ash: "Expectations rose too quickly [internally], and that means there's a lot more frustration"
Aurora staved off an early elimination from IEM Beijing by instead consigning G2 to consecutive last-place tournament exits, recovering from a one-sided loss to Liquid the day prior.
HLTV3 Nov 2026 · 1 min read
"I think the expectations for the team have risen too quickly on the internal side, and that means there's a lot more frustration," Ashley "ash" Battye told HLTV after the match.
"So when we've played the last few days, we've kind of gone away and forgotten the things that we were good at. Even Anubis was terrible for us the other day, and that's never been the case before.
"I don't want to sound like I'm complaining to everybody; it's just really hard to balance everything right now," he said. "And obviously we're feeling tired because we're flying. Tell me how you're feeling after that and with how the game went for you.
I think G2, even if they haven't been the best, it's still a good victory to have.
It's just another very stressful game, and again, I'm happy that we're able to go through some of these close games and pull out the win at the end.
Obviously tighter than you would have liked, and not the start to the tournament you'd have wanted yesterday.
Opinion
Fictional bylines. Each take uses a line above and adds no facts.
Team Liquid can stand on this line: ""I think the expectations for the team have risen too quickly on the internal side, and that means there's a lot more frustration," Ashley "ash" Battye told HLTV after the match." It is already on the card, so the case does not need a streak or a roster rumor.
Leo Hart · optimist
The headline skips this: ""I think the expectations for the team have risen too quickly on the internal side, and that means there's a lot more frustration," Ashley "ash" Battye told HLTV after the match." That is the reading I would argue. The rest of the card does not cancel it.
Ivo Quill · contrarian
CS2AuroraG2 EsportsTeam Liquid
