It’s been a wild two days for fans of G2 Esports, as the top League of Legends team in the LEC has swapped head coach Dylan Falco out for former player Perkz after G2 was swept in devastating fashion by LCS top-seed LYON.
All of this comes just one day removed from G2’s 3-0 sweep of defending MSI champion T1, a match that fans were claiming was among the best results in recent competitive LoL history by a Western team. Unfortunately for G2 and its since-demoted head coach, that momentum couldn’t be maintained against a fellow Western contender.
LYON beats G2 at MSI amidst rampant trash talk
Coming off of an impressive sweep over LCK representative T1, G2 wasn’t shy with its trash talk towards top LCS seed LYON. That talk would ultimately come back to bite Europe’s best.
Top laner BrokenBlade implied prior to the match that LYON had been fortunate to make it to the top-four at the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational, citing a pathway that saw LYON defeat teams from CBLOL and the LCP to make it there while G2 had bested T1 and Top Esports.
Mid laner Caps doubled down from there, comparing the remaining four teams (G2, LYON, BLG, and Hanwha Life) to the infamous hydra heads in the meme that sees the fierce heads staring down one goofy head to the side, with LYON implied to be the clear outlier. As it turned out, it was G2 that didn’t belong with its other top-four cohorts.
LYON smacked G2 in their lower-bracket showdown. The first game of the series was relatively tight early before LYON pulled ahead and finished cleanly. The second and third games were completely one-sided, with LYON looking the better side across the map.
LYON jungler Inspired was a force throughout the three-game sweep, while top laner Dhokla stepped up with an impressive deathless performance on Olaf, and the LYON bottom lane played a particularly large role in the closing game.
Inspired was quick to follow up on the performance with some trash talk of his own for G2, saying that the top LEC team hadn’t impressed him and that the sweep was expected, with G2 unable to do anything on the map versus its LCS opponent.
The match marked just the latest winning result for a North American team versus a European opponent at MSI. Over the last three years, NA versus EU games at the Mid-Season Invitational now favor North American squads by a margin of 12-1.
LYON now moves on in the playoffs to face Hanwha Life, while G2 will be looking towards EWC with a new head coach in charge as Dylan Falco leaves in favor of Perkz.
Dylan Falco out as G2 coach, Perkz steps in
The drama wasn’t over for G2 after its MSI loss to LYON, as the team announced just hours later that head coach Dylan Falco was going inactive while position coach Perkz would be replacing him as head coach.
The move was just a further shock for G2 fans, as Dylan Falcon has established himself as among the world’s most respected coaches in pro League of Legends, and perhaps the single most-respected in the Western regions.
Perkz, meanwhile, steps into the head coaching role at G2 with zero experience as head coach prior to this appointment. He’ll immediately face immense pressure, as G2’s expectations are as high as ever after series wins over T1 and TES, but fans are simultaneously upset after a wilting loss to LYON.
