"In the past I was more of a playmaker just doing my own thing. [Nowadays] I facilitate a lot more." — Caps after winning against KC
Photo Credit: Riot Games
G2 Esports will play in the upper bracket final against the winner of MKOI - VIT. A 3-1 win over KC — their fifth straight series win against them — wasn't always clean, but they looked much better throughout. Rasmus "Caps" Winther sat down with RFT.GG right after, reflecting on the bad habits that made those last three games so spicy, his role in the team, and what he really thinks about KC and their next opponent.
How are you feeling?
I'm definitely super happy. They were some thriller games — especially the last two were kind of crazy. The thing is, it felt like we were in a very good position every game, but we threw and then it became super spicy.
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It's becoming kind of consistent against KC — you win clearly and then start throwing. Where does it come from?
I think we have some different bad habits probably. We just need to get a bit more on the same page. Especially game three and game one both felt very straightforward — even game four as well. Game two was clean for us. But the other three games, we kept taking fights where they had a numbers advantage or an ultimate advantage and it became close. Sometimes we lost those, sometimes we won.
Game three, LeBlanc, you're pushing top without TP and your team fight 4v5...
These kinds of situations — we just need to find a way to cut them off. Because aside from that, I think we're playing very well.
Jojopyun has been praised as the best all split, but you've kind of shut him down in Madrid even when you lost, and it’s been consistently the same against kyeahoo. Do you feel like you’re way ahead of the other mids in the league right now?
I definitely feel confident. I've been feeling confident the whole split.
Our earliest weeks were a bit sus as a team and how we were together, so it kind of hurt all of us. But now we're really getting together and our early games have been super solid lately.
Which makes it a lot easier for me as well — because League is just such a team game, even in the laning phase. But I definitely feel confident that if I have a good matchup, I know I can beat anyone in the LEC. It's going very well right now, but we need to keep it up.
Is it your staff setting you up for success with matchups, or do you just have the right ideas and champion pool to make it work regardless?
I think definitely a bit of both. Our staff has been doing a very good job of just putting together solid drafts, and we've been a bit creative with some of the ways we pick champions. And what I meant was that, if I have a matchup that's slightly in my opponent’s favour, it's not necessarily about dominating — it's making sure I'm still in the game, not dropping too far behind. Which I would still consider a win if I can make sure that I’m still standing in the game. Finding that balance.
Then when I'm a lot stronger, like on LeBlanc vs Azir, just pushing my lead as far as possible, making sure we get a good jungle situation, get the Drakes, whatever is important in the game.
I feel confident about that right now. I just need to keep it up — not only next week, but hopefully for the rest of the year.
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We've always seen you juggling between Craps and Claps — but this year we haven't seen Craps so far. Do you feel like you're finding your consistency? Are you in peak form individually?
I think it's definitely a lot to do with the team stuff. My old teams — 2019, 2020, even 2023 — we played very crazy on the map, very aggressive, very high risk. Nowadays we play very structured, very disciplined, and I'm mirroring that. I also think… I don’t want to say I'm in more of a leading role — but in making sure our plans are solid and we're doing the correct things as a team.
I'm going for way less solo plays. In the past I was more of a playmaker just doing my own thing while someone else made a plan.
Now I'm making sure that when my teammate goes for something, it fits into what we want to do.
You see yourself as more of a facilitator now?
Yeah, for sure. I facilitate a lot more. Of course, if there's a good play, I'll still go for it. But that was a big lesson from the start of last year — adapting to Skewmond and Labrov joining, making sure they fit within the team structure. We have a lot of very strong players, but our biggest weakness is definitely just being on the same page and playing together as five.
When we are [playing together as five], we look very unstoppable. When we're not, we look a bit stupid.
We had some moments like that today. We'll need to still step it up, but I'm definitely confident in our chances.
Would you say this is the best G2 in the modern era — post 2020?
I'm not sure, to be honest. It's always so hard to say because it depends on how the other teams perform. For all I know, we just get stomped in two days and we're out of playoffs next week. I think we're performing very well and we've found our style of play — it's not perfect, we still have things to fix. But we had an insane performance at First Stand, taking down both Gen.G and BFX. That level was definitely higher than we've seen in a long time. Now it's about keeping it up and going beyond that — we also want to take down BLG.
It looks like you've learned a lot from BLG — being good into chaos, very aggressive and proactive in the early game, Skewmond invading everywhere. Is that something you consciously took from them?
For sure we're playing a bit more chaotic. I think EU teams have always kind of liked to handshake — very simple early games, not so much invading, not so much fighting. But especially when you watch the LPL games right now, every game there's a level one fight, there's a 5v5 at crab, there's a lot of chaos, a lot of moments where you have to be decisive instantly.
We're trying to bring that to our games as well, because we need to have experience in these moments so we don't get surprised when we go against LPL teams especially.
We're finding more success with it, but it's definitely something we still need to optimise.
Photo Credit: Riot Games
Would you say you just took down the best team out of the three in the upper bracket?
I mean, I would say so. Obviously we lost to MKOI two weeks ago. But I do think KC is looking like the strongest team — because aside from playing against us, they have like a 90% win rate or something. I feel like I never see them lose against anyone except us, even last split and this split. So I definitely think they are the main team for us to beat. But I think Vitality has been a bit of a dark horse — 8-1 in the regular season and everyone is kind of underestimating them. Our games against them in the regular season were a bit weird, so it feels hard to rate them too high. But maybe they'll surprise. And MKOI are similar — even though we know a bit more about them. Vitality have been a bit more of a new team at this level. It'll be fun to see how they do.
KC have lost four times in a row against you while winning against basically everyone else. Do you think they have a mental block against you, or do you just read them too well?
I'm not sure. I think it's definitely a balance. In some of the games… I don't think they necessarily mental block, but I did look at them after game three and they looked quite defeated. Of course, it was a sad game for them to lose — it was a sad game for us to almost lose too, because we were so in control and then we threw. And once we threw it felt like it was very much in their control. We were like — ok, this is going to be a hard game. And then we finally found some hero plays — Skewmond with the kick in the last fight and stuff. Looking at them afterwards, they definitely looked very sad.
I don't know if there's necessarily a mental block against us, but they definitely need to bounce back better in a series. Because they're used to winning so much, they also need to know what to do when they actually start losing games.
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Who would you want to face in the final?
I think both matches will be fun. Probably Vitality — we've played MKOI so many times. I feel like we always end up playing KC and MKOI, so we'll probably end up against MKOI again. I'd like to play against Vitality just to try something different.
