Winning seven out of the last eight LEC titles is not enough for G2, international success is their clear aim. After another year without an MSI or Worlds title, G2 has tinkered with its domestically dominant lineup to bring in jungler SkewMond and support Labrov ahead of the new season.
Following their appearance at the Red Bull League of Its Own, which saw them suffer defeats to Karmine Corp and T1, Esports.net was able to chat with G2’s superstar mid laner Caps.
Esports.net: While this was mostly a ‘for fun’ event, is there a bit of frustration in having lost both matches today?
Caps: I think actually it’s three losses for me now, I lost the 1v1 as well. For sure ‘for fun’ event, right, I think we take it a bit more relaxed even [more] than than last year. But I think at the same time I hate losing, even when it’s for fun. So of course I would love to win, I would love to end the game with the the Trundle.
But I think we don’t take it like if it was LEC, if it was Worlds – these we have dreams of winning. I think we don’t take it quite as harsh as that.
I think it was a great experience to get to play, especially with SkewMond and Labrov. And I think there’s some real lessons to take away from the tournament, there’s some real things that we can improve on. So it’s not like we take it for granted, I definitely think it’s it’s been useful for us and also it’s just been fun, you know, to play maybe some out of the meta picks and also to see all the fans. We get so few of these stadium tournaments nowadays. I think it’s been great to see everyone.
Lee Jones: Let’s talk about the new signings then.
What is it that you think that the new guys are bringing to the table?
I think they’re definitely bringing in a lot of hunger, a lot of passion. I think both of them seem super driven from everything I’ve seen so far. I think they are like a sponge, you know, picking up everything. And they are also really putting in a lot of effort.
I think the big thing for us was some new ideas, right? We’ve obviously been together for a while now with the old roster and a lot of the things we were on the same page, which can be good for sure, but maybe we needed some fresh ideas. Some new stuff.
Image credit: Red Bull
Lee Jones: We know G2’s goal has always been to win Worlds. But given how dominant the previous roster was domestically, from the outside it does look like a bit of a gamble to make these changes.
Is that a sentiment that’s felt within G2?
I think maybe there’s a lot of pressure on SkewMond and Labrov for sure. I can imagine it would be very scary being in their position, for sure.
I think that for me, I have gone through a lot of different rosters.
For example, when I joined G2 from Fnatic, we just won two LEC splits and made a world final for the first time in like 8 years or something, right? So joining G2 there was a big gamble. But I think in terms of comparing that to now, it doesn’t really feel like a gamble in the same way.
Of course we could do worse, but it’s not a guarantee that we would have won four splits next year with the old roster either. I think at the end of the day, we just make decisions and then we just have to make it work as well as we can.
Lee Jones: Your old teammate Perkz is rumored to be moving to the top lane to play with Ruddy Esports in the NLC.
How do you think Perkz will do?
Well, I hope he does better than my Trundle. But no, I think he can be good up top. I think he was very good on AD carry and obviously he’s always a mid laner that I had a lot of respect for. I think he’ll be good top as well.
Is it something I’ve seen play a lot before? Not really, to be honest. So I’m not really sure what kind of champions he likes, what kind of playstyle he wants to do. But it kind of goes back to what I said before, right? I think it’s a move that can be worth it, but it all depends on how he executes it. Like, does he put in the effort? Does he have the right ideas? I think then he can be very good.