"Don’t look at social media" - G2 babybay opens up on online hate
Andrej "babybay" Francisty spoke with THESPIKE after their VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Americas Stage 2 loss against LOUD to discuss the team's performance, playing Vyse, the current meta and how it fits G2 Esports, individual growth, and how to deal with the ongoing trend of online hate directed towards players.
What happened to G2 Esports during the match against LOUD?
THESPIKE: Tell me your thoughts on this series. Very close first map that could go either way, but your map pick was tough. What happened on Lotus?
babybay: "We knew it was going to be a hard game today, and we knew that they would change some stuff up. We kind of predicted the Lotus comp because there's another team playing that, KC in Europe, and it's looking really good. We honestly just got straight up outplayed on Lotus, that was really hard.
Dealing with the Viper double lurk was really difficult. I think Enzo "tkzin" Zimiani was hitting some ridiculous shots on the slides too. I think we were bound to lose that map no matter what. I think we should have won Sunset. We were up 12-10 and we were up 5v5. It was pretty brutal to lose like that. I think we were the better team on Sunset today, but you know, they clutched out. So it happens, you know, it wasn't meant to be for us today.
We haven't played against that comp, and we didn't really have an answer. We were trying and we kept mixing it up, but nothing was working. There were some close rounds, but they just had some really good individual plays. When we were retaking, we couldn't close those rounds out and it put us in a bad spot. I wish we could have gotten to Haven and played that map. They were the better team today, so well played."
_1742652109649.png&w=64&q=75 "VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Americas Stage 2")
trent
luk xo
DaviH
Darker
erdeTHESPIKE: How was the communication during the second map?
babybay: "It was a lot better than the first map, if I'm honest with you. The first map was a lot more stressful. On the second map, we're like, 'We're just getting beat up'. There were so many rounds where tkzin was sliding into C, one-shotting us, and I don't think there's much I could have done there. Leaf also told me, "Yeah, he just slid one-tapped me." We just got to get over it.
Then, I played there, and I popped my thorns. I'm shooting him, and he one-bullets me through the thorns while I'm shooting him. It was like, wow. I mean, what can I do about that? One bullet just destroyed me. I think sometimes when you get beat that bad, it's a lot more chill than a close game.
In a close game, it's really stressful, and everything you do, there's weight to it. You don't want to make a mistake. It makes you play differently in a way. There's not really much we could have done. You kind of just have to laugh about it. It's not like we weren't trying. We kept trying to change setups, we tried a bunch of things. And then we go on attack pistol and tkzin gets four kills."
THESPIKE: Was G2 surprised by this team? What's your opinion on the LOUD roster?
babybay: "We knew it was going to be a hard game. We watched their games and their match against Cloud9. We've been watching Lucca "luk xo" Travaioli just go crazy on that Chamber and we knew he was going to do some crazy stuff. He got an ace on the second map, but in the first map, he was getting a lot of picks. It was tough to deal with him.
He demanded a lot of respect towards that B side of the map. I still think we should have closed that map out, even with luk xo playing really well. I should have won that, but all good. We learned."
Meta and team identity
THESPIKE: We’ve been seeing a lot more Vyse from you lately. What do you think she brings to the table compared to the other sentinels you’ve played before, and what’s the biggest piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to learn how to play her?
babybay: "I'm really comfortable on Vyse. I love the agent. We didn't win today, and I didn't really show my best game on Vyse, but I think we were all getting destroyed, and it's hard for anyone to look good when that happens. Maybe I could have done better in some moments, like anchoring the site. It's just difficult to deal with the Chamber on that map.
When you play Vyse, you're playing off of sound cues, and teams make it obvious when you should be using stuff. But because they have a Chamber, he could just be peeking in front of the wall at any moment. Then, you have to jiggle, and by the time you hit the cue that they're coming to your site, the Neon is already past your stuff.
Normally, I really enjoy playing Vyse on that map, but it was kind of a different beast today. In general, Vyse is a great agent on Lotus.
If you want to learn it, watch some of my games, but maybe don't watch this last one. Watch the other ones that I've played. I think Brock "brawk" Somerhalder does a really good job on the agent as well. I'm sure there are other Vyse players that I'm not mentioning, no disrespect. Watch us play, and you'll learn and copy some of the setups. It'll be good for you.
THESPIKE: It’s really hard to play sentinels in the current meta, with double duelist being so strong and pretty much impossible to counter.
babybay: "You're right. I think you're going to see a lot more Chamber and teams just running him because you can't really deal with it. I think some agents have the sentinel name, but they're not true sentinels. Cypher, Killjoy, they are true sentinels, but Chamber and Sage, for example, are very unique. They don't take that much information, so they're pseudo sentinels.
Chamber is a duelist in a way. You have the trip, but it just gets broken. It's not something that will disrupt the enemy team. Cypher can actually delay an entry and stall teams. If you're playing Sage, you can't run a solo composition, you always need another sentinel. That's how it goes now."
THESPIKE: We know that double duelist has been the meta for a while, but when it first became popular, G2 had a tough time adapting to it, despite having two great duelists, you and Alexander "jawgemo" Mor. However, you still run away from it and bring us different options such as double controller or double sentinel. How comfortable is G2 playing on this off-meta strategy?
babybay: "I think it's something that we realized we had to do. We were ahead of the meta in Santiago, but I think there were some things that Josh "JoshRT" Lee saw that raised red flags for him with me and jawgemo on the double duelist. That's why we pivoted away from it. Honestly, I think he was right.
When we kind of hit the panic button after London and swapped to a new version of the double duelist, with me on the main duelist and jawgemo on Phoenix, I think we realized that these teams that have already been playing it have been doing it for months. We could probably do it and get to a good level, but are we going to be the best in the world at it? I don't know. I'm not going to say no. I'm never going to say never, but it would mean we're basically playing from behind.
So, let's go into this other style that really fits us. Although we lost today against LOUD, I still think we should have won Sunset. And then Haven, we don't know what would have happened. I think it's the best thing for our team right now, for sure. I have no doubt about that. I have full trust in Josh's call on that."
Growing through the VCT Americas 2026 Stage 2
THESPIKE: Does this loss change anything about how you approach the next stage?
babybay: "It's all or nothing now. We have to perform and do the best we can to qualify for the Playoffs and keep our fate in our own hands. We weren't able to do it today. It would have been nice to skip straight into the Playoffs, have more time to do our thing, and get more reps under our belt. But now I think we play in about a week, which is still a good amount of time to fix the problems we had against LOUD.
I'm still happy that we get a full week of practice, at least. Obviously, it's sad that we didn't get that three-week break that some of these other teams are going to have, but that's okay. That wasn't meant to be our path. We have to live with that, just get better, and do our best to qualify for the Playoffs."
THESPIKE: When you look at your own Stage 2 so far, what is one part of your game that you're genuinely happier with than you were at the start of the split?
I think I'm a lot more disciplined this stage. I've been really trying to focus on still being that player who can get these first bloods, but also, in those moments when it's 3v3 or 2v2, really playing those opportunities correctly. I still had some hiccups today in the match, and I need to do a little bit better. There was a 2v1 against Darker that we had on Sunset defense that I wasn't too happy with myself about, but that's okay. Sometimes you don't make the right decision in the moment. Overall, throughout the stage, I've been a lot more focused on that and not trying to overdo anything, just letting the game come to me. Apart from this match, I've been farming in pretty much every single game.
How to deal with the online hate?
THESPIKE: Today has sparked a serious conversation around online hate. Daniel "C0M" Lee and Yinsu all been facing ongoing harassment, whether because of their performances or simply because of their connection to a player. As someone with a big presence online, how do you view this growing trend, and what kind of impact do you think it can have on a player’s mentality and performance?
babybay: "It's terrible. When I saw C0M's tweet, I knew exactly how he felt. I've felt that pressure since the start of me joining G2. There was so much hate about the decision and everything that was going on. I felt that every step of the way. I never really let anybody know how I felt, but I understand it. I feel bad for him because he's just here playing. He got an opportunity to play, and people are hating on him for it. It's not his fault.
It sucks because I think I'm lucky that G2 isn't an organization that cares about these things, in terms of the outside noise. But there are organizations, and maybe even other players, that listen to this stuff. Maybe it affects C0M down the road, like his chances of staying on a team. It can affect your career in a way. If everyone's just ragging on you and saying that you're terrible, at a certain point, people might start to believe it, even though it might not be true at all.
You could be playing some of the best VALORANT ever, but if you have one bad game, they'll flame you for it. It sucks that the community is really toxic. But what can you do? That's just part of the game. Even me, I'm a really positive person, and I had a little hiccup. I'm not proud of it, and I don't really want to talk about it. But it gets to you if you let it."
We're all human, you know? Everyone makes mistakes. The best thing you can do as a pro player is not look at any of this stuff. Literally, never look at social media. That's the only advice I could give. If you do, even subconsciously, it'll get to you.
G2 Esports has qualified for the VCT Americas 2026 Stage 2 Play-Ins. After finishing third in their group, G2 Esports secured a spot in the Upper Quarterfinals, where they will need two victories to qualify for the Playoffs stage. The top four teams from the Group Stage have already secured their spots in the Playoffs.
For all things VCT-related, make sure to stay tuned to THESPIKE.GG as we continue to update you with the freshest game and esports news.
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