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After toppling Origin in the League of Legends European Championship Playoffs, G2 Esports will once again face MAD Lions, in the underdog group, this coming weekend. After the game, Inven Global spoke to the G2 Esports coach Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann shared ideas about preparing for the playoffs.
Players preparing for the playoffs: What has changed in the process since the LEC came online and how does it compare to regular playoff preparation?
The biggest impact was the loss of two weeks of setup time, as the original schedule had a two-week break between week nine and the start of the playoffs, meaning we have completely lost the two weeks of bootcamp before . Other than that it has been very difficult to get into playoff mode because we are playing from home. This is the same case for all teams, so I don’t want to complain too much. Of course, we still want to win the playoffs and that motivates us, but the little rituals we have to do before entering the stage have changed.
What kind of rituals?
Basically, how we behave in the studio before each game, little things, like the environment you are sitting in, having your tea or coffee thirty minutes before. While we may have a similar structure at home, it still feels very different, so we need time to adjust. We have also found problems with the general configuration, which we managed to solve before this match against Origen. It was a challenge for us, no doubt, but right now I think we are ready.
Both teams play with a completely different approach. How does this influence how you approach strategy with your players?
Origin, traditionally, is not a surprising team. You know exactly what’s coming because they don’t leave your comfort zone. If you are the best team, you beat them. I know people think I hate them, or call them a lot, but I can’t see them winning against a better team, which is G2 Esports and Fnatic.
Why do you think Origen struggles to get out of his comfort zone?
It is difficult to say. I don’t know if it’s the coaching staff or the players, because they are all very traditional. Perhaps they need this consolation. It’s easier to follow the same approach to the game every time you switch, so I don’t blame you for that. In the best of five scenarios, where they opened up on the blue side with the bans we play, like Pantheon or Syndra, and you ban it because your comfort zone doesn’t allow you to play against it, you’ll be playing the losing draft. If they have to ban the Yuumi, then it really is over, because we knew every time what they were going to choose. The ordering structure cannot change.
We played around Bot Lane, which required our Bot Laner to lead the team. Caps is a calmer player, even when playing Mid, he was the type of person who needed low resources to have a high impact, and in Bot, that is more difficult to do. I think we’ve made good improvements since last week and Caps is stepping up a lot, so Origen was caught off guard.
Speaking of last weekend’s games, why are the MAD Lions a constant threat to your team?
Firstly, MAD Lions does not have the structured approach that Origin has, so its game plan is the same. I didn’t want to say anything after the game because I didn’t want to look like a bad loser, but we played really bad. Both teams can watch the series and say they played very, very poorly. It was good for viewers, but both teams were probably disappointed in their game. MAD is very aggressive, which means that any advantage they get will punish you very hard. I remember the Origin game against Rogue, where they had a 3K gold lead after eight minutes and at 22, it was the other way around, because they just didn’t do anything about it. In the case of MAD, they simply would not allow that to happen and they will surely punish you for it.
MAD Lions do not have a structured draft, so they can flex a Syndra or Kalista selection. Players can pick champions really fast if they want, giving them far more options than Origins.
Yesterday, PERKZ tweeted “G2 thinks we lost with this PepeHands.” Can MAD Lions only beat G2 in terms of top-tier teams or can they become a threat to others?
MAD Lions have the highest probability to alter Fnatic. The reason we choose to face them first is because MAD is the most threatening. If we had played by our standards, and not as badly as we did, they couldn’t have beat the best of five. Fnatic played at a higher level than us, while MAD played very poorly, that’s why they were 3-0
Next weekend you will face the Lions again in the losers group. What will you do differently this time?
Hopefully we are thinking about the game and playing with our minds a little more. The amount of easy mistakes we made was really shocking. A team like ours shouldn’t fall apart in situations as simple as we do.
So why has G2 been falling apart then? Are there any factors outside the game that affect the team?
Playoff preparation definitely played a role. We weren’t in the right mindset for the playoffs, we were in the regular season mode, in the sense that we weren’t taking things so seriously. In part, I didn’t have the most serious preparation for MAD Lions and thought of Fnatic too soon. Our scouting team did an amazing job and we knew how the opponent would play. We had the information, but we couldn’t use it because we didn’t play as we should.
How sustainable is G2’s style of play over the long term? And I want to say that with the addition of new rookies to the LEC every year, they seem to be posing a threat to your players.
Although it seems to be the case at the moment, especially since we’ve been playing poorly in some way, these teams still have a lot to understand about how their macro game is played, I’d say they are delayed by about a year. They are not individually better than mand players. We still have the best five players in Europe. Fnatic and G2 have the best talent.
Teams like Misfits Gaming or MAD Lions will be better once they learn a little more about the game. They shouldn’t be a threat if we play by our standards. We have a lot to improve and this division we did not do completely. My players have gone through every goal, when these players are rookies. We have gone through each scenario and that is our strength. Still, I think these two teams will grow to shine in 2021.
Misfits is almost as strong as Rogue right now. The next division will surely have two or three teams with Fnatic that can challenge G2 Esports. This competition allows us to focus and be more critical, trying a little harder. This is not only good for us, but for the entire region.
The last time I spoke to you, you said, “It is good to feel threatened.” Is the fuel G2 needs to be champion of the series a small threat early in the playoffs?
It was useful for sure. * laughs * If we had been lucky and won against MAD Lions, we would have been trampled on by Fnatic, because as I mentioned, we are not in the playoff mindset yet. This loss definitely made us think critically about how to win this game, there was no way to see this loss against MAD Lions and think everything is fine. I don’t want to discredit MAD Lions in any way, for a rookie team they are playing incredibly well. I am really excited to see how strong they can get. If we find Fnatic, we will enter by blank boards. We both have strong claims to the title.
