G2 Caps: “Our aim is definitely to win [First Stand]. We took a lot away from Worlds and I think we have improved a lot.”

Q: Holy shit. What a series.

Caps: Yeah, that was crazy. Especially last game, I guess.

Q: That has to be one of the craziest Bo5s you’ve ever played, right?

Caps: Yeah, probably. I think, I mean, there were the Fnatic series, [those were] really crazy, but I don’t think the Game 5’s were like this level of hype. And then, of course, playing against T1 — when we actually beat them in two Bo5’s — those ones were also pretty wild. But I think the amount of, like, throws back and forth in this one [were] through the roof.

Q: I think probably the craziest play from you that whole series was the Anivia 1v2 on Elder. What were the calls like there? Did you know, “Okay, I have to 1v2 here on Elder. I have to outplay?” Or are you just dead silent, just locked in?

Caps: I think I was mostly silent. I mean, like, Neeko to base because he was 1 HP and then it was just me and I was just focusing. I was trying not to hit the Elder with my ult, of course, but I also had to kill Maokai, so it was a bit awkward and it didn’t look that great. Luckily we managed, they got the Elder, right? But we managed to kill them after.

And honestly, the comms were very funny because my team was just like, “You have to kill Maokai, kill Maokai, he’s gonna smite the Elder!” I’m like, “Yeah guys, I know,” you know? And then at some point I went into egg, and they were trying to kill Elder, and everyone’s like, “You have to kill him, he’s gonna kill Elder, he’s gonna kill Elder.”

Like, “Guys, I’m in egg. I can’t do much about it. He will probably get the Elder.” But then we still won the fight after, so the comms were pretty funny. Yeah, it was fun.

Q: Last time, you said you wouldn’t be surprised if G2 crushed the playoffs after ending in 7th — and you did. How confident were you?

Caps: Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I think the Bo1s, and like, the thing is when it’s like regular season, I guess you play so many different teams and have three opponents each week. It just makes it a bit difficult to prepare for everyone the same way as we do when we’re doing Bo5s and stuff like that, right?

Of course, us being in this patch for three weeks, it eliminates a lot of the variance, I guess. I wouldn’t say it’s because we were super bad in the regular season. Just, we tried some things, right? We had some test drafts and they didn’t work out for us.

And now in playoffs, we are playing things we are a bit more confident on, I would say. All of it makes a little bit more sense. I think all of us are putting in a little bit more effort to make sure that the plans are solid. And then it being Bo5 also just brings us more confidence. You know, in Bo1s, one thing goes wrong, you’re kind of nervous, right? Even when we play against Fnatic, it’s like we are confident we can beat Fnatic.

When it’s the Bo1 and your life is on the line, like one Scuttle Crab fight goes wrong, someone does like a cheese gank, it can really snowball fast. And when it’s Bo5, you’re a bit more chill. You’re like, okay, we got this. We can bounce our way back to these games. Worst case, we have another game coming.

Of course, in Game 5 that goes back to the Bo1 mindset, but yeah, it makes it nice.

Q: You didn’t get to play many fun champions — like BB got his Yasuo. Did you tell him “I’m still the better Yasuo” afterwards?

Caps: Well, I got to play the Sylas, which was pretty fun until we just died twice, I think back to back in 3v3 and then I was kind of useless for the rest of the game.

I think that the game would have been fun if the early game went better. I mean, actually, the early game went good, but then we just kind of threw it a bit back. Honestly, I think the Anivia game was very fun. I think whenever you have a good Anivia game, it’s kind of fun because you can annoy people with the wall.

So yeah, I love that kind of game. Of course, it comes with a risk as well, right? Because they really want to flash on me and Sion ult on me as well if I do my wall poorly. It was very exciting, the last game.

Q: If you had to pick the best-performing KC player from today, who would you choose?

Caps: I think I…wait… what was the fourth game again? It was like… What did I play? I played… I forgot the fourth game fast. I was like, “We lost so we need to remove it and go game five fast.” But yeah, Oh, that Syndra. I think I was playing Syndra that game. Man, these games were very weird as well.

I feel like we were in some very good states in a lot of the games, but then we just couldn’t really get the job done in two of them.

I’m not sure. Maybe I would just say Kyeahoo, just because I laned against him, so I got to see him play the most, and I think he was doing well. I think in the other game, he got quite fed as well.

I think even in the last game he managed to get a pick on Hans as well as in their base. So yeah, I would probably say him. 

Q: Between Kled and Yasuo from BB and Irelia, Vayne, and Varus from Dhokla, can top laners just have way more fun than mid laners right now?

Caps: Yeah, I mean, I think that’s a fair assessment. I think the mid laners are handshaking a lot of the same matchups.

I think, of course, with Fearless Bo5, it goes a little bit more crazy towards the end. I mean, there’s quite a lot of champions, I guess, but it’s definitely not like crazy champions. Even, again, I think Sylas can always be quite fun. I guess just a lot of the melee champs, right? There’s also a little bit of Akali. I think she ended up getting banned out.

Q: In NA, Akali’s been somewhat popular. LCK has pulled out champions like Zoe.

Caps: Zoe is seeing a decent bit of play, but we just don’t have that many series. This our first Game 5 in the split. And if we had more, we would probably have seen more of Zoe as well. But we just, yeah, I guess we don’t have that many Bo5s.

Q: Do you know when you fly to Brazil?

Caps: I am not sure. Yeah, I have no idea. I think we’re going to Berlin some more.

Q: Is your realistic goal for First Stand to win, even with teams like GEN in the way?

Caps: Our aim is definitely to win it. We took a lot away from Worlds and I think we have improved a lot throughout the split already.

Of course, going into a new patch, we need to catch up and we can get ahead on a lot of the drafting with some of the new champions that got changed and adjusted. And then when it comes to the tournament itself, [especially] against Gen.G, it’s the team that is looking the scariest going into the tournament.

It will definitely be a challenge for us, but we can obviously beat them, right?

Q: In the BDD era, you had a really good record against GEN, after all.

Caps: Yeah, I mean, that one was definitely nice. I just think the last… I mean, just think they knocked… Like, they’ve beat us twice as well since then, maybe? Yeah. Or maybe one time at MSI.

So, I guess recently they’ve definitely beaten us and I definitely think they’re a stronger team going into the tournament, but then it’s on us to catch up to them — and get further ahead of them. And even if we’re a little bit weaker, we just have to be clutch on the day, right?

There’s a lot of changes coming into the patches. I’ve seen some exciting things, so I’m ready to cook some things.

Q: Why were you in a bathrobe in the practice room?

Caps: Yeah, the thing is, we heard we were going to Spain, and I was like, “It’s probably going to be a little bit warm,” but in the venue it was actually very cold.

So because there’s going to be so many people coming, right? So, backstage in the venue, it was actually very, very cold. So initially, like the first day, I was just wearing my jacket, but then my nose was starting to run and I was like, “Oh, this is not going to be great for our game.”

So I was like, “How do I stay warm?” — and then in our hotel room, we just had this bathrobe. So I was like, “Wait, what if I just put the bathrobe on?”, so I just put the bathrobe on top of my jacket and my shirt. And then it was actually nice and warm.

So yeah, it was kind of my strat the last two days.

Q: Okay, so make sure in Brazil you grab the bathrobe from the hotel then.

Caps: Yeah, I mean if it’s gonna be cold then I’ll have to do the strat.

Q: Okay, any final message for G2 fans?

Caps: Just a big thank you, right? I think it was an insane series to play. I think the fans were giving us so much energy. When we lost the two games, everyone was like “You can do it, you can do it!” — I really appreciate that.

And I’m super excited to go to Brazil as well. I’ve met a lot of like G2 fans [from Brazil]. Especially when we were in London, I remember there were a lot of Brazilian fans there actually that came and supported us.

It’s going to be exciting to go to Brazil and meet all the fans as well. And I’m hoping for some nice cheers.

Transcription assistance from @misaagamizz

Header Image Credit: Riot Games