After a heart-breaking spring split, and back-to-back 0-2 weekends, it’s safe to say fans were worried for G2. On the back of a 3-1 bounce back record, and a tough loss to the top team Fnatic, we got the chance to sit down with G2 Support Mikyx. He shared his views on their recent struggles, Rekkle’s champ pool and his thoughts on bald Caps.
Below is the transcript. The interviewer questions can be found in bold, while Mikyx’s answers are in a standard font.
Commiserations on today’s game [versus Fnatic]. It felt like quite a close game, you guys were playing very aggressive, looking for picks, but you didn’t get the win. How was the game for you?
The game was overall alright. It was a bit weird; I feel like when we have Thresh, we probably should have some frontline with it. It was hard to face check against the enemy team – it felt like if anyone went into the dark areas of the map, they get Alistar combo’d and get one shot. That was definitely a hard part about playing this game. We misplayed quite a few fights. When there was the pause, we were like “this fight is a really free win”, like it looked really good. Somehow, we lost all those fights, I don’t know what we did. We misplayed those fights, and somehow, they get leads even though on paper it should have been really free, both the fights we lost after the pauses. I’m guessing they just played better in team fights and that was kind of just it.
It’s only been half an hour [since the game ended], and there has already been a lot of controversy about the pauses. How do you as a player deal with the pauses? Everyone on G2 is a veteran, so are you able to just get on with it and not let it affect you?
For me, it doesn’t matter too much. As long as everyone knows the position of the enemies then it’s still fine. As long as you don’t forget that someone is really close in the fight, for example, in the bot lane fight I had to remind myself that Tristana and Alistar were really close to the fight near the Mundo. Otherwise, you just kind of look around, I played some rock-paper-scissors with Upset across the stage. I lost, 3-2, so I guess it was meant to be, it’s my bad.
The draft was a big talking point for this game. Fnatic went really hard on Rekkles and took away so many AD carries. You guys committed to the Thresh first pick, clearly you weren’t expected to lose so many AD carries. How did the draft develop, and how did we ultimately end on the Vayne pick?
We still had a few AD picks prepared, it just felt like a really good Vayne game. They had Alistar, Irelia and Mundo – I think these 3 champs are quite bad against Vayne. In team fights, she should just shred all of them. With Thresh we secure a free laning phase against Alistar, so the lane was free, and if Vayne gets through lane she’s pretty strong overall.
I felt like it was a good pick, even though with Thresh it is a bit awkward. They don’t have the best synergy, but as long as we get some early push, we’re probably going to be fine. I think maybe I should roam a bit more this game and let Vayne just farm under tower. I feel like Irelia is the kind of champ where you have to play around it, so if I was mid more maybe Irelia would have had a harder time playing the game.
Talking about Rekkle’s champion pool, one thing that was a big talking point over the break was the fact Rekkles didn’t play the Jinx or the Kalista. You guys went away, both on and off stream, playing different stuff. It seemed like you were calling the shots on what to play. So how did the offseason go, and has it set you up for success?
We started expanding our champion pool after week 2 or 3, picking up Kalista and the Jinx we played in week 2. In general, we have a lot of options for AD, so we felt very comfortable going to 4/5, as we have a lot of AD’s prepared for different situations. We didn’t really practice Vayne much, but we realised it was a good pick so were ok with it. It feels a lot better now, we have a lot more options. It feels like whatever is meta, we’re going to be able to play it.
Your champion pool is also very deep. We saw for example the Poppy, and it feels like you’re one of the only supports in the world willing to pick Poppy. Do you spend a lot of time practising the different champions, knowing it will help your team in the draft?
I don’t really spend time learning them, I just play them when they fit. So whenever I’m playing solo queue, I will take into consideration the enemy champs and my champs and then what champ has a good kit against it and play that. Poppy has a lot of dashes to stop in this meta, like Tristana, Diana, Xin Zhao. People with long-range dashes which they rely on, Poppy is just good against them.
Gragas is another one of those picks that I’ve played for a while and it kind of fits a lot of comps. You can play peel Gragas, engage. I also like the Everfrost buffs, it’s a bit cheaper so I can afford Everforst on support Gragas, it’s really nice to play with it. I think playing Nautilus and Leona in solo queue will not make me any better at those champs, so I might as well try new stuff and see if it’s actually useful.
We couldn’t go a full interview with the elephant in the room – the 0-4 record. How was the team mentality and atmosphere during the 0-4, and how did you guys bounce back from it?
Surprisingly, the atmosphere was pretty good. Monday when we came back to scrimming it felt like we were pretty good in the standings. You know we’d just gone 4-0, so it was pretty chill. We had quite some talks about what we could change to make it better, we improved on our drafting and talking in-game about stuff. I felt like we played much better these last 2 weeks.
Today was pretty weird, I think we played pretty bad, but it happens. We played against Fnatic, they are probably the best team right now, so it doesn’t feel too bad to lose. I’m pretty sure with the rest of the teams we have for the end of the split we’ll beat everyone. I’m not too worried.
Good. I feel like everyone is talking about it, so I have to ask. What was your reaction to bald Caps?
I just started laughing, I couldn’t actually believe it. I woke up on Sunday, it was 1 pm. Rasmus [Caps] just opens the door really thin, I could only see like this part of his face. I saw a bit with no hair up there. I was like “am I too tired? What am I seeing?”. Then he opens the door fully and I just couldn’t stop laughing. I couldn’t believe it, it was crazy. Every time I looked away for a few seconds then looked back I started laughing, I couldn’t believe it. This went on for a week straight until I got used to him being bald.
G2 is well known for its memes, and I think this is one of the best ones. Which is your favourite version – Avatar caps, Megamind caps? I like Ryze caps because he seems now like he is cosplaying Ryze.
I like the Avatar Caps. But I did tell him that he should get some blue paint and tattoos and just play Ryze all the time. I like Avatar the most, I think.
How are you seeing the LEC right now? You said you think Fnatic is the best team in the league. Rogue is obviously up there, and yet you guys beat them, and it wasn’t even close. While you guys are in the middle, it feels like you’re right at the top contending with the top teams.
I feel like playoffs will be between us, Rogue and Fnatic. I think teams that could do something are like Misfits, Mad Lions. I’m not sure with Mad honestly, it feels weird watching their games. I don’t think they’re that great, I think they play bad individually. Last split they weren’t that crazy, but then in playoffs, they started smurfing. I do think they just found good drafts that played out for them really well. If I have to say right now, I do think us, Rogue and Fnatic are the best. Fnatic is number 1, we’re number 2 maybe and then Rogue.
Obviously, if you go through the playoffs and in order to win the LEC you’ll have to play Fnatic again most likely. How do you feel going into a best of 5 against them? Do you feel confident you can beat them?
Yes, I would say so. As long as we figure out some kind of draft that works for us, and at least have a few of them prepared then I feel like we should be fine. I feel like we have better players, at least adapting-wise than them. But I guess we will just have to see.
You already brought up your schedule for the remaining weeks, and it does seem like you have some easier teams coming up. Next week specifically you’re going to be playing SK and Misfits. For SK it feels like they haven’t been that great, how are you feeling going up against them?
SK just feels like we should be able to win, I don’t think they are very good. As long as we get a playable draft, we should probably win it. I think Misfits, they’re fine, but then again, I just think we’re better. I feel like last time we were really winning, until elder. This time we probably just get elder or just win. I think this week should be a 2-0 week.
For the rest of the split, all you have as a contending team I would say is the Mad Lions. You’ve already said you’re not too sure about how they’re playing. It feels with Mad they’re very dependant on their bot lane playing well. Will your focus be on the bot lane?
I actually feel like they are more reliant on Humanoid. He either 1v9s or runs it down really hard. I think it depends on what he is doing in the game. Carzzy also hasn’t had the best games this split, compared to last split. I think it’s mostly up to Humanoid, how he wakes up on the day. And Carzzy might just give us a game in the late game, we will just see.
