G2N Toasty: “I think the EU Tier 2 system is a lot better than NA at this point.”

Home > Articles > G2N Toasty: “I think the EU Tier 2 system is a lot better than NA at this point.”

Alex “Toasty” Chea made waves earlier this year by crossing the Atlantic to join G2 Nord in the Prime League after two years in the NACL. As one of NA’s best up-and-coming mid lane talents, earning all-pro honors in NACL 2025 Split 2, his departure was a statement about the region’s developmental scene. To kick off the 2026 season, Toasty and G2 Nord defeated BIG 3-2 to win the Prime League’s Winter Snowdown. The ProDiff team sat down with Toasty to discuss his decision, the state of Tier 2, and his goals with G2 Nord.

Let’s start with your introduction to gaming. I know that you played both League and Valorant competitively at an early age. How did you get into gaming when you were young?

Toasty: I have a pretty big family and we all lived in close proximity. I had a lot of older cousins and an older brother. When I was six or seven years old, they were all around middle school or high school age. They were all playing video games and all playing together, so I got introduced pretty early on. I first started playing League and CS:GO when I was seven or eight years old just following the footsteps of my family and the people around me. I played Overwatch when it first came out; I played a ton of Fortnite. I'm the type of person that enjoys improving at a lot of different games. I play whatever's popular.

Focusing on League and Valorant, how was the initial climb? When did you realize you had the desire and ability to go pro?

Toasty: When I was just playing for fun, I reached Diamond II or III playing whatever I wanted. Then I got introduced to the Cloud9 Training Grounds and ended up participating in that. The coach that I was given for that program, ZzLegendary, was very good. He went on to coach EG Academy and Dignitas Academy. I had good coaching, got more experience, and then I naturally started climbing.

For Valorant, I never got any coaching or anything like that. I grew up playing first-person shooter games, so when Valorant came out, I naturally started playing that a lot and I enjoyed it. I had a lot of raw mechanics in Valorant, so I was able to climb pretty easily.

You could click heads.

Toasty: Yeah. I was just brain off, shooting people. I was pretty good.

Back to League, did you have any pros that you saw as role models? Did you follow the pro scene or were you focused more on solo queue?

Toasty: I kept up with TSM when they were really popular, but I would tune in and out. I wouldn't say I was a big watcher, but obviously I would watch the Doublelift and Bjergsen era. I would say I looked up to them. When I got into the training grounds program, I obviously became a big fan of C9.

How did you decide to play League over Valorant? Why mid lane?

Toasty: It was mainly a timing thing. Before I started putting a lot more time into League, I was thinking about playing Valorant competitively and taking it more seriously, but the age cut off for Valorant was 16 for the open qualifiers and I had just turned 15. That's when I started playing a lot more League, I got into the training program, and I started getting a lot better and enjoying it a lot as well.

In terms of actually choosing to play mid lane, it's also a timing thing. When I first climbed, I was playing ADC, sometimes Fill, sometimes Jungle to play Lee Sin whenever I felt like it. During that time, I started playing a lot more mid lane because I enjoyed playing those champs. I was playing a lot of Yasuo and stuff like that. I don't really remember why I chose mid, but I kind of just did. I started getting good at it and I just stuck with it ever since.

You came onto the competitive scene via the Proving Grounds circuit in 2022 before joining the NACL in 2024. How did your experience in the NA amateur scene contribute to your growth as a competitive player?

Toasty: I feel like I exploded into the amateur scene because my first split on Wildcard Aces, it was my first ever split, I was unknown, and I made the LCS Proving Grounds tournament. We didn't do too well because our team was punching up a lot further than we should have been able. So, I feel like when I first came in, I had a lot of hype around my name. Then I kind of got humbled for the next year. I had no good performances and a lot of my outcomes were not what I wanted them to be. Some of my time was wasted because I just wasn't playing as well and wasn't doing things very efficiently. I learned a lot from those experiences. It led me on the right track, and I am who I am today because of the experiences I had early on in my amateur career.

You had your two years in the NACL and then the splashy move to EU. There's been a few notable NA imports like Yukino and Jojopyun, and that generated a conversation about the health of NA Tier 2. Can you tell us about what options you considered this offseason and how you settled on G2 Nord?

Toasty: To be completely honest, I was considering role swapping to support. I had an offer for an in-person opportunity with a Tier 2 team; it’d be a partnership with a Tier 1 org. But my heart told me to stick with mid because that's where a lot of my passion ignited from. I thought moving to a new environment and going to EU would allow me the most growth as a Mid laner because I felt like if I stayed in the same ecosystem, I would grow a lot less. I know what to expect in NA, and I've been in the ecosystem for awhile now and I still haven't gotten a shot. So, I felt like I really needed to shake things up in order to improve the most I possibly could.

How have you been adjusting to life in EU? Has anything surprised you, any interesting experiences so far?

Toasty: I've been slowly adjusting to my environment, and I'm trying to get more settled in and become more comfortable. Recently, my routines have been getting a lot more stable. I'm staying in Berlin right now in Germany. I was surprised that Berlin feels a lot less modern than I thought it would compared to cities in NA like Los Angeles and New York. Berlin feels more rustic; most places don't have air conditioning and stuff like that. Then again, I don't really do too much outside of playing video games, eating food, showering, and sleeping, so it doesn't bother me much.

Did you travel or learn other languages growing up, or is this your first experience living abroad?

Toasty: My family is a Chinese and Cambodian household. They tried to teach my older brother and cousins to speak Chinese, but they completely failed. I think they gave up on me before they even tried, so I only speak English. That said, I have had experiences traveling overseas and living there for an extended duration. I've traveled to Asia a couple times, not even a year ago I went to Korea. I went to Seoul for a month and lived there to boot camp with my NACL team. About a year and a half or two years ago, I lived in Seoul for a couple months with a few friends and just boot camped. I've had experiences living more independently in foreign areas, so I wouldn't say I'm fresh into this type of thing.

Having seen a bit of the EU Tier 2 scene, how do you think it compares with your experience in NACL, especially last year on DarkZero Dragonsteel?

Toasty: The quantity of players here is much higher. I wouldn't say the quality is insanely higher than in NA, but I definitely think they're better, and the game plays a bit better. I was also really surprised that there's so many leagues, so many teams, and they're all not that bad at all. Compared to NACL, for sure, they're better. There's just an endless amount of ERL teams to scrim that are honestly decent or good quality. I think the EU Tier 2 system is a lot better than NA at this point.

Can you expand on your thoughts on the quality of EU solo queue compared to what you’ve experienced in NA?

Toasty: Mechanically, players in EU challenge you a lot more than NA. The overall standard is definitely higher than NA solo queue. In NA, there's usually big chunks out of the season where not a lot of pros are queuing up, but, in EU, very consistently you see names that you recognize; there are a lot more people queuing up. There's a lot of different teams in the ERL system that have good players that funnel into the solo queue system. There's only 10 teams in the NACL, and maybe four or five of them have a mix of good players, whereas for ERLs there are 10 different leagues, and four of those main leagues have four or five different good teams. I think that alone makes the solo queue practice stronger.

The Prime League Winter Snowdown against other German teams went very well for you and your team. What are your competitive expectations for this year with G2 Nord?

Toasty: Obviously, the goal is to win EMEA Masters. I feel like having a goal any lower than that is pretty useless because if I want to make it, and if I want to put my name out there, the biggest stage in the Tier 2 system is EMEA Masters. That's where a lot of the scouting goes. Even last year, a lot of the higher-placed EMEA Masters players got picked up or looked at by LEC teams. I think if you can perform in that tournament then you have a good shot of getting picked up by a Tier 1 team.

Recently we've been working on stuff and I wouldn't say it's really smooth. The people playing in the Prime League Winter Snowdown are going to be people that we have to play regionally in order to make it to EMEA Masters. So, we first have to beat them in order to make EMEA Masters, and then we'll have to see. We're taking it one day at a time.

Where would you like to see yourself at the end of 2026? Where would you want to be next year?

Toasty: I'd go to any Tier 1 team that would take me. I think right now, I've taken a good step as a professional, but I haven't fully made it yet. I just want to play on any Tier 1 team, LCS, LEC, CBLOL, that's the goal for sure.

Would you prefer to play in LCS or LEC, or is any Tier 1 team the goal?

Toasty: Tier 1 for sure. Playing in the LCS has definitely been a dream of mine, and it's a lot closer to my family and friends. If I had offers from teams that were both the same strength relative to each other, one in LCS and one in LEC, I'd feel more comfortable playing LCS. But honestly, I'm just going to go to whatever team wants me, has the strongest roster, and lets me improve the most.

To close it out, what are some of the activities that you enjoy outside of League?

Toasty: Growing up, I played a lot of sports. I played soccer and basketball mostly, a little bit of baseball, and then throughout my high school years I played volleyball for my high school and we went to State, stuff like that. When I can I like to play sports, but I haven't had the opportunity to play much here because I don't know a lot of people. I also rock climb; I boulder to stay active, and I've been going to the gym here and there because I think it's really important to stay active as a gamer. It's really good for your performance if you're staying active. Other than that, I usually just stick to playing League.

Any shout-outs or thank-yous?

Toasty: Thanks to the people supporting me and my friends and family that are always rooting for me. And thanks to whoever's reading this.

You can watch Toasty and G2 Nord begin their road to EMEA Masters in the 2026 Prime League. If you want to improve your own League of Legends gameplay, you can learn directly from the pros on ProDiff.

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