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It was in 2022 that G2 Esports announced the signing of its all-female League of Legends team called Hel. Initially, the team competed in the NLC Division 3, the Northern League of Legends Champions league. At the start of the year, G2 Esports announced that Hel would be participating in NLC Division 2 starting this year.
NLC 2nd Division Spring 2024 kicked off on 30th January with its group stage, and over the last three weeks of competition, G2 Hel has lost all seven games and is currently at the bottom of the standings.
Following this, there has been many criticisms against the team online and this has prompted one of the G2 Hel players to speak up. On 13th February, after G2 Hel's defeat against Rich Gang, Hel's support player Ève “Colomblbl” Monvoisin tweeted that, after a loss, there's always many things to be improved on and the team is as motivated as ever.
Colomblbl also commented on a tweet that talked about how lose streaks such as 0-7 by a women's team only "reinforce negative stigmas."
G2 Hel Support Claps Back At Criticism Over Recent Form
On 13th February, following a game loss against Rich Gang, G2 Hel went 0-7 and is effectively at the bottom of the NLC 2nd Division Spring 2024 standings.
League of Legends coach and Twitter user Tash Kiea tweeted, "0-7 is concerning. As much as G2 wants to push for women in eSports, results like this only reinforce negative stigmas. Already mentions of Vaevictus/Siren. It doesn't matter that HEL is nothing like them. What will be noted is females play league, females lose, females bad."
Responding to this tweet, Colomblbl pointed out that it is only negative if people view it like that. She said, "If people want to mock our score, they can if they want to. It is what it is, even a 0/7 male div2 team get mocked and stuff. Does it mean we should never try? i don't think so!"
G2 Hel Colomblbl added that she has never learned as much as she is now and that if it means going through failures to be a better player, then she is ready to face it.
Another Twitter user pointed out how Karmine Corp, playing in the League of Legends Europe, Middle East and Africa Championship (LEC) had a similar, disappointing run in a Tier 1 league. They said, "KC LEC was 0-7 too, yet nobody commented on how badly they were performing in a male league, just that their team was bad. It’s the same for G2 HEL, if you think the problem is people will think female loses = female bad then you are part of the problem."
On the other side, a lot of fans questioned the way G2 Hel was propelled to NLC 2nd Division this year. According to journalist Rigas, G2 Hel joining the second division was due to a "domino effect." It involved Lionscreed buying the Division 1 spot of Team Vanir, who effectively took up Lionscreed's slot in Division 2. However, two days after the Division 2 teams were announced, Vanir reportedly withdrew from the league due to unfortunate circumstances.
According to Rigas, the NLC tournament organizers reportedly announced that this NLC 2nd Division spot would be filled through an application process. This eventually went the way of G2 Esports and it's female League of Legends team as it took over Vanir's spot in Division 2.
Commenting on this, one Redditor said, "Sounds like the league is trying to pull off the popularity of G2 and not much else." Another commented, "I mean it's working. I don't even know what region that is it and have never heard of it. But because of hel being tied to G2 I've seen at least a few posts instead of literally none at all."
G2 Esports said that the formation of G2 Hel is part of its continued efforts to provide top gamers with the opportunity to compete at the highest levels, irrespective of their gender, and to support them as they grow as players and entertainers.
It should be noted that Riot Games does not have an official female circuit for League of Legends like it does for Valorant through the Game Changers scene.
