G2 Dylan Falco: “I still feel like we’re a team capable of taking games off the East. […] I am still confident in my players.”

Q: I imagine today was a tough loss, especially because of expectations and your team’s confidence lately. Was it a difference of hands, draft, or both? 

Dylan: I think we were probably outclassed in a lot of different ways today, right? There was [a] 3-0. I guess we were close at ending the game in Game 1, but the other two games weren’t particularly close. 

I think it was a combination of gameplay and draft. I think our drafts definitely gave us some angles to win the game, like the scaling angle in Game 1 and Game 2, and we had a lot of tools to do stuff in Game 3. But I think in the games we [reached] late game, [BLG] were ahead early. And in the games that maybe we had a more active draft, they managed to just hold and […] get ahead in the game. 

I think it probably is just both [hands and draft] today. 

Q: There’s a pervasive sentiment that, for the first time in a long time, G2 doesn’t have the intangible “aura” to beat LCK/LPL. How do you feel about that?

Dylan: I still feel like we’re a team capable of taking games off the East. Obviously, today was not good, but I am still confident in my players. I’m still confident in my team, and I feel we definitely had angles and avenues to draft and play against them today, right? I’m not a doomer in that regard, and I believe in my team, and that we can do well tomorrow, and we can do well in the main stage.

Q: BrokenBlade was dying in lane more often than we’re used to seeing, and Hans got caught on mid wave a few times during Game 2. Were issues like that caused by communication problems between the team, or individual mistakes? 

Dylan: Some of those situations, I feel like we were just getting outplayed a bit. […] For example, Hans Sama on mid wave – it’s a bit hard against a fed Varus on mid wave, right? It’s a difficult scenario, especially when they kind of have pressure on the map.

If they have control over the game and you’re playing against top tier opponents, you’re gonna kinda force out more mistakes than you would see, maybe, playing in a Western game. I think it’s just the nature of playing in a difficult scenario against better opponents, I would say.

Q: If you win tomorrow, your first opponent is expected to be GenG. How do you plan to whip the team into shape with such little time? 

Dylan: Well, you start with rewatching our series against BLG. Figure out what went wrong, figure out what we can do better. We were in some winning positions, right? Game 2, we almost ended. In Game 2, I think we’re ahead in the game and had avenues to win. 

We look at that, and we figure out what we can improve on, […] how we can draft to get a bit more pressure in the game, how we can play when we do have the leads, a bit more solidly. And although, of course, if we went tomorrow and played against GenG, I wouldn’t consider us favorites in that match. I think most people would consider them to be the best team at the tournament, but it’s something we will do and something we’ll prepare for. And [whether] we win or lose against them, they’ll be an excellent opponent as well. 

Q: Caps has been playing a lot of enabling champs this year — is this how the team wants to play, or more due to the meta? 

Dylan: I think that, at least in Europe, we saw a lot of success with Caps playing more playmaking champions. […] I think it’s part of what qualified us here to this tournament, for sure. I think it’s good because Skew often has a good condition in the game, and it kind of enables him a lot. That being said, part of it at this tournament is just, I think, the nature of the meta.

I think TF has been banned in basically every single game except for the game that was played today, and Annie has also been a priority. For example, they first picked Annie, a playmaking mid, in the first game. 

Of course, him picking Veigar in the final game is a bit more magey [and] scaling-oriented, but we usually don’t see that in the meta these days. […] And I think we also played Corki yesterday, which was more of a scaling pick. It’s a little bit of both, I would say.

Q: After what feels like a crushing loss, how do you pivot the team’s mental going into GAM tomorrow? Do you think the team is veteran enough to not be affected? 

Dylan: No, I don’t think this loss was crushing at all. We were actually very positive and trying hard until the last game, and I think we’ll come in tomorrow with a lot of confidence. As much as this was a 3-0, and not a good results day for us, I think there were enough angles today that we can learn from and recoup for [our] next matches. And I don’t feel like we will have any lack of confidence tomorrow against GAM. 

Q: Who’s keeping up the energy after a loss? We always hear so much about BB keeping the vibes up. 

Dylan: I think all of us. We’re just a very positive group of people, with a lot of energy. […] We knew going to this match against BLG was a difficult one, and we might not win, so we had our expectations set that we might need to play tomorrow. Now that this has happened, we can move on to our next match and prepare. 

Q: How are you evaluating the strength of the other teams at the tournament given the jet lag and schedule?

Dylan: I think that we’ve been adjusting okay to the time change. It took us a few days. We’re getting better. When it gets later at night, obviously, [there’s] still a bit of jet lag. But overall, we’ve been doing a good job. 

I think there’s gonna be a lot of strong teams in the tournament. We have not played against a lot of the main stage teams, as they have just arrived. It’s always tough playing against top LCK teams, for example. So I’m sure if we play against them, we will be challenged, but looking forward to it. 

Q: Any final message for EU fans, who might be a bit depressed today? 

Dylan: Yeah, of course. It’s always disappointing to see us lose, especially 0-3. We feel that there [are] enough angles in the series that we can come back and retool our drafts, our gameplay, and try and get in better condition for next time. 

Because we’re still here, and I think we’re here for a reason. And we wanna be able to compete, make the main stage and compete there.