G2 Dylan Falco: “I hope, at least, people understand that we are competitive, and we can win on good days, against any team.”
Q: I’m still stressed right now. What the fuck was that? Oh my god.
Dylan Falco: I’m not too stressed. *laughs* I’ve been to a lot of international tournaments throughout the years. I didn’t think we were heavy underdogs coming to the series, honestly.
I think we played pretty well and drafted pretty well. But for us, we want to be better than this and win future series.
Q: I believe you — even on the coach cams you looked really chill the entire series. But it did, seemingly, get really stressful in-game. On both teams, players were making high-pressure mistakes. Caps walked into a trap right at the end!
Dylan Falco: Oh, it’s definitely hard to play on stage — like very close late game scenarios. But we are also very really experienced. Caps is relaxed in the comms in those moments. So I think it’s in those moments where the experience — for both teams, for T1 as well, they’re very experienced too — comes through.
I also think in those late game scenarios, we were probably favored from the draft, so it made it a lot easier for us to make some mistakes still, or have a close gameplay, and then still win.
Q: The start of Game 4 looked completely doomed, but were you thinking “Our late game condition is quite good, no worries!”?
Dylan Falco: No, like obviously at that point, usually, especially against a team as good as T1, when it [looks like] you’re going to lose the game, you start prepping for the next game.
Q: Did you start prepping Game 5?
Dylan Falco: I think, yeah, always. But as soon as they threw a bit and it became even, then you start thinking, “Oh, we actually have a window this game.”
Because I think Kled-Viktor in Game 4 are really outscaling enemy champions. As long as we could somehow deal with the Caitlyn, I think we had at least a chance.
Q: I’ve thought about this before — in a series this entertaining, and that close in the final game, is there a point to locking in on Game 5 prep during the game just in case?
Dylan Falco: We are using a lot of the time [during] the games to prep the next game draft for sure. But we’re also human. If we feel like we’re gonna close, or have a chance of closing the series, we’re gonna watch, right? So we’re kind of multitasking. We’re doing both. We usually take a bit of focus time in the middle of the game, once there’s a clear winner or loser, to prepare for the next game for sure.
We obviously had a plan for Game 5 if it went there. Thankfully, it did not.
Q: After you were 2-0 up, T1 pivoted to putting Peyz back on traditional ADCs — a swap some public analysts predicted. Did you see that coming? Were you prepared for it?
Dylan Falco: I think that’s natural, right? If you’re playing kind of off-meta (or meta, or whatever it is) and you lose 2 games, pretty natural to switch. Also, I think their premier mage combos that they value — I think it was Mel and Ziggs — were out, so I think it just becomes even harder, from a theoretical standpoint, to draft mages in those [spots].
Q: Facing HLE or BLG next, they’ve been really good at the mage bots — less uncomfortable than T1. Is that a concern?
Dylan Falco: I … We play Lyon first.
Q: … It’s 3 AM. Dunno how I forgot about that.
Dylan Falco: [But yes], we definitely do play it. If we feel the draft scenario is good for it, we definitely do play the mage combo still.
We’re probably less likely to play it than some other teams at the tournament, for sure. But we’ve also done a lot of thoughts into the weaknesses of the mage compositions, so [we know] what we can to get a good draft against them as well.
Q: So it’s a read thing, not a restriction thing.
Dylan Falco: Yeah.
Q: Even as an NA fan, I have to admit that LYON’s strength of schedule has been much weaker than yours. Of the remaining teams, they seem much weaker.
Dylan Falco: I think LYON is actually a pretty good team. I think maybe they’re like a tier below the Asian teams that we’ve been taking series off of, but … I love to say coming into these and saying that they’re really, really bad and we’ll stomp them, but actually when we scrimmed them, it was pretty close.
I do feel like we have definitely a higher ceiling. We’ll definitely need to draft and play well to win that one.
Q: A top 4 placement doesn’t mean you’ve met your goal yet, but it’s pretty historic. It must feel good to prove the doubters wrong.
Dylan Falco: That’s the fourth Bo5 we’ve won against LPL and LCK teams this year. So, I guess we’re even or winning in series against them.
Are we the favorites to win the entire tournament and win Worlds? Maybe not. But I hope, at least, people understand that we are competitive, and we can win on good days, against any team.
Q: 3-0, 3-0, 3-2, 3-1. And the 3-2 team looks the weakest by far.
Dylan Falco: Oh, TES? Yeah, I think that game had a lot of draft and nerves — and mental stuff, probably — from both teams affecting it. I think if we were to play them on good drafts, good mental, we would probably [both] show a better performance.
Q: BB played a generational series — maybe the greatest series from a Western top laner ever. A big part of it has been his counters, which were a huge change from the “role-player” and “weak-side tank guy” that people saw him as domestically. Is this strategy for internationals?
Dylan Falco: No, I think honestly, we do those counter picks in EU a lot — I think the teams there just know about them there, because they scrim us all the time, so they don’t play the really bad counterpick matchups as much, because they just know what we play. I think, when we come to internationals teams are just less [prepared] — but it’s nature, they just have less games. It’s not their fault.
I think that’s why BB counterpicks become a bit more … explosive, [internationally], for sure.
I also think this year, with the quests and the lack of swapping, […] there’s a lot more windows to play aggressive, crazy champions. That’s why people are playing Vayne top, that’s why people are busting out all these sorts of champs. Back when it was lane swap, both top laners have TP and it’s swaps all around, you kind of just had to play more tanks in general, just to be safe in that scenario. With the way the game is now, it’s definitely open for these sorts of champions.
Q: One concern brought up by pundits is Skewmond being a tilter — you have four ultra monk mental veterans and a young prodigy who can get emotional. Today, even when he looked tilted during the worst moments of Game 4, he continued to smurf the game. Is that something you’ve tracked or worked on?
Dylan Falco: I think Skew’s perseverance has come a long way since joining the team. He’s a young player — this is only his second year playing Tier 1, with I guess, quite a few international tournaments now. I think we’ve won series this year that we would not have last year. And I think he’s come a long way for sure.
He’ll always be a fiery emotion kind of guy, that’s just who he is. But he has been completely locked into [every] series so far at this tournament, with regards to how he’s communicating and how he’s playing.
Q: Any final message for G2 fans?
Dylan Falco: Just thanks for watching and supporting us. I hope we can go all the way. We definitely feel like we’re capable of doing it. But I hope you guys watch us and cheer for us.
Header Image Credit: Riot Games
