As the Rainbow Six Siege Invitational 2021 reaches its final stages, we caught up with Jordan ‘Kayak’ Morley, the latest addition to G2 esports.
The 19-year-old recently joined the team in March after long-time G2 resident Niclas ‘Pengu’ Mouritzen retired from the sport. With Kayak replacing such a prestigious player, the pressure must surely be on him to deliver. Luckily, Kayak doesn’t see himself as ‘replacing’ Pengu, per se.
“I try to not think of me placing Pengu and more of that I have just opened a new book and am now creating my own chapter within G2. Obviously, I am aware of how big of a player Pengu was and also what he brought to this team in terms of success. It’s highly motivating to think that I could be there one day,” says Kayak.
Kayak’s move to G2 has proven unproblematic so far. Fitting in with an entirely new team has the potential to be stressful, but the rest of the roster seems to have welcomed the youngster with open arms.
“I’m fitting in really well at G2,” Kayak confirms. “The lads and the organization have made me feel at home the minute I walked through the door. I’m really thankful for that, as I know it’s not always the most pleasant experience going through a big change for any player.”
“I didn’t see myself being in this position from gaming”
Kayak is a sure-headed player. He’s confident in his approach to gameplay and comes across as someone who is self-assured in their abilities. Even so, Kayak says that he never anticipated that he would have a career in esports as he does now.
“I started out just playing games from my bed on my Xbox and didn’t think I would ever get to this point of competition and to the point it was my job and career,” he says. “I’ve always been pretty good at games and had an eye for competition with roots springing from playing football from a very young age, so I guess the two combined for which became my hobby and then career.”
Like any good sportsman, Kayak is laser-focused on winning, and that’s exactly how he plans to move forward with G2. “My hopes for my career is to win everything with my team and be remembered for years to come,” he puts it simply.
“The pandemic didn’t change too much for me”
Along with the rest of the world, COVID-19 has affected the esports industry in a big way. Where esports teams would previously meet up and train together over LAN, that’s no longer an easy possibility.
Thankfully, Kayak doesn’t seem to think this has changed much of his approach to practice. “The pandemic didn’t change too much for me as I would have been at home just playing anyways,” explains the G2 newbie. “LAN events are the pinnacle of competition for me so missing my first one was a real disappointment for me, but something that I understood as it was the result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
With UK lockdown restrictions beginning to ease and the vaccine rollout well underway, esports teams will hopefully be back to normal training soon.
How did G2 prepare for the 2021 Invitational?
Going into the R6 Invitational 2021, we wanted to know what Kayak thought the strengths and weaknesses were of G2. Kayak is optimistic about his team’s capabilities, saying, “I think our strengths are being highly flexible and being aggressive as a team. I think when we are all on it we are really hard to beat and we are a real force. We have some of the best gun skill players in the world and taking gunfights is a really big strength.”
That said, Kayak worries that, although the performance is there, harnessing it can be inconsistent. “I think as weakness right now for as shown by our EUL Stage 1 results and also the Invitational Group stage is that we are inconsistent. One day we are lighting quick and hot, one day we can struggle with simple tasks. So, drilling that consistency in for us is something that is really important right now and I think results will follow when it is further drilled in as we progress as this particular [group of] five.”
It’s always useful for a team to identify their weaknesses. That way, they can work on them in training. Working on consistency in team play and communication is something that G2 focused on in the run-up to the SI.
In addition, Kayak says that they’re always on the lookout to see how opponents are fairing so they know what to look out for. “Other things such as scouting for the opponents that we will face which is usual LAN event protocol for us,” he explains.
“COVID-19 has made me appreciate simpler things in life”
A tough sportsman in his own profession, Kayak likes to keep up with other sporting leagues when he’s not playing Siege. “COVID-19 has made me appreciate simpler things in life such as just going for walk, so I’d say that’s my most enjoyable thing to do outside of esports right now. I am also a keen sports fan and enjoy watching Football, Formula 1 and Basketball when I can.”
To wrap up our conversation, we had to ask Kayak what his favourite Siege map is: “My favourite siege map right now is Chalet as it is the newest map to be introduced into the Pro Circuit. I’m enjoying learning new things on the map and how teams are having their spin on playing the map and seeing the maps meta quickly shift from what it was from the start.”
We were hoping for a promising start from G2 in the Invitational 2021, but they’ve unfortunately fallen out of the tournament during the playoffs. G2 took an unfortunate loss to the US team Parabellum on Day 8 of the Invitational 2021 tournament.
The team are undoubtedly disappointed with their performance, but Kayak says on Twitter that the loss makes him hungry to go again.
For more esports interviews, check out our previous discussion with NaVi’s Doki on their win at the R6 UK Ireland Nationals. We’ve also recently spoken to Diego Hicham Aazzi, the esports manager for the underdog team, the Mkers, about their approach to the R6 Invitational 2021.
[Featured Image Credit: G2 Esports/Ubisoft]
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