G2 sign r1nkle to replace SunPayus

Shortly after announcing the benching of Spanish sniper Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García, G2 revealed his replacement: Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz from the Ninjas in Pyjamas bench. The move comes after G2 ended their season with a quarterfinals finish at the IEM Cologne Major, falling 1-2 in a close series against Spirit.

While r1nkle was most recently contracted to NIP, he had been on the bench since mid-April when he was replaced by Martin "stavn" Lund.

SunPayus joined G2 alongside rifler Matúš "MATYS" Šimko and coach Eetu "sAw" Saha just under a year ago, in July of 2025. While he had some moments of brilliance, SunPayus generally struggled to maintain consistent form. In the last three months on LAN, he averaged a 1.06 rating. Nothing abysmal, but certainly not standing out.

He was also tied with 30-year-old IGL huNter- as the lowest rated player on the team during this recent period. As a 27-year-old himself, he also seems to have hit a ceiling in form.

As for his replacement, r1nkle had some decent performances on NIP while he was still on the starting roster. He averaged a 1.07 rating on LAN, the second best on his team behind the beast that is Kacper "xKacpersky" Gabara.

With a similar rating and lack of recent play, many in the community have criticized this as a lateral move. As former G2 Academy member Klimentii "kl1m" Krivosheev continues to succeed on MIBR, some have questioned why they didn't get him back.

However, r1nkle has been putting up similar performances to SunPayus in a far less successful team. He is also only 21, so there is potential for him to improve. Regardless, he will make his debut at BLAST Bounty Season 2 on July 21st.

G2's new roster is:

• Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač

• Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko

• Matúš "matys" Šimko

• Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz

• Artem "r1nkle⁠" Moroz

• Eetu "sAw" Saha (Coach)