KC Busio on the LEC's best support debate: "I consider myself the best, of course"
Karmine Corp go hard. A 2-0 over GiantX makes it 7-0 in the Summer split, and their support isn't hiding his ambitions. RFT.GG caught up with KC's Alan "Busio" Cwalina after the win to talk about a team built on the EWC's lessons, KC's no-comms scrim sessions, the bot lanes that impressed him internationally, and how far he thinks this side can go at Worlds.
How are you feeling about the match, and about the start of the season overall?
I feel good about today's match. In both games we had quite bad bot matchups, but we navigated them well and still found a lot of impact, so that made me happy. As for the start of the season, result-wise it's going great and I think we're much better than we were last split — but we're also not facing the greatest teams. Soit's important that we stay hungry, because these games are easier than they'd be against a better team.
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Labrov told me in an interview that G2 and KC are on the level of LCK and LPL teams. Would you agree?
It's hard to say. Both of us have beaten LCK and LPL teams, but that could be a good performance on the day — it doesn't mean we're going to beat them every single time. But yeah, I agree with the statement that we're on their level, that we can compete.
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At the end of the EWC, Caliste told us how important it was to snowball the form you'd built there. Have you managed that, or is there still big work to do?
It's hard to say — I don't think any team has ever reached a peak in their own eyes, there are always things to improve.
But we're definitely taking the learnings from the EWC and keeping them. I think that's why we're winning so much in the regular season
Because even if something goes wrong in a game, all of us are pretty mentally resilient now and we'll find a way to come back, or find a situation where we can get the advantage back. That was our main takeaway at the EWC: we had many games we were hard losing, but we found a way to come back. It's about adapting, all of us being flexible, and trusting the vision.
G2 and KC have both been experimenting with their scrims — Perkz talking to players mid-game, and Zeph told us you run sessions with no voice comms, pings only. How do you approach that method personally?
I like it. The no-communication is nice because it forces each player to take responsibility for their own game. They need to be able to communicate what they need through pings — and if they can't, they have to solve the situation themselves. Even if it's a small loss, you're not going to lose the game over it. So that's the purpose: it builds independence within the game. Then when we start comming again, what it creates is everybody being focused on themselves. And when five people are all focused on themselves, nothing bad will happen, because people aren't relying on others, they're relying on themselves. It works very well, it's a good method.
Photo Credit: Sasha Safronova/Riot Games
Have you tried the G2 method, or anything else that breaks from traditional scrimming?
Not really. Sometimes we pause and discuss something as a team if we want to try something we're unsure about, but in terms of coaches stepping in, no. I clearly believe it works, though — I don't even think it's that big a deal or something foreign. And I bet so many teams do that. I've been on teams in the past where the coach pauses and says, "what are you guys doing?" or "do you want to try this?" Scrims are a way to practise, and they don't have to simulate stage all the time — sometimes they can be there to test out different situations. It creates this atmosphere of "we're in a practice game, let's try something and see what happens together," rather than the same stakes as a stage match where we must win no matter what and do what we know works. So it's a great method to learn, for sure.
You and Caliste have faced the best bot lanes in the world. Which one shocked you the most, and why?
It's hard to say — they're all different. T1 do very crazy, volatile, aggressive stuff, but they're punishable in the same way, so you see high highs and low lows from them. Playing against Gumayusi, I found him very hard to gank, very aware of everything going on — I thought he was insane. Not specifically bot lane, but DK, when we played them in the EWC final, had some of the best teamplay I've ever played against. It was truly another level. Their mid laner was unroamable — you couldn't even roam to him; I rewatched it, no vision or anything. They just understand where you can pressure and which timers they shouldn't be trying anything. Same when they're sieging with Baron. Everybody knows their job well, and that was by far the most impressive team play I've ever seen. Shout out to those guys, it's insane. I know it's not about bot lane, but that did shock me.
On Peyz and Keria — having beaten them, does that break the image you had of them? Do they feel more reachable than expected?
I watch a lot of their LCK VODs, and I know they're both insane players — but they're both human, and I've seen them make many mistakes, so I never had that image that they're unbeatable. I just knew they were better than us most of the time, but that doesn't mean they can't make mistakes or that we can't challenge them. Beating them definitely gave me and the team a lot of confidence, because we weren't playing perfectly that series, and neither were they. It's just a good experience.
In the LEC you get compared to Labrov a lot. Do you consider yourself the best support in the league, especially in this meta?
I consider myself the best, of course — and I think Labrov should consider himself the best.
You're a competitor, and deep down you have to believe you have something intangible the other person doesn't. It's also important to understand that you're not going to show your absolute best every day. So of course I believe I'm the best, but I also believe that when I play badly, it means I had a bad day, or I played badly, or I still have more to learn. I don't really feel the rivalry with Labrov — I honestly respect G2 as a whole, because it's nice to have a team playing well with high expectations of themselves. You get better practice, better domestic stage matches, so when you go international you already have experience playing at a high level. I enjoy having them in the region, and I kind of see them as allies.
Photo Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games
Since the start of the season, You've lost every final you've played. Do you feel the team has grown enough from those defeats to get it right this time?
We've grown a lot from the defeats — but not just from the defeats, from our time as a team in general. They're [G2] a team that's been playing together longer than we have. So we've been improving and improving, but it's important to remember that being on an upward trajectory all year doesn't magically mean it's destiny for us to win finals. What matters is how you play on the day. A worse team can beat a better team, and a better team can lose to a worse team. So even though we're improving so much, that doesn't mean we have a guaranteed win — we still need to be very good on the day.
Last one. Imagine the best-case scenario: you qualify for Worlds. How far could this team actually go?
