Photo by Riot Games
A few months ago, Gen.G was at perhaps its lowest point since competitive Valorant entered its partnership era. Fast forward to today, and the Tiger Nation looks like a serious Pacific contender once more.
After Gen.G’s win over Rex Regum Qeon, good for a 3-0 start in VCT Pacific Stage 2, Ult Orb interviewed in-game leader Nak-yeon “Efina” Kim and coach Hae-seong “HSK” Kim to break down the team’s new look. Big thanks to close friend TMosura, who made this possible.
Efina arrived at Gen.G with big shoes to fill. He and academy product Raxcal joined, tasked with rescuing Gen.G from what was essentially rock bottom. The team, two years removed from a trophy-laden 2024 season, had just notched 9th-10th and 11th-12th finishes in the first two splits of 2026.
The team parted ways with Lakia, who had returned to the roster to take up the IGL role, and benched rookie ZynX, who had been nursing a wrist injury since Stage 1. Efina, born in 2001, took on the IGL seat to start Stage 2. While he is a rookie at the VCT level, he is not a first-time IGL.
Those familiar with Korean Valorant know Efina for his time with Quantum Strikers, F4Q, or Team IAM, a team made up of popular Korean streamers with some having pro experience. When he was first rumored to be joining Gen.G, there was an air of uncertainty surrounding his appointment.
Doenmo, a popular Korean streamer and former teammate of Efina’s on IAM, seemed unsure about Efina’s IGLing. In a YouTube video, Doenmo shared that Efina’s calling was one of the reasons he himself became IAM’s IGL two years ago. Efina gave insight into what made his calling in 2024 lackluster.
“As Doenmo said, when I was with IAM, it’s hard to even say I was IGLing,” Efina said. “I relied way too much on intuition or instinct to guess what the enemies were doing.”
Efina, now calling the shots for one of Korean Valorant’s most decorated outfits, says he’s not the player he was two years ago.
“Over time on different teams, my calling has improved to the point that I’ve become almost a completely different person,” he shared.
In rebuilding Gen.G’s roster, HSK played a more hands-on role. When ZynX was benched, the org shared that the team had been practicing without him to reduce the risk of worsening his injury, but didn’t say who filled in. In a stream with Doenmo, t3xture revealed that HSK had stepped in for ZynX during scrims.
That experience shaped how Gen.G approached the rebuild.
“When I was participating in scrims, I felt that the players already on the roster were at a really strong level mechanically,” HSK said.
Having scrimmed in the role that would eventually become Raxcal’s gave HSK a firsthand sense of what the team still needed in both positions.
“We wanted to find someone who has had experience IGLing, but could also learn, because it would be difficult to develop two rookies at once,” he said. “In picking our Sentinel player, we really prioritized choosing somebody with fantastic aim.”
While Efina and Raxcal’s first matches had some debut nerves, the two seem to have settled comfortably, with the latter finishing as match MVP against RRQ.
Gen.G’s next test comes against FULL SENSE, a chance to prove the 3-0 start wasn’t a fluke. Whether the team’s form holds up through the rest of Stage 2 remains to be seen, but for the first time in a long time, Gen.G looks like Gen.G.
