Interview with G2 Caps about offseason, Smolder and dominating the LEC

It’s not a coincidence that whenever people think of G2, they think of international successes. The samurais have long past the stage of competing to earn local victories in the LEC, thanks to their consistency and power on the Rift. For Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther, G2’s mid laner, the games on the European stage are practice sessions for international tournaments such as MSI and Worlds.

We spoke with Caps about the start of yet another season, offseason boredom, coming back from 0-6 to end the game in a flash, preparing for the next international tournament and more.

BLIX: Hello, Caps. Thank you so much for being here today and taking the time to do this interview. Before we talk about the game that just happened against Karmine Corp, how does it feel to be back on the stage for another season of LEC?

Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther.: Yeah, it feels really good. I think it was quite, I don’t know if I would say boring, but I was definitely missing the LEC, and it feels very nice to have it back. I think I’m having a lot of fun playing with our team. It helps that we’re winning a lot, but I think we’re playing a lot of, I guess, fun games and I feel like we are learning a lot from the games. I think our hands were maybe breaking a bit at least in this game, but it feels rewarding when you win, but also when you feel like you’re improving and stuff, so I’m really enjoying our LEC days.

BLIX: I mean, it’s very great to hear that it’s still fun and fresh for you, being a veteran of the league at all. You said you were bored, what do you usually do in the offseason?

Caps: I mean, if I have time, I go home, but when it’s like these shorter breaks, I usually just stay in Berlin and then I will spend time with whoever is in Berlin. I think Mikyx was here with me this time. We met with some of the other LEC players. We played some other games and then played a lot of League as well. I think there were a lot of changes. I guess there were like two patches and of course we took quite a long break, so it was also important that when we don’t do that much team practice that everyone does individual practice and at least have some idea of what they want to do when they come back for scrims.

BLIX: I mean, it’s very great to hear that players together in the offseason do fun things. Let’s talk about this game. I was doing interviews today and when I first looked, it was 0-6 and after one interview, it was game over and you guys won. What happened? How did it happen so fast?

Caps: I think we were feeling pretty confident in the early game. I believe we got the first drake and then we burned Orianna’s flash before the drake fights and we were feeling quite a lot stronger for the second drake, so we were quite happy going into that. But then we, I feel like we had a good game plan of how we want to fight as well but then I think we just broke our hands a bit.

I don’t remember everything exactly happened but I know, I mean, everyone from the team, at least like multiple people were doing very, very bad misplays and when that happens, things just go bad. Like even if our plan is fine, if we misplay that badly, then it’s bound to fail, right? Like I think I didn’t really get anyone with my ult. I think Yike’s ult didn’t really hit anyone, Gragas’ ult didn’t. We basically missed everything and then it also ended up being really punishing because we died for people, so from that point on we were just playing a very, very behind game.

Luckily we secured the first drake and also we made the call to get the second drake at least. So while we lost the fights and the fights were quite tough for us, we at least got the drake and we were able to just stall out the game and that’s what we did, right? I think we just stalled the game for like 20 minutes and then as it was the Smolder show, he just killed everyone. I also think we had a really good flank on mid, which definitely set up Hans through to do a lot of damage.

Smolder mid and other crazy G2 picks

BLIX: Yeah, we have to talk about Smolder because we’ve seen it in all games today, we’ve seen it in a different role, we’ve seen it in Top and you know, they’ve even talked about it playing in mid and how do you think the champ is like for pro players today in this state?

Caps: I mean, it feels very strong. Yeah, it feels really strong. I think, you know, maybe people need to figure out how to abuse it early or like get it really ahead early because I think even in this game today, they got really ahead, but it was not really because of Smolder, but I think he’s probably just too strong.

I mean, the thing is, he’s hotfixed, nerfed, so Riot also said that he’s just too strong. He’s nerfed for next week, I think. I hope that it will go through, I believe. But I think this week we were just playing without the hotfix, which makes a lot of sense, right? The hotfix came on Friday and we played Saturday. So he is already nerfed for next week, I think.

Yeah, I mean, he scales really well and his early game is not as bad as it maybe should be for him to come online because he comes online quite fast. But we’ll see next week if it will be as strong or if there will be a lot more options into it.

BLIX: We will definitely see Smolder in a very different place in the meta next week with the hotfix. Have you ever tried it in scrims, in different roles? Have you ever tried it yourself in mid?

Caps: Yeah, I’ve definitely been trying it a bit. I think, you know, it’s not the worst, but I think it definitely is a lot stronger on AD. I think there might be some matchups that you can pull it out in. I think the stacking can sometimes be easier, but you also drop a lot of priority and you are maybe not as strong as you need to be from a mid laner in the early parts of the game. But I think, yeah, I think if there’s ever a huge counterpick that comes up, flexing it around makes sense, right? If someone picks something really crazy against it, it could make sense to flex it.

BLIX: When people speak of picking crazy stuff, people usually think of G2. I was going to ask, do you have anything crazy in store? But I mean, that’s a redundant question against G2. How many crazy things do you have in, like, the back pocket? Should we expect to see anything in the next upcoming weeks or so?

Caps: I mean, we definitely have some crazy stuff. I mean, we had the Kog’maw come in on Sunday as well, actually. I’m trying to think if there was anything else that was super out there. But I think most of the other things we played were pretty standard. I think we have a lot of, like, crazy stuff that we’re preparing. But of course we need the right situation for it. That’s usually the case with a lot of these, like, cheese counterpicks, so to say. But I also think the regular season can be quite volatile, so especially when we didn’t have that much practice as a team, like, before this weekend, we just wanted to stick with at least, like, something we somewhat understood.

Maybe throughout the split and especially in playoffs, I think that’s where we like to pull out some crazy stuff because you have a lot more time to practice it and you have more time to understand when it’s actually good, right? Because I think we all love playing crazy stuff, but we also wanted to be working at least somewhat.

Think globally, dominate locally

BLIX: It’s kind of very insane to see where G2 is compared to the rest of the league, you know? When other teams are asked “Where do you think you are in the league”, no one says they can aim for number one. The best I’ve heard was “We can be in the top two.” Does that affect you in a sort of way?

Caps: I mean, I’m not sure. I’ve seen a lot of people really wanting to beat us. I think sometimes people can get excited, maybe they don’t believe as much, but for example I’m sure that KC got very excited this game when they had the huge lead and were just as frustrated as well when they ended up losing it. So I think people definitely, at least from my experience and like my notes of the past, like to try extra hard when they’re playing against people who they think are good, right?

Of course, it’s the same for us. Like, when we play at MSI or Worlds, I think we get a motivation boost for sure, so to say, because that’s just like being a human, right? I think you will always try to do your best in every game and it’s easier if you feel like you play against strong opponents who you can take away a lot from. We have a lot of motivation, we put a lot of effort into practice every day, and we put a lot of effort into understanding that we need to get as much out of these scrim days and all this practice as possible, because we only have very limited time before the next MSI and the next Worlds.

You think back to the last Worlds, there were so many things that we could have done better, and those are the things that we need to improve these days. It doesn’t matter if we win every game on stage, it doesn’t matter if we win every game on scrim, because we’re far from perfect, we can see that in these games, and especially today, right? Sure, some of the mistakes we did today were maybe a bit more individual and we were messing up on that aspect, but at the same time, it can also be some of our prep, you know, maybe we were being a bit too loose before the game, maybe we need to be a bit more focused going into the game, so that we show our best performance.

I think all these things are things we can take away, and it’s things that we need to improve on, because, you know, we’re laughing right now about this game, but if this was at Worlds and we played like this, we wouldn’t be laughing, because we would not be winning either. That’s important to remember, it’s not like we should be sad about this game, but we definitely need to do better.

BLIX: The limited time and the value of different games at different stages is a very interesting subject to tackle, but I’m being told we have to wrap, so thank you for the insightful answers today. Do you have a final message to send to G2 fans who are excited to see you back on top for another season?

Caps: Thank you for the interview, and yeah, I definitely want to say thank you guys for the support. I think it means a lot to us, especially me as well. This weekend there were a lot of people cheering for us, so I really appreciate that. I want you guys to dream big. I mean, especially if this game might be a bit weird to say, but I think we can definitely do some stuff this year. We are feeling more and more confident. We may be too confident today, but we’ll clean it up, and then I think we can be a very strong team, so thank you guys so much for the support. We will make sure to make you guys proud.

BLIX: Well, I’m very excited to see that happen, and thank you so much for the interview. Hope we can do it again soon and good luck in your future games.

Caps: Thank you so much.

G2 are currently 3-0 in the Spring Split and are the first (and only) team to have a guaranteed spot in the upcoming MSI in May. They have started the season as strongly as they ended Winter and we will see, in the upcoming weeks, whether someone can stop them on the way to another LEC win and claim the second ticket to MSI.