"Game One of the 2018 World Finals Was Probably the Worst Draft in League of Legends History" — Dylan Falco After G2's Loss to Vitality

Looking back at First Stand with some distance — what's the reason you finally took down LCK teams in such a strong fashion?

It's not rocket science. We went to the tournament in very good form, our players were peaking. Our ideas on how to draft around the specific meta at the tournament were very good. We got teams very well in both draft and play. That's really what it comes down to. And obviously things keep developing — we come back here and things are developing even further, and we still need to be on the ball for that.

In previous years, was it the drafts that weren't on point, or more of a randomness factor — player form on a given day?

It's always about conditions. How good form is the enemy team in, how good form is your team in, how do your drafts interact with each other? Sometimes you have a plan that might have worked versus one team at an international, but you face the one that counterpicks you and has the answers ready. Going into the bracket stage at last Worlds, we felt very confident we could make a very deep run with how we were playing. Didn't work out. I think we had two very bad drafts in our final Worlds series out of four. At First Stand I think we probably didn't have that. And those little things, or just performance on one day, can make the difference. At these tournaments you get one shot.

I asked Caps if he thought this roster was G2's best shot at winning an international trophy since 2020. He said it's hard to assess because you could have done better in previous years. Would you agree?

If we make it to the international tournaments, we definitely have a good shot this year. But I felt that last year as well, at least from our play at the World Championship.

I see these international tournaments usually as us coming in as slight underdogs, but it's never insurmountable.

And I think we've shown that with the amount of games we've taken from Korean and Chinese teams over the years.

Did you feel like underdogs at Worlds 2018 with Fnatic as well?

Yeah, for sure. There were teams like RNG that we struggled a lot against in both scrims and stage matches and lost to twice throughout the year. We were definitely underdogs. But — for example, the team we lost to in the 2018 final (Invictus Gaming), we had beaten them in the group stage 2-1. And we were scriming pretty well against them too. If you go back in history and change a couple of days and how they go, things could have looked different. And at the same time, G2 won an international tournament and made finals that they also could have performed worse in...

Any regrets when you look back at that period where EU was so close?

For the 2018 World Finals — this is a long time ago — I think our team was just in the absolute worst form it had been the entire year going into that final week. On that day, I really felt we had a very low chance to actually win. There were times we were playing much, much better, but not on that day.

That being said, if you compare to the importance of the match, game one of the 2018 Worlds Finals was probably the worst draft in League of Legends history.

If anyone goes and looks that one up, they will see. So I don't know if I regret it because I think it was a doomed day anyway. But that draft was very, very poor.

BrokenBlade was mostly on tank duty at First Stand and it worked very well. Do you think you saw the limits of that playstyle in the final against BLG? Because he's been playing a lot more carry champions recently.

We don't really see it as far as tanks versus carries. We just try to find overall draft strategies that we think we will win with theoretically. Obviously those can overlap sometimes but we're not going into drafts saying 'we need a tank in this game.' If they pick champions that tanks are good against and we have BB

You've been in the league since 2017 — one of the biggest veterans in the coaching space. Do you still see yourself coaching for a long period of time?

I never really plan more than a year in advance. And if you're working in this industry, it's very hard to — rosters and teams and coaches change on a monthly or yearly basis. I don't have plans for the next couple of years. I have a contract with G2 for next year, so we'll see how that goes. But other than that, honestly no idea.

So, you’ve never thought about retiring for example?

While you're winning, the thoughts usually don't come to mind. It just feels good.

How do you assess the evolution of the LEC overall? Are we getting closer to the peak of 2018-2020?

We've had a very good group of new young players coming in over the past couple of years. Europe does have a huge League of Legends player base still.

If we can integrate these players on strong rosters with strong staffs, we can definitely compete internationally. We've had some rough years but it's definitely looking up this year. We're definitely stronger.

How much stronger — I guess we'll have to wait for MSI and Worlds to find out. But First Stand was pretty good.

How do you see the top three in Europe? G2 and KC seem like the favourites, but Vitality are stepping up and MKOI look unconsistent. Is the top three quite open?

I would say us and KC probably have the most talent on our rosters — but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll perform and win, especially with Fearless best-of formats. A lot of stuff can happen. And then I think teams like Vitality, NAVI, MKOI, GIANTX — any of those teams have enough talent to qualify for Worlds if they get into good form with good drafts.

Last question — is there a specific reason you stopped scriming KC during the LEC Versus?

Sometimes if you think you’re going to play a team, it becomes a bit more beneficial to not play them and not show strategies.

It's not super conscious for us — we scrimed them a couple of days ago actually. So we'll see how it goes going into these playoffs.