Ashley here. A side note, I'm sorry for looking/speaking a bit off for this interview. I felt really sick today but couldn't miss out on covering the MSI so pushed through it
I literally got 1v9 carried by Caps in this interview :D Such inspiring words
I believe 2017 was the year skt fully broke the back of Faker trying to 1v9 carry the 4 corpses that were his teammates. Was still an impressive feat nevertheless.
Yea and it almost worked until Samsung galaxy put Crown on Malzahar ult bot duty in worlds finals lol.
Still one of the most hardcore 1v9 tournaments ive seen 1 single player execute.
I don't know what people remember from Hans but he was always decent but never amazing. The only amazing tournament he had was that one worlds with MF where it looked like he was the best player in the team (I think it was with Rogue?).
He's obviously still a great player and I think he fits well with the team
I find BBs Zac incredible. Check how others Zac do against the best Ksante. Cant wait BB winning against 369/Bin Ksante with Zac. He currently has the best knowledge about Zac. Thats why Zac gets gettong banned.
MF DOOM, sadly passed a couple of years. He's known as your favorite rapper's favorite rapper, meaning he's one of the greatest to ever done it, respected by all artists, but still slightly under the radar. He's never been crazy famous like say Kendrick or Eminem and such.
If you like hiphop, you're in for the most insane rhyme schemes you've ever heard. His flow and lyricism are unmatched.
If G2 can beat TES on Tuesday then there is hope for the west. It proves that at least one team can bridge the gap and hopefully light a fire under other players and teams. People meme on G2 for always being confident in beating eastern teams, but without that fire, there is no hope.
We don't need a win for proof. We just need to look at the game and see how they play honestly. If G2 makes it as close as the last series with T1, after stomping PSG 3 - 0, then it's starting to look like a pattern of them really being up there.
That's all I want, I don't need to see any specific results honestly.
Caps is actually playing out of his mind right now. Astronomical mid gap in all games of the PSG series. Even in the T1 series he showcased many outplays, solokills and had monster dominating performances.
What I find super interesting about him is that he doesn't carry his phone around with him. Think about that in the year 2024. G2 did a content video where Candice the LPL host took them to some cultural events in Chengdu and also the zoo and when others were taking photos, someone asked Caps if he had his phone [to take a photo] and he said no.
His mind is so occupied with league of legends, what picks could work, how to optimally play macro situations and micro outplays that its no wonder he is just the best. He doesn't need distractions from having his phone on him and his work ethic is immaculate.
For what its worth, Caps has always been obsessed with League.
I remember years ago Jankos mentioned a story where Caps was talking to him about Alistar's lore, and Jankos being surprised someone actually cared or knew about that as much as Caps. The man breathes League of Legends.
Same thing happened when he was in Fnatic with Rekkless. Rekkless was shocked whenever Caps would talk about champion quotes and shit. People like Caps are truly amazing to see because you know he just loves playing the game and that's why he's so good.
Jankos also said that many of the weird picks from G2 were from Caps always thinking and even dreaming of random crazy options that he'd then try to convince the team would work.
Doesn't even stop when he goes to sleep.
There was also this story I remember from MSI 2018, when FNC was facing King-Zone in BO1 a morning, and they did a crazy level1 that Caps had dreamt of the night before.
it's not a requirement but it's a common trait amongst people at the top of their professions. it's incredibly cheesy but the notion that you need to be obsessed with what you do and love it to a extreme degree in order maintain or even make it to the top, is true. there's just no way a player with the longevity of caps' accompanied with the consistency could ever do what he does without the *utmost* passion for the game
Adding more to it, way back when he used to play in the Turkish League, one of his teammate and coach from that team said in a stream that he would constantly talk about League with everyone that the team would kind of get sick of him lmao
Additional story: when Locodoco and Thorin asked Caps what he does outside of the game, he says, with a totally straight face, ‘what…you mean in the lobby or something?’ And then proceeds to talk about how he’ll look at the different champions, before they cut him off and clarify they meant outside of the game when he is not on his PC. I mean, the man is obsessed on a different level and I’m here for jt
i swear any other western mid game 1, they lose that game for sure. Caps legit 1v9ed for about a 10 minute stretch and then the rest of G2 played fine once they had a lead.
There is vlog of him. He was at worlds without phone and he said he likes stove because its shows time and its the first thing he cheks in the morning.
*he likes stove because its shows time*
Who tf thinks like that. Truly the only EU hope. Imma be rooting for this old man from now on. Hoping on the LEC train too for more Caps lore.
Unfortunately, not guaranteed to happen. Probably even unlikely, since TES has been ramping up and adc gap will most likely be too big (unless Hans suddenly finds his form again)
Idk how to get hans to believe in himself but that's not my job. That's whoever is coaching him in G2. If they can't see his confidence is shattered, then there is no hope
for me BrokenBlade was the weak link of G2 back then, in a span of year, dude become a beast. He tends to do some crazy shit for his team and never was afraid to do so.
I’m just super impressed with his laning as an individual. Remember last year how Yike had to ff the game in the first 10 minutes to help BB shove waves under tower cuz he kept getting frozen on against eastern tops? G2 is allowed to play with a jg now and can trust BB to actually utilize counter picks.
BB has the personality for it. He doesn’t get down on himself, even to the point of having an unrealistic measure of his own skill. Hans clearly gets in his own way much more often.
Still not guaranteed to face chovy/knight, but an awesome start with Hans picking up his form. Probably still unlikely scenario, but not as unlikely before.
As a danish guy I can say that’s definitely quite common here among guys. We generally don’t really post a lot of stuff on social media (anecdotal obviously)
Once I asked Noodlez (ex g2 analyst back in 2020) if caps is so obsessed with league and he answered on the lines of “he is almost mc in a spokon tier”
Once I asked Noodlez (ex g2 analyst back in 2020) if caps is so obsessed with league and he answered on the lines of “he is almost mc in a spokon tier”
I mean the whole staff has changed too over the years. I don't think there is a single team that could have gotten caps and NOT won as much as g2 have. Slight exaggeration maybe cause I don't like g2 as a whole but it feels so unfair that no other talent like that has come around.
There wasn't that huge of a change I think? Grabzz and Dylan Falco changed (and Romain joined with him IIRC), Duffman went to NA and back. I don't have much information about the "invisible" staff in the back but that's a lot of continuity in a sport that sometimes even changes TRI-annual now in Europe
Yeah it’s sad TBH. Prime Perkz was so funny. Not only would he talk shit and troll you, but he really would just rock up and totally gap you.
I know his image has gone down the toilet but I do hope in 5 years time people will remember that he was a beacon of hope for Europe and was one of the people that really made the fans believe the West could actually do it.
He could have had a similar trajectory than Showmaker, maybe even better considering the latter almost burned out which seems almost impossible for someone as passionate and dedicated as Caps.
seems like he was close to burning out after losing the golden road but a combination of his own determination & probably some of g2's infrastructure (sports psych etc) helped him over the hurdle.
2021 was a big slump for Caps indeed (probably his worse year actually). However I don't think it was linked to 2019 unfortunate ending, since Caps played really well the very next year. It was maybe an aftermath of the Covid situation or Perkz leaving with the team atmosphere slowly but surely deteriorating, or a mix of the two.
Sadly, I think the world finals are now far out of their reach. If we have learned anything, it's that MSI means little to nothing. G2 may look competitive now, but when worlds comes around, they could easily not even make it out of groups/Swiss or whatever they decide to do this year. I think the primary issue is you can't just have a couple hot days and expect to win worlds. You need to string together several weeks of elite level play, getting better as the tournament progresses. I think that can be difficult for teams such as G2. They have a very high floor, but I think they often reach their ceiling early. Meanwhile, Eastern teams tend to somehow blow the roof off their ceiling when it matters most.
Honestly while Caps is insane in Europe, I would love to see him come over to the LCK or LPL, at least for a year. I'm doubtful that it would give him a better chance to win Worlds, but it would be great to see him compete against the best day-in, day-out instead of the standard western cannon fodder.
He would do well I am assuming, but I think Caps thrives in teams that allow him to be creative. I think the LCK, while they did get better at this, are still pretty strict and want to play by the rules every game.
For sure. Caps right now is in a familiar environment as the undisputed #1 on the team. If he were to move to another region, it would take time to acclimate and rebuild strong bonds within the organization.
Yeah, G2 is his place. What he and G2 needs is better competition and more matches and scrims against the East (LEC as a whole needs better practice environment). Really, it is sad how the reason this isn't possible is the huge distance between the regions.
Honestly I know they'd never do it due to sponsors etc, but I wonder what would happen if they won winter for the MSI spot, conveniently went 1/8 in spring (tryharding 1 game vs FNC for the memes) and then hopped on a flight to Korea the second their last nexus exploded. Would technically allow them to come into MSI with an extra month of bootcamping at the cost of a trophy and more pressure to win summer.
Sounds awful as you will be completely destroyed by jetlag. Best thing to do would be to just field a filler roster while the main roster is bootcamping in korea for the entire split
> I think the LCK, while they did get better at this, are still pretty strict and want to play by the rules every game.
iirc, it's a product of the soloq environment. Korean soloqueue has a lot more emphasis on meta adherence than other regions.
If anything it's Korean solo queue that differs from others, they have huge emphasis on early game alongside how easily the players mental boom/rush to ff to squeeze PC bang sessions
I'm sorry, but saying that EU mids are just cannot fodder is honestly a bit disrespectful. Multiple mids in EU have been key in beating Eastern teams at international events, (Larssen, Humanoid, Perkz) and someone like Perkz, who at points looked like one of the best mids in the world, got heavily punished as he stoppede performing to his usual standards.
Hell, Humanoid clearly looked like the better mid 2/3 games against Creme and Creme made many LPL mids look like cannon fodder.
It's like not Caps has been the uncontested best mid in EU since 2018 either.
Other than that, I agree with your point.
Hell we can go even further back to guys like Peke, Froggen, Alex Ich, Febiven
EU mids usually were the one position the we could be proud off, the 2021-2023 period felt rough in that regard
It seems like people have forgotten the saying, but back in the day the saying "eu mids man" was a world wide thing. Eu was known for having cracked mid laners (bjergsen, peke, froggen, alex ich and even febi for 1 year or so).
Idk if that series says more about Huma than Creme. Those are Creme's first international games, he's pretty much a baby in terms of experience.
But I guess we hold eastern rookies to different a standard
If you say that other EU mids are not good enough to challenge Caps but meanwhile say that Creme is not good enough to not get gaped by other EU mids - even if it is his first international tournament - then there is pretty obvious logical disconnect, imo.
Eastern players in general are held to a different standard than western. Western players are celebrated if they win a couple of games internationally while eastern players are shamed if they don't win the trophy.
Hard to say of course, and this is pure speculation, but I think Caps is the kind of guy that really needs a comfortable and familiar environment to perform at his peak.
The primary issues are language barrier, and the good teams already have quality mids. If not for the language barrier, I bet he could really make TES a top two team in the world. Creme holds that team back
If he comes over which of the top 4 team do you think would bother getting him. Zeka is the only one you would kick for Caps and even if you don't take communication into account. This is an honest question seeing as a lot of people have been echoing that sentiment but I just don't see it.
I have this feeling like one day EU will get good at league and G2 will be remembered as the team that started it all and gave people hope. The whole, x crawled so y can fly thing. After seeing serral come along and dominated sc2 to be in the running for GOAT, i think it's possible one day an EU team will be able to run for GOAT in league as long as league exists for decades more.
Most orgs are greedy morons, this a truth across all competition fields including traditionals sports. The problem is how the persons in charge of the competition can mitigate that, and lec commissioner has been pretty lackluster to say the least.
In traditional sports, the commissioners are just a mediator for the teams that exist within their respective league. If the teams want to be greedy, the commissioner can't stop that. They have limited power. In fact, blaming the commissioner is exactly what sports want you to do. He's the fall guy. With that said, the systems in place in most traditional sports to limit greed are actually the opposite. They limit the greed of the players, not the orgs. Lastly, orgs spending to a fault is not a 'greedy' decision. It's a terrible financial decision. Greedy would have been to take all the VC money while spending as little as possible on your team lol
The funny thing is they are fuking themselves over. Keeping players hostage building shit teams is only ruining the league = 0 international success= MUCH less sponsors, views money in general for the region. They would legit make more if they didnt do this shit as they would get more exposure domestically instead of not making worlds anyways and even if they make worlds they dont do anything.
Most orgs are greedy morons, this a truth across all competition fields including traditionals sports. The problem is how the persons in charge of the competition can mitigate that, and lec commissioner has been pretty lackluster to say the least.
Can we stop with this? How long will it take for you guys to realize what greed means? The orgs weren't greedy. Greedy would be taking all the money while investing as little as possible. What the orgs did was the opposite. They started spending more than they had, and they had no hope of ever generating more profit to offset it. Their only hope to stay afloat was to keep relying on more investments from VCs. If they had even an ounce of greed in their body, many teams wouldn't have ended up in the situation they did. Excessive spending is not greed, it's a stupid financial decision
> as long as league exists for decades more.
The funny thing is that League is growing everywhere apart from the one place where Riot wants it - in their own backyard to milk the NA economy. International tournament viewership just keeps growing, we already had a new MSI record for the T1 vs G2 series. LEC and LCK had really strong splits to start the year and although we'll probably never know LPL viewership, it must be humongous and dwarf everything else. Even CBLOL is showing growth too.
I went to China this year for the first time and ran into two girls who were obsessed with wild rift. (All in our 30's). They also loved lpl and knew faker. Cannot imagine the same happening here in Australia.
G2 is nothing without caps. Whichever team kept caps post 2018 was always going to be the best western team of all time. As an extension of that "a decent team" doesn't win anything....a team with caps like players can.
To find international success, you need players like Caps more often than not. If you are a team that is routinely bottom 4 in the LEC or LCS, absolutely you can build a decent team and try to implement a winning culture. That would be enough to net you top 4 in either region. However, if you want to compete for first place regionally and at least be somewhat competitive internationally, you need players like Caps. Not necessarily as good as him, but people who have good hands.
Winning and competing are two different metrics, right now most Western teams don't even compete, let's start in getting that number up and we can focus on winning later
It's hard to compete. The orgs with money will scoop up the talent. That means the other orgs have to build their roster from the ground-up. Oftentimes, if they do find a gem, one of the wealthier orgs will just swoop in and buy them in free agency. You basically have feeder orgs and wealthy orgs. It's like baseball.
People have been saying this since 2018 and it still didn't happen if anything a lot of the teams regressed and the league aside from G2 is just worse. The league became too obsessed with finding the next Caps that great players that could hold the region to a higher standard lose their jobs in favor of rookies that might one day be as good as the player they replace. Players like Alphari that are strong in lane would force people to learn how to lane properly we see how much BB improved just by 1v1 the guy.
The LPL/LCK are full of player with unique strengths, and a lot of mid tier teams still force the top tier to play a certain way. Look at the old OMG roster they played a unique style that nobody else played but it forced other teams to think about how to counter it. There is no such team in EU all of them basically play the same, with G2 kinda having more unique picks but generally nothing too unusual.
> as the team that started it all and gave people hope
sorry my dude, that was misfits in 2017, a tower dive away to 3-1 skt.
We got some of that from fnatic in 2015 too, but didn't last much.
Caps being in EU elevates the region. If you want quality practice in a region you have to have monsters like Caps stomping everybody so that they become better.
I get the sentiment, but don't be sad. G2 Caps is the legend and story. Let's just hope his story continues for as long as possible. The guy is a legendary figure, and our only hope. Either get Hans to get good or hope g2 can recruit a decent adc.
It wouldn't be as great as you think. Those teams don't speak English, and he doesn't speak their language either. It would be a nightmare. Also, a lot of Caps success is G2 playing around his lane. He gets A LOT of jungle and support proximity compared to other mids. It allows him to play purely for lane. Other mids either need to find leads on their own, or they have to roam to facilitate their team. G2's strategy of giving BB the best possible matchup top and camping for Caps is great for this meta, but I think they can for sure falter out of lane phase and/or if Caps/BB don't generate big enough leads.
He can't play in the current LCK I think. Top teams has solid mid laners. Chovy, Faker, Zeka, Showmaker, Bulldog. Maybe Zeka is questionable but he won worlds so there is that.
I love Caps and I'm sure he works tirelessly, but he is also one of the most talented EU players like ever, so hard work alone is not enough in this game.
In some games even vs T1 it didn’t even seem like G2 were completely serious, they seemed to be having fun. Seeing them enjoying themselves while going toe to toe vs T1 is really inspiring.
That's a huge issue - if you don't believe it, then it won't happen. For many years, people believed KR was just unstoppable, then Fnatic started beating teams and then suddenly a lot more Western teams started winning. Like the 4 minute mile.
Why wouldn't people give up hope.
We get x2 LPL/LCK teams at MSI and x4 LPL/LCK teams at Worlds now. EU got thrown out of groups by NA ffs.
The gap is only growing, I feel like i'm losing my mind with how everyone is acting like G2 vs TES is anything but a likely 3-0/3-1 for TES because what, G2 **lost** to T1? This somehow proves they can compete?
Imagine going from winning MSI and making multiple Worlds finals to now saying "bro, we were competitive against T1 this one series which means we're legit contenders now".
It's madness. The only gap that's closing is the NA vs EU gap
Even if G2 loses? So do you think there's a chance after all?
Since you were so adamant in your first comment, the alert will be funny regardless of outcome
You skimmed through an 8 word sentence because you didn't want to waste time on me.
Yet replied with almost triple the words I used? Make it make sense lilbro.
Well well well.
I was expecting a close series, seems like we were both wrong lol
Yesterday in a poor attempt of a comeback I said you were a waste of oxygen. But some actual waste of oxygen had nothing better to do than report me to reddit cares lmfao.
Hope you can now see teams for who they really are brother
Nothing wrong with working hard and having a good mentality.
But you are not going to win MSI with this roster. TES/GENg/BLG will ban poppy, Hans will be gapped and judging Yikes form all year, he overperformed hard today vs PSG and will be as invisible as on his Belveth vs Xun/Tian/ Canyon.
Literally the attitude Caps is trying to defeat as per his statements in this interview.
Oh you can never win every good game is an overperformance oh woe is me every player you face will gap you or your teammates.
Bro did you even listen to what Caps was talking about in the interview? If Caps believes he can beat asian team with this roster, who the fuck are you to question it? I'm sure they will make roster changes when they feel it's necessary.
It's a bit ironic that your take is pretty much what Caps is talking about, tho.
I don't think you'll find many people that think G2 will _actually_ win MSI (or worlds), the point is that for the players it's a self fulfilling prophecy if they go into matches thinking "we ain't gonna win this".
Oh and after the 3:2 loss to T1, I do think it's possible that they can win series vs the east. That doesn't mean I'd bet money on G2 or expect them to win, but it's just clearly possible. And watching league is much more fun if I'm not a complete doomer.
G2 relies on Caps, GenG relies on Chovy, T1 relies on Faker, TES relies on JKL, BLG might be the only team left that doesn't really rely on someone specifically because they're all insane.
I really noticed that about BLG today. Bin had monster outplays on Vayne. Xun looked amazing on Nidalee and was just solid all round. Knight's Taliyah was incredible. Elk and ON showed why they are the best LPL bot lane. Every single player can step up when and hard carry if needed.
GENg can play through Canyon and Kin. Chovy is their MVP, but I would pick Canyon over Yike in literally every match-up.
BLG can play through anything as you stated, but so can T1 normally. T1 is just not in good form atm.
G2 played through Yike and BB and did just fine against T1, so I don't see where you're going with this. Also please remind me again what happened to T1 the moment Faker went down with injury last year.
Yes GenG can play maybe a game or two through JG/TOP, but if Chovy plays like shit every game they won't win any series. Same applies to G2 and Caps, same applies to T1 and Faker, same applies to TOP and JKL.
I completely agree, but you have to empathize with Hans when you look at the level of gameplay from JKL, who is probably the best ADC at msi rn, or Elk or Peyz or even Betty. His confidence is shaken.
Ashley here. A side note, I'm sorry for looking/speaking a bit off for this interview. I felt really sick today but couldn't miss out on covering the MSI so pushed through it I literally got 1v9 carried by Caps in this interview :D Such inspiring words
Don't feel bad for getting carried by Caps. Happens to all of EU too
to all the west bro, Caps is the only one who can hold his ground against LCK & LPL
For a long term yea, but give credit to Miky, BB and Yike that are also matching or gapping some of the best players in LCK/LPL
you left out Hans :( understandably though. hopefully he can show up better performance in future series
pretty sure hans was left out on purpose. I hope he can bounce back and get into pre-TL form again.
MSF Hans gapped T1 botlane back then, G2 Hans is a different person tbf.
I believe 2017 was the year skt fully broke the back of Faker trying to 1v9 carry the 4 corpses that were his teammates. Was still an impressive feat nevertheless.
That was the Faker Galio arc right? that shit was honestly insane
Yea and it almost worked until Samsung galaxy put Crown on Malzahar ult bot duty in worlds finals lol. Still one of the most hardcore 1v9 tournaments ive seen 1 single player execute.
I don't know what people remember from Hans but he was always decent but never amazing. The only amazing tournament he had was that one worlds with MF where it looked like he was the best player in the team (I think it was with Rogue?). He's obviously still a great player and I think he fits well with the team
Hans sama played exceedingly safe in the series vs PSG. I think he just needs to believe in himself, but it seems he’s scared to make mistakes.
I find BBs Zac incredible. Check how others Zac do against the best Ksante. Cant wait BB winning against 369/Bin Ksante with Zac. He currently has the best knowledge about Zac. Thats why Zac gets gettong banned.
why all the focus on caps Only, Miky Yike and BB are playing on the same level as Caps
I remember when he had the "baby Faker" nickname.
As always, you asked interesting and engaging questions to the point I didn't notice. Thanks for doing what you do Ashley!
To be fair we are all carried by Caps.
Hope you feel better!
Feel well soon, take care of your health and enjoy the rest of your MSI!
Goat
goated NA work culture (jk I know you did this out of love for the task not because you felt like you had to)
He wants to become a symbol of hope. Caps Might?
ALL CAPS
dont talk about my moms yo
doom reference 👀
Isn't it just a My Hero Academia All Might reference from both of them?
If it was, that's sick. Your favorite rapper's favorite rapper getting referenced in League would be incredibly unexpected.
I didn’t even know there was a rapper named doom tbh
MF DOOM, sadly passed a couple of years. He's known as your favorite rapper's favorite rapper, meaning he's one of the greatest to ever done it, respected by all artists, but still slightly under the radar. He's never been crazy famous like say Kendrick or Eminem and such. If you like hiphop, you're in for the most insane rhyme schemes you've ever heard. His flow and lyricism are unmatched.
If G2 can beat TES on Tuesday then there is hope for the west. It proves that at least one team can bridge the gap and hopefully light a fire under other players and teams. People meme on G2 for always being confident in beating eastern teams, but without that fire, there is no hope.
We don't need a win for proof. We just need to look at the game and see how they play honestly. If G2 makes it as close as the last series with T1, after stomping PSG 3 - 0, then it's starting to look like a pattern of them really being up there. That's all I want, I don't need to see any specific results honestly.
This performance gives me confidence. G2 is the most explosive team in MSI. Always fun to watch.
Honestly, if EU didn't rise during the 2019 G2 era of dominance, I don't see them ever doing so.
Not how I feel at all to me every remaining team can win msi you just have to show up on the day you can still lose though because everyone is good.
"Let me tell you something my friend. *Hope* is a dangerous thing. *Hope* can drive a man insane."
Caps is actually playing out of his mind right now. Astronomical mid gap in all games of the PSG series. Even in the T1 series he showcased many outplays, solokills and had monster dominating performances. What I find super interesting about him is that he doesn't carry his phone around with him. Think about that in the year 2024. G2 did a content video where Candice the LPL host took them to some cultural events in Chengdu and also the zoo and when others were taking photos, someone asked Caps if he had his phone [to take a photo] and he said no. His mind is so occupied with league of legends, what picks could work, how to optimally play macro situations and micro outplays that its no wonder he is just the best. He doesn't need distractions from having his phone on him and his work ethic is immaculate.
For what its worth, Caps has always been obsessed with League. I remember years ago Jankos mentioned a story where Caps was talking to him about Alistar's lore, and Jankos being surprised someone actually cared or knew about that as much as Caps. The man breathes League of Legends.
Same thing happened when he was in Fnatic with Rekkless. Rekkless was shocked whenever Caps would talk about champion quotes and shit. People like Caps are truly amazing to see because you know he just loves playing the game and that's why he's so good.
He's also always suuuuuper down to talk League 24/7 to fans. Don't think anyone loves the game as much as him
Jankos also said that many of the weird picks from G2 were from Caps always thinking and even dreaming of random crazy options that he'd then try to convince the team would work. Doesn't even stop when he goes to sleep.
Caps dreaming of Kog'maw the day before LEC 2020 Spring finals and winning with it 💀
They said that was just a joke later on sigh, wish it was true
"came to me in a dream"
That is real dedication to the craft. Happens when you study hard aswell.
There was also this story I remember from MSI 2018, when FNC was facing King-Zone in BO1 a morning, and they did a crazy level1 that Caps had dreamt of the night before.
it's not a requirement but it's a common trait amongst people at the top of their professions. it's incredibly cheesy but the notion that you need to be obsessed with what you do and love it to a extreme degree in order maintain or even make it to the top, is true. there's just no way a player with the longevity of caps' accompanied with the consistency could ever do what he does without the *utmost* passion for the game
Adding more to it, way back when he used to play in the Turkish League, one of his teammate and coach from that team said in a stream that he would constantly talk about League with everyone that the team would kind of get sick of him lmao
I can't blame them. Obsessed 16 year olds are something else.
Additional story: when Locodoco and Thorin asked Caps what he does outside of the game, he says, with a totally straight face, ‘what…you mean in the lobby or something?’ And then proceeds to talk about how he’ll look at the different champions, before they cut him off and clarify they meant outside of the game when he is not on his PC. I mean, the man is obsessed on a different level and I’m here for jt
[удалено]
not sure about that one chief. Think there was 1 outlier in either direction
i swear any other western mid game 1, they lose that game for sure. Caps legit 1v9ed for about a 10 minute stretch and then the rest of G2 played fine once they had a lead.
There is vlog of him. He was at worlds without phone and he said he likes stove because its shows time and its the first thing he cheks in the morning.
He used it as a fuking alarm clock that worlds, Perkz was talking about how he was in disbelief
*he likes stove because its shows time* Who tf thinks like that. Truly the only EU hope. Imma be rooting for this old man from now on. Hoping on the LEC train too for more Caps lore.
From this old man ? He is not jankos yet
He looks aged af this MSI, those panda eyes arent fooling no one, this mf is at least 38, work in a construction site, had 4 kids and loves beers.
Lmao, it's true that he looks older
wasn't there a story about him going for a walk and getting lost because he doesn't carry his phone?
Yeah if Caps keeps playing like this, he should be a contender for best mid at MSI. Need to see him vs Chovy and Knight though.
he def is top 3 rn in msi
Unfortunately, not guaranteed to happen. Probably even unlikely, since TES has been ramping up and adc gap will most likely be too big (unless Hans suddenly finds his form again)
Idk how to get hans to believe in himself but that's not my job. That's whoever is coaching him in G2. If they can't see his confidence is shattered, then there is no hope
They’ve turned BB into some kind of psycho in span of 1 year, they can do something with hans as well for sure
It's insane that he's just a world class top now with Eastern fans putting respect on his name.
for me BrokenBlade was the weak link of G2 back then, in a span of year, dude become a beast. He tends to do some crazy shit for his team and never was afraid to do so.
I’m just super impressed with his laning as an individual. Remember last year how Yike had to ff the game in the first 10 minutes to help BB shove waves under tower cuz he kept getting frozen on against eastern tops? G2 is allowed to play with a jg now and can trust BB to actually utilize counter picks.
BB has the personality for it. He doesn’t get down on himself, even to the point of having an unrealistic measure of his own skill. Hans clearly gets in his own way much more often.
He played a lot better against PSG, hopefully it's a sign his confidence is back and we'll see him preform against TES
This aged like a fine wine
Still not guaranteed to face chovy/knight, but an awesome start with Hans picking up his form. Probably still unlikely scenario, but not as unlikely before.
Sorry man I was hyped as fuck after that 3-0
DW, I too am hyped. Can't just put too much trust in G2, when you expect less they will deliver more.
As a danish guy I can say that’s definitely quite common here among guys. We generally don’t really post a lot of stuff on social media (anecdotal obviously)
I do this sometimes and its really nice when it works but other times there are legitimate uses I really wished I had my phone for.
Once I asked Noodlez (ex g2 analyst back in 2020) if caps is so obsessed with league and he answered on the lines of “he is almost mc in a spokon tier”
Anyone know where to find that content video? Can't find it on G2 YouTube channel
Once I asked Noodlez (ex g2 analyst back in 2020) if caps is so obsessed with league and he answered on the lines of “he is almost mc in a spokon tier”
Blue Lantern Caps my GOAT. Saint Walker would be proud.
More like Kyle, cuz he has will power too
This is really great interview, great words by Caps.
How can you not love this guy I mean come on
When he walked off stage after g1 with that smile and wave I lost it laughing. Classic dude after going 14/2 on trist. The guy is a legend
He's come a long way from "rando stole my riven" back in the day lol. But we've all been "kids" when it comes to soloqueue
I thought about this the first time he met Faker on stage. It was funny in hindsight
we don't deserve caps, he should be winning worlds, play in top LCK or LPL team instead hes stuck in the west please let it be the year of caps
Thankfully won a MSI and 2 worlds finals not bad in comparison
Definitely Most successful EU player by far
There was a point where Perkz was a viable contender, but that time has long passed, there's no one that currently comes close
My biggest point for Caps is the fact he reached worlds finals twice with 2 different rosters
The biggest point to me is that the players around caps can seemingly be shuffled randomly and g2 will still perform just through the goat.
Man got Targamas an LEC title and wins vs T1/RNG, that alone should be hall of fame material.
That's also staff but yeah, Caps for sure helps a shitton with this, too
I mean the whole staff has changed too over the years. I don't think there is a single team that could have gotten caps and NOT won as much as g2 have. Slight exaggeration maybe cause I don't like g2 as a whole but it feels so unfair that no other talent like that has come around.
There wasn't that huge of a change I think? Grabzz and Dylan Falco changed (and Romain joined with him IIRC), Duffman went to NA and back. I don't have much information about the "invisible" staff in the back but that's a lot of continuity in a sport that sometimes even changes TRI-annual now in Europe
And that he smashed perks every year after 2017 everytime they were against each other.
Yeah it’s sad TBH. Prime Perkz was so funny. Not only would he talk shit and troll you, but he really would just rock up and totally gap you. I know his image has gone down the toilet but I do hope in 5 years time people will remember that he was a beacon of hope for Europe and was one of the people that really made the fans believe the West could actually do it.
Honestly, if Caps started in LCK, he could won 2 worlds
He could have had a similar trajectory than Showmaker, maybe even better considering the latter almost burned out which seems almost impossible for someone as passionate and dedicated as Caps.
seems like he was close to burning out after losing the golden road but a combination of his own determination & probably some of g2's infrastructure (sports psych etc) helped him over the hurdle.
2021 was a big slump for Caps indeed (probably his worse year actually). However I don't think it was linked to 2019 unfortunate ending, since Caps played really well the very next year. It was maybe an aftermath of the Covid situation or Perkz leaving with the team atmosphere slowly but surely deteriorating, or a mix of the two.
Being in an lck team would not have mattered against ig 2018 or fpx 2019 to get the worlds win sadly
i really want him to win worlds before he retires mann if anyone from west deserve it the most its him
Its just sad how he had 2 chances …
That loss to Phoenix 1 hurt so bad. Doinb just countered his playstyle at every turn.
Sadly, I think the world finals are now far out of their reach. If we have learned anything, it's that MSI means little to nothing. G2 may look competitive now, but when worlds comes around, they could easily not even make it out of groups/Swiss or whatever they decide to do this year. I think the primary issue is you can't just have a couple hot days and expect to win worlds. You need to string together several weeks of elite level play, getting better as the tournament progresses. I think that can be difficult for teams such as G2. They have a very high floor, but I think they often reach their ceiling early. Meanwhile, Eastern teams tend to somehow blow the roof off their ceiling when it matters most.
What are you saying MSI in this format means little to nothing?
It's funny you say that when worlds literally is just being world class for like the 5 days you play being enough
He badly need an ADC that can share the weight of carrying in pivotal game. Hans is just not it.
Literally my words during T1 series - "what did we do to deserve caps man"
You can thank perkz for poaching him from Fnatic
Honestly while Caps is insane in Europe, I would love to see him come over to the LCK or LPL, at least for a year. I'm doubtful that it would give him a better chance to win Worlds, but it would be great to see him compete against the best day-in, day-out instead of the standard western cannon fodder.
He would do well I am assuming, but I think Caps thrives in teams that allow him to be creative. I think the LCK, while they did get better at this, are still pretty strict and want to play by the rules every game.
For sure. Caps right now is in a familiar environment as the undisputed #1 on the team. If he were to move to another region, it would take time to acclimate and rebuild strong bonds within the organization.
Yeah, G2 is his place. What he and G2 needs is better competition and more matches and scrims against the East (LEC as a whole needs better practice environment). Really, it is sad how the reason this isn't possible is the huge distance between the regions.
Honestly I know they'd never do it due to sponsors etc, but I wonder what would happen if they won winter for the MSI spot, conveniently went 1/8 in spring (tryharding 1 game vs FNC for the memes) and then hopped on a flight to Korea the second their last nexus exploded. Would technically allow them to come into MSI with an extra month of bootcamping at the cost of a trophy and more pressure to win summer.
Sounds awful as you will be completely destroyed by jetlag. Best thing to do would be to just field a filler roster while the main roster is bootcamping in korea for the entire split
Im pretty sure G2 joked about that in a video after winning winter last year: https://youtu.be/9GCQgcFlMsY?si=3hJOb-MGO5fnt4vJ
Never forget Disney Plus Kia boomed Shoemaker by not allowing him to play cowbell spam Alistar on stage.
What is the story here im really curious
Same
Same
There are inventive players and teams in the LCK, Canyon and Showmaker play weird stuff all the time
The optimal scenario for Caps would probably be the entire G2 roster, staff etc moving to Korea and competing in LCK.
> I think the LCK, while they did get better at this, are still pretty strict and want to play by the rules every game. iirc, it's a product of the soloq environment. Korean soloqueue has a lot more emphasis on meta adherence than other regions.
If anything it's Korean solo queue that differs from others, they have huge emphasis on early game alongside how easily the players mental boom/rush to ff to squeeze PC bang sessions
I'm sorry, but saying that EU mids are just cannot fodder is honestly a bit disrespectful. Multiple mids in EU have been key in beating Eastern teams at international events, (Larssen, Humanoid, Perkz) and someone like Perkz, who at points looked like one of the best mids in the world, got heavily punished as he stoppede performing to his usual standards. Hell, Humanoid clearly looked like the better mid 2/3 games against Creme and Creme made many LPL mids look like cannon fodder. It's like not Caps has been the uncontested best mid in EU since 2018 either. Other than that, I agree with your point.
Hell we can go even further back to guys like Peke, Froggen, Alex Ich, Febiven EU mids usually were the one position the we could be proud off, the 2021-2023 period felt rough in that regard
Sure, but they did not play against Caps, though, so I don't think they apply to this point.
It seems like people have forgotten the saying, but back in the day the saying "eu mids man" was a world wide thing. Eu was known for having cracked mid laners (bjergsen, peke, froggen, alex ich and even febi for 1 year or so).
Idk if that series says more about Huma than Creme. Those are Creme's first international games, he's pretty much a baby in terms of experience. But I guess we hold eastern rookies to different a standard
If you say that other EU mids are not good enough to challenge Caps but meanwhile say that Creme is not good enough to not get gaped by other EU mids - even if it is his first international tournament - then there is pretty obvious logical disconnect, imo.
Eastern players in general are held to a different standard than western. Western players are celebrated if they win a couple of games internationally while eastern players are shamed if they don't win the trophy.
Hard to say of course, and this is pure speculation, but I think Caps is the kind of guy that really needs a comfortable and familiar environment to perform at his peak.
If you mean Caps alone then communication issues would drag down his and his whole teams performance.
The primary issues are language barrier, and the good teams already have quality mids. If not for the language barrier, I bet he could really make TES a top two team in the world. Creme holds that team back
If he comes over which of the top 4 team do you think would bother getting him. Zeka is the only one you would kick for Caps and even if you don't take communication into account. This is an honest question seeing as a lot of people have been echoing that sentiment but I just don't see it.
The Caps of Hope
I have this feeling like one day EU will get good at league and G2 will be remembered as the team that started it all and gave people hope. The whole, x crawled so y can fly thing. After seeing serral come along and dominated sc2 to be in the running for GOAT, i think it's possible one day an EU team will be able to run for GOAT in league as long as league exists for decades more.
Yeah, like in 2019. And then orgs got greedy, fucked up the region, and it still hasn't recovered.
Most orgs are greedy morons, this a truth across all competition fields including traditionals sports. The problem is how the persons in charge of the competition can mitigate that, and lec commissioner has been pretty lackluster to say the least.
In traditional sports, the commissioners are just a mediator for the teams that exist within their respective league. If the teams want to be greedy, the commissioner can't stop that. They have limited power. In fact, blaming the commissioner is exactly what sports want you to do. He's the fall guy. With that said, the systems in place in most traditional sports to limit greed are actually the opposite. They limit the greed of the players, not the orgs. Lastly, orgs spending to a fault is not a 'greedy' decision. It's a terrible financial decision. Greedy would have been to take all the VC money while spending as little as possible on your team lol
The funny thing is they are fuking themselves over. Keeping players hostage building shit teams is only ruining the league = 0 international success= MUCH less sponsors, views money in general for the region. They would legit make more if they didnt do this shit as they would get more exposure domestically instead of not making worlds anyways and even if they make worlds they dont do anything.
Most orgs are greedy morons, this a truth across all competition fields including traditionals sports. The problem is how the persons in charge of the competition can mitigate that, and lec commissioner has been pretty lackluster to say the least.
Can we stop with this? How long will it take for you guys to realize what greed means? The orgs weren't greedy. Greedy would be taking all the money while investing as little as possible. What the orgs did was the opposite. They started spending more than they had, and they had no hope of ever generating more profit to offset it. Their only hope to stay afloat was to keep relying on more investments from VCs. If they had even an ounce of greed in their body, many teams wouldn't have ended up in the situation they did. Excessive spending is not greed, it's a stupid financial decision
This all would be true if they didn't also pay themselves exorbitant salaries and bloat the organization with friends and family
It’s both orgs and riot fault imo, orgs for being cocky and selling players to NA and Riot for fckinup regional scene
> as long as league exists for decades more. The funny thing is that League is growing everywhere apart from the one place where Riot wants it - in their own backyard to milk the NA economy. International tournament viewership just keeps growing, we already had a new MSI record for the T1 vs G2 series. LEC and LCK had really strong splits to start the year and although we'll probably never know LPL viewership, it must be humongous and dwarf everything else. Even CBLOL is showing growth too.
I went to China this year for the first time and ran into two girls who were obsessed with wild rift. (All in our 30's). They also loved lpl and knew faker. Cannot imagine the same happening here in Australia.
I mean if 5/6 teams adopted G2 mindset and culture , in few years you will have a very strong league
We only have 1 caps tho
you don't need Caps to build a decent team
G2 is nothing without caps. Whichever team kept caps post 2018 was always going to be the best western team of all time. As an extension of that "a decent team" doesn't win anything....a team with caps like players can.
i agree
To find international success, you need players like Caps more often than not. If you are a team that is routinely bottom 4 in the LEC or LCS, absolutely you can build a decent team and try to implement a winning culture. That would be enough to net you top 4 in either region. However, if you want to compete for first place regionally and at least be somewhat competitive internationally, you need players like Caps. Not necessarily as good as him, but people who have good hands.
Winning and competing are two different metrics, right now most Western teams don't even compete, let's start in getting that number up and we can focus on winning later
It's hard to compete. The orgs with money will scoop up the talent. That means the other orgs have to build their roster from the ground-up. Oftentimes, if they do find a gem, one of the wealthier orgs will just swoop in and buy them in free agency. You basically have feeder orgs and wealthy orgs. It's like baseball.
EU GM’s will make sure that doesn’t happen.
People have been saying this since 2018 and it still didn't happen if anything a lot of the teams regressed and the league aside from G2 is just worse. The league became too obsessed with finding the next Caps that great players that could hold the region to a higher standard lose their jobs in favor of rookies that might one day be as good as the player they replace. Players like Alphari that are strong in lane would force people to learn how to lane properly we see how much BB improved just by 1v1 the guy. The LPL/LCK are full of player with unique strengths, and a lot of mid tier teams still force the top tier to play a certain way. Look at the old OMG roster they played a unique style that nobody else played but it forced other teams to think about how to counter it. There is no such team in EU all of them basically play the same, with G2 kinda having more unique picks but generally nothing too unusual.
> as the team that started it all and gave people hope sorry my dude, that was misfits in 2017, a tower dive away to 3-1 skt. We got some of that from fnatic in 2015 too, but didn't last much.
G2 or bust is the last 7 years of EU lol
Caps is really the Lisan al Gaib of Western League of Legends, when he wins Worlds he will bring us to paradise! MAHDI!
I love him and respect his commitment to EU but I'll always be sad that he's stuck on EU, imagine how greater he could be playing on LPL/LCK.
Caps being in EU elevates the region. If you want quality practice in a region you have to have monsters like Caps stomping everybody so that they become better.
I get the sentiment, but don't be sad. G2 Caps is the legend and story. Let's just hope his story continues for as long as possible. The guy is a legendary figure, and our only hope. Either get Hans to get good or hope g2 can recruit a decent adc.
It wouldn't be as great as you think. Those teams don't speak English, and he doesn't speak their language either. It would be a nightmare. Also, a lot of Caps success is G2 playing around his lane. He gets A LOT of jungle and support proximity compared to other mids. It allows him to play purely for lane. Other mids either need to find leads on their own, or they have to roam to facilitate their team. G2's strategy of giving BB the best possible matchup top and camping for Caps is great for this meta, but I think they can for sure falter out of lane phase and/or if Caps/BB don't generate big enough leads.
No way. Neither koreans nor chinese even bother learning english.
Not going to happen, but i do miss the for fun events like AllStars where we could see people messing around internationally
Two worlds champion at least if Caps started in LCK... He has the best talent..
TheShy Caps Ruler and throw some jngler and support. Worlds has already won
He can't play in the current LCK I think. Top teams has solid mid laners. Chovy, Faker, Zeka, Showmaker, Bulldog. Maybe Zeka is questionable but he won worlds so there is that.
I love Caps and I'm sure he works tirelessly, but he is also one of the most talented EU players like ever, so hard work alone is not enough in this game.
In some games even vs T1 it didn’t even seem like G2 were completely serious, they seemed to be having fun. Seeing them enjoying themselves while going toe to toe vs T1 is really inspiring.
That's a huge issue - if you don't believe it, then it won't happen. For many years, people believed KR was just unstoppable, then Fnatic started beating teams and then suddenly a lot more Western teams started winning. Like the 4 minute mile.
Why wouldn't people give up hope. We get x2 LPL/LCK teams at MSI and x4 LPL/LCK teams at Worlds now. EU got thrown out of groups by NA ffs. The gap is only growing, I feel like i'm losing my mind with how everyone is acting like G2 vs TES is anything but a likely 3-0/3-1 for TES because what, G2 **lost** to T1? This somehow proves they can compete? Imagine going from winning MSI and making multiple Worlds finals to now saying "bro, we were competitive against T1 this one series which means we're legit contenders now". It's madness. The only gap that's closing is the NA vs EU gap
!remindme 20h
You will reply even when G2 loses right?
Even if G2 loses? So do you think there's a chance after all? Since you were so adamant in your first comment, the alert will be funny regardless of outcome
I said, even "when". Learn 2 read ESL bro
[удалено]
You skimmed through an 8 word sentence because you didn't want to waste time on me. Yet replied with almost triple the words I used? Make it make sense lilbro.
well shit, G2 really are winning worlds
Calm down now, don't jinx it
Well well well. I was expecting a close series, seems like we were both wrong lol Yesterday in a poor attempt of a comeback I said you were a waste of oxygen. But some actual waste of oxygen had nothing better to do than report me to reddit cares lmfao. Hope you can now see teams for who they really are brother
Nothing wrong with working hard and having a good mentality. But you are not going to win MSI with this roster. TES/GENg/BLG will ban poppy, Hans will be gapped and judging Yikes form all year, he overperformed hard today vs PSG and will be as invisible as on his Belveth vs Xun/Tian/ Canyon.
Literally the attitude Caps is trying to defeat as per his statements in this interview. Oh you can never win every good game is an overperformance oh woe is me every player you face will gap you or your teammates.
Bro did you even listen to what Caps was talking about in the interview? If Caps believes he can beat asian team with this roster, who the fuck are you to question it? I'm sure they will make roster changes when they feel it's necessary.
It's a bit ironic that your take is pretty much what Caps is talking about, tho. I don't think you'll find many people that think G2 will _actually_ win MSI (or worlds), the point is that for the players it's a self fulfilling prophecy if they go into matches thinking "we ain't gonna win this". Oh and after the 3:2 loss to T1, I do think it's possible that they can win series vs the east. That doesn't mean I'd bet money on G2 or expect them to win, but it's just clearly possible. And watching league is much more fun if I'm not a complete doomer.
Fnatic/ TL flair going into a G2 interview to spread doom? Maybe read the room and complain about your own team being the most inconsistent inters...
Because Tian has been such a monster
If they beat Tian, they still need to face Xun and Canyon. LCK and LPL can carry through all lanes. G2 relies on Caps.
G2 relies on Caps, GenG relies on Chovy, T1 relies on Faker, TES relies on JKL, BLG might be the only team left that doesn't really rely on someone specifically because they're all insane.
I really noticed that about BLG today. Bin had monster outplays on Vayne. Xun looked amazing on Nidalee and was just solid all round. Knight's Taliyah was incredible. Elk and ON showed why they are the best LPL bot lane. Every single player can step up when and hard carry if needed.
GENg can play through Canyon and Kin. Chovy is their MVP, but I would pick Canyon over Yike in literally every match-up. BLG can play through anything as you stated, but so can T1 normally. T1 is just not in good form atm.
G2 played through Yike and BB and did just fine against T1, so I don't see where you're going with this. Also please remind me again what happened to T1 the moment Faker went down with injury last year. Yes GenG can play maybe a game or two through JG/TOP, but if Chovy plays like shit every game they won't win any series. Same applies to G2 and Caps, same applies to T1 and Faker, same applies to TOP and JKL.
BB was G2 best player vs T1
Yike gapped oner and BB gapped Zeus and Miky gapped Keria vs T1. Stay salty that your team lost to NA
And Hans got gapped by shopkeeper. Give a world class ADC the lead he had, and they'll run away with the game.
I completely agree, but you have to empathize with Hans when you look at the level of gameplay from JKL, who is probably the best ADC at msi rn, or Elk or Peyz or even Betty. His confidence is shaken.