"All of this is just one giant practice for Worlds" — Romain Bigeard on G2's season, KC and the only judgment that counts
Photo Credit: Riot Games
A few days out from LEC Spring playoffs, G2 Esports General Manager Romain Bigeard sat down with RFT.GG. He talks through the team's chosen pace strategy for the decisive moments, the scar tissue left by last year's losses to KC, the Korea bootcamp at T1 acting as the carrot for the run-in, his read on the rivalry with Karmine Corp — and the G2 team philosophy.
How's the team doing as playoffs approach?
Head down, grinding. I only want one thing — to get to Korea. It's the best bootcamp of the year, the best solo queue, and we'd potentially spend 10 days with our — we've done it before. Top tier. You wake up and you go train in the temple of League of Legends every day.
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T1
friends in their facility
I just want us to go. The pressure is at maximum, we're focused, we grind.
G2 is known for accelerating in the moments that count. Without giving too much away, how do you set up that acceleration?
First, by putting less pressure on every work tool during the regular season. You can't say: regular season, give it all. Playoffs, give it all plus more. Before the final, give it all plus more plus more. It doesn't make sense. You can't give it all on a tournament that lasts nine months.
So we've tested more, learned more, allowed ourselves to make more mistakes. You don't learn game concepts three days before the final. You will not succeed in your exams if you start learning the night before. It’s because you worked continuously the whole year. You accelerate on the four-five days right before.
It left a real scar because it was humiliating. We expected to win and we lost.
Photo Credit: Riot Games
Same in Spring. So we can't tell ourselves we beat them, it's the same, they're trash. At this level, nobody is trash. Anyone can catch you if you're not at your maximum.
Less testing at this stage? Going 3-0 from the upper bracket?
You test in training early in the week, but you avoid first-timing stuff. You prep as much as you can, and you never know if it'll hold up on the day — so you stay in the present. You take games one after another, treat each one like the first. Even if you're 2-0, especially in Fearless, that doesn't mean anything — you might have burned all your picks, so it's going to be complicated.
How would you rank the teams in these playoffs? Is there a gap between top 4 and the rest?
If you take pure results, right now, yeah, there seems to be a gap. I try not to make that ranking — because the moment you think you're better than the guys across from you, you can become complacent, lax on your preparation. If we had to play T1 on Saturday, we'd go all in. That's the mindset you need.If you're complacent, if you're lax, you can lose.
We have a few scars from the past. There's Karmine, f*cking Worlds, where we got caught 2-0 by NRG ! We had stomped them 17-1 in scrims, I think, and went 2-0 on stage — they went home, and the day after we were on the train to Busan as Worlds continued. Until you've won on stage, you shut up and you grind.
Photo Credit: Riot Games
You’ve mentioned Karmine, this split you've stomped them 5-0.
Here they didn't play very well. The last two times, for different reasons each time. I think they were a bit complacent — the first slap we gave them was peak complacent, they hadn't lost once in Spring, the guys were on top of the world. Once again, on social media, their fans were already calling them gods. I won't say more, because last time I did that I got jumped on. Anyway. But keep going, guys, keep telling them they're the best. A lot, a lot, a lot, please. Put them above everyone else.That's what cost them last time, I think.
The time after, that was full online, EWC. Not sure that's the best gauge of how hot they really are. And now they're going to be angry, it's been a week — there's ego coming into play. Is it destructive ego — you hate everyone, you think you're too good, it's not your fault if we lose, it's everyone else's — which can be very toxic? Or is it productive ego — players telling themselves "right, we're going to f*ck these guys up", and grinding harder, extra solo queue, extra review, extra everything?
On the last two losses, you don't think they trolled — you don't see a mental block on their side?
Not trolling, no. I think we read them well and they read us a bit less well. And because these matches have a lot of pressure, a lot at stake, it can go either way.
Photo Credit: Riot Games
Do you expect this weekend to be simple?
Not at all. Tough match. The guys on the other side click well. And if we lose, it's a real pain. The Spring loser bracket is a grind. If you win Saturday and Monday, you get ten days of pure chill — you're already at MSI, you can activate the whole bootcamp, book everything, you know you're in a final, and you watch the next weekend with popcorn. Each day a team falls. Great to watch, awful to play. If you fall into lower, you've got a knife at your throat every game, and it's Bo5. Good for us — we're strong in Fearless. But still, a pain. Ideally not, and if we have to, we'll take our cross and walk the road.
Is KC your biggest competitor this split?
Right now, of course. They're who we have in our sights. We'll see Saturday evening — if we 3-0 them, maybe I say no, then we lose to KOI or Vitality Monday, and the biggest is KOI. But right now, yes. In our heads it's Karmine, also because they're our next opponent, and how we can beat them.
Given your recent performances against KC and First Stand, a lot of people are starting to wonder if G2 isn't just a top team in the world, and the best iteration since you joined the structure? Do you feel that?
You can't say. You have to wait for Worlds. You can be the best team in the world, you can win MSI — which would be insane, it hasn't happened in ages — but if you arrive at Worlds and get knocked out in three games, that's a disaster.
Photo Credit: Riot Games
Even if you win MSI?
Between the end of MSI and the start of Worlds. But next year, no one will remember you. You'll have created the biggest flop of the last ten years. "They were so good, they threw, what were they doing in Summer, it was garbage." The opposite: if we screw up at MSI, if we lose to Karmine, we get eliminated — we go into the Dark Zone, we take two months to come back, and we come back and make a Worlds final? In two-three years, everyone will say "G2 2026 was an insane team." First Stand final, Worlds final, they didn't make MSI — everyone forgets.
It's a bit like what happened last year, on a different scale — you had a bad MSI and came back to make a Worlds quarter-final. If you open a time capsule of our social media after MSI, I can tell you you'd want to fire all five players and the five staff. It's normal, it's the culture of the moment — great for emotion. But right now, whatever happens, none of it means anything until Worlds.
All of this is just one giant practice for Worlds.
Photo Credit: Riot Games
How do you avoid burning your wings at this stage of playoffs?
Focus on the plan. Not on the consequences of the plan. Not on "oh, we win, we're so good" or "oh, we lose, we're trash." The plan. What's the plan? What are we thinking about? What are we going to play? How are we going to play it? How do we play early game? Mid game? What are the draft structures? The plan, the plan, just the plan. Everything outside, you do your best to block it.
If you make the final, who do you see — or hope to see?
A little Karmine again, that'd be cool for viewership. Then we got caught by KOI last year, so it'd be funny to see them too. One of the two. But once again, if I think about Worlds, whichever of those two teams doesn't make it to MSI is going to be so hungry it could be ugly for Summer. So honestly, I don't know. Pros and cons for both. We'll focus on ourselves. From a manager's logistical view, my GM heart just wants us to win Saturday and Monday. So I can activate all those plans already in place for MSI — that'd be amazing.
