G2 JoshRT on JonahP roster change: "We made these decisions in light of the past month."

The VCT 2025 season was one of the busiest periods of time for VCT Americas team G2 Esports, who found themselves traveling the globe competing for their first VCT international title. Domestically, G2 Esports were untouchable. They found themselves as three-time VCT Americas champions representing their region as the first seed at every single VCT international event. The only thing that continued to evade them throughout the season was winning their first international trophy.

We had the opportunity to speak to G2 Esports head coach Josh "JoshRT" Lee on Media Day at Red Bull Home Ground 2025 - Main Event to talk about the team's recent roster changes and his reflections from VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity

THESPIKE: Last time we spoke to you was at VALORANT Champions Paris 2025; what are your reflections after the event? What are some things that you took time to really think about after the top-eight finish?

Of course, we had high expectations going to the tournament, and there are a lot of things that we messed up on. Actually, I would say it falls squarely on me as a head coach to make sure some of these problems don't occur. Like, some of them could be predicted, and some I just straight up made a mistake. It was a tough, tough period after Champs, and we were hoping to make it to the final weekend, and whatever happens, happens. We had multiple opportunities to make it there, whether it was from the group stage or trying to land the first seed instead of a second seed.

Everyone knows how the bracket turned out, where it was a very top-heavy with Fnatic, Paper Rex, ourselves, and DRX on that top side of the bracket. We couldn't complain because we determined the seeding. We got upset in the very first match.

Even with that, we had a really good opportunity to beat PRX. Didn't close it there, and then we had another chance in the lower bracket. There were some mistakes in the veto, of course. That's all part of my understanding; we could have done many things better. I stand by some of the decisions, but I definitely won't be making those decisions going forward.

THESPIKE: What were your reflections on that veto, specifically against DRX and picking Bind? Do you still stand by that decision?

I will always put faith in my IGL, his reads, and how we've been doing our videos this whole year. I always give him leeway to make his own calls. I always say I'm confident with the decision we made. That doesn't mean I'll keep making those kinds of decisions, right? Every year, every tournament, I update my process and try to figure out if things are the best route.

I'm standing by what I did, but that doesn't mean I'll do it again in the future. There's been a lot of those little moments throughout the tournament where we are adjusting that. You don't know what you don't know until it happens, and we're working with the best information available. We just went through that experience and got out in the top eight of a very winnable tournament.

You definitely feel something when you see another team you’ve beaten domestically in the region twice win it all. It was a really nice wake-up call for everybody. You start thinking that this was our tournament to win. It was also our tournament to lose, and we needed to step up in moments like that.

THESPIKE: How have you been using the past month to reset? I'd probably say that G2 is the busiest team because of how many events you're qualifying for. How have you been balancing everything?

Yeah, we actually were the busiest team in the past two years. I was actually looking at how many matches we played, and we have the most matches. We have the highest win rate of all the teams in the past two years. Obviously, you can't include the first year of ownership, because we weren't in it. We went through all the events pretty much, except for the very first event that we missed out on. The fatigue, the travel, and constantly preparing for these big games do take a toll on you. I approach these short off-seasons with intense recovery because you don't have that much time before the next event happens.

As everyone knows we made a roster change. We must prepare the best we can within the limited time available. So, yeah, it's being intentional with our recovery period, our process there, and then just going back into work. After this event, we'll have another break, and then we'll go back to work, and it'll be like a cycle of that. I've been good with my team to be intentional with how we recover.

THESPIKE: Out of curiosity, who will be the fifth player competing at Red Bull Home Ground New York?

Depending on when this interview gets released, babybay will be playing in our lineup and then, yeah, that's, that's the roster. We made these decisions in light of the past month. There's been a lot going on, but it has to do with where we think the roster should go in terms of direction and assessing potential. That's basically why we made the decisions that we made…The entire process took roughly three weeks to implement this change.

THESPIKE: I wanted to ask you how life has been post-Champs. Have you been doing anything fun apart from just being coach Josh?

I always try to make it a point to stay after the event, but it's really hard to find time to enjoy the city that you're in when traveling so much. You fly back immediately after some of these events when you are eliminated, so you don’t get to do some of the tourist stuff that you typically want to do. I was able to do that and some more in Paris.

I was just trying to experience life a little bit more in Paris because it’s always fun. I like the city a lot. It is super walkable, and everywhere you go, it just looks amazing in terms of the architecture. It’s very easy on the eyes, and the food is great. We just got to explore, and we had a nice dinner on the river, so it was really nice on the boat.

Afterwards, I went to New York, actually, for a friend’s wedding, and then that’s when the whole offseason shenanigans in LA started happening. It’s been fun, though, because I find work enjoyable, and while it can be stressful at times, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

I think that's how you feel fulfilled in life, and for now, in this time period of my life, it's just working on a team trying to make them better, and have that goal of just try to bring out the potential of these people that I'm trying to help.

THESPIKE: On a scale of 1 to 10, how fulfilled are you with your current position?

If you asked me three weeks ago or right after Champs, I would be telling you a two out of 10. It sucked after getting eliminated because we couldn’t make it far. We couldn’t at least make it to the final weekend. We all stayed and watched, and the arena was amazing. The fans were amazing, and it just looked like an insane tournament.

At the same time, I am very happy that NRG won. I was just really proud of Ethan "Ethan" Arnold and Sam "s0m" Oh in their journey because they were my former players back in 2020. I was talking to them afterwards, and just saying how I was proud of them for doing it and winning. You just gotta recognize the path that they were on, and you can’t hate it. You’re just like wow, I’m happy that they were able to achieve something like that. Obviously, I wish we could have done the same, but maybe we weren’t ready. That’s the reality of competition. There’s only one winner, and some of us have to take our lessons and accept that maybe we weren’t ready.

After the pain subsided a little bit, you start to think about the past year again, and it’s still pretty fulfilling. It’s fun to do all of these events, and it’s fun to work on something with people because we are in the service industry. We are helping people grow while we strive to be better individuals. I guess from that lens, it’s been more fulfilling.

THESPIKE: Any closing remarks?

Thanks for all the supporters. Of course, I know in light of the news, there's gonna be a lot of questions. Just trust us that, we're trying to make the best decisions possible with the information that we have, and we just want to be very competitive for this upcoming season. Hopefully, we will get very similar results, maybe even better than last year. But yeah, stay tuned for that.

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