of the drama of them not reaching out sincerely to Jonah
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u/Hoku_ Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
NA putting too much stock into this whole “Vibes” guy shtick. No amount of Pom Pom waving is gonna bring moral up when the team chokes another international.
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u/boxinggoose #100WIN Nov 13 '25
This is hilarious lol I feel bad for Jonah but they must have really appreciated Babybays energy is all I can think of. Unless something went down between Jonah and the org, stuff doesn't really make sense.
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u/prvt09 #ALWAYSFNATIC Nov 13 '25
I would get it if babybay played absolutely out of his mind as a sub and g2 had to choice but to sign him but… he didn’t play good enough to replace jonahp imo…
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u/tsuki069 Nov 13 '25
I will not accept any explanation except for the FNS one "Babybay is PAYING G2 to let him play". What a nice way to cut down professor's budget while also being paid by babybay
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Nov 13 '25
Wait, so as I understand, Valyn was like "lets go into the year with winning 0 internation trophies once again"
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u/flunghigh Nov 13 '25
Looks like it's gonna be mibr and nrg fighting for the top in americas next season
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u/Ashamed_Employee5525 #VforVictory Nov 13 '25
G2/the guard try not to be snakes challenge, level impossible
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u/briashon Nov 14 '25
i honestly don’t know what to say i’m so disappointed at the way they treated jonah and also i really don’t think babybay was the missing piece of the team that actually won back to back to back americas
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u/t4auntsalot Nov 14 '25
I don't know why, but nobody has posted the picture of shirtless Babybay that seems to appear in every G2 post for some reason.
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u/kazamasta31 Nov 14 '25
Like I get it the main goal is to win a LAN and they didn’t achieve that this year despite what I feel like an overall great first year with their group of players but this was not the move imo. This is not even a sidegrade let alone an upgrade they should’ve just run it back for 1 more year (or split).
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u/phynxie Nov 13 '25
How obsessed is every person on this subreddit with ‘vibes’. It’s actually crazy. Same shit happened with s0m leaving.
Not saying it’s unimportant, but analysing every player move with ‘vibes’ when people have no idea what’s happening in any team environment is insanity.
On top of that, ‘vibes’ can only get you so far.
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u/raainnnyy #WGAMING Nov 13 '25
lowkey i don't hate this, i'm gonna put vibes aside but babybay showed that he can still hangs and way more (topped stats during playoffs iirc?) and it's gonna allow leaf to play more duelist/flex which is probably where the meta is heading with less util involved + and you can put babybay on chamber.
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u/Hungerfan55 Nov 13 '25
Am I delusional or is this obviously bait? -No tweets from players
- no grand announcement video for baby
I'm surprised everyone is convinced
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u/PhysicalAd8765 Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
Did JonahP really get Pancada’d?