caPs says G2 Esports Caught T1 Off-Guard After Silencing The Korean Squad

The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022’s Rumble Stage kicked off with an electrifying match between Korean juggernaut T1 and European powerhouse G2 Esports (G2 Esports). T1 was considered the favorite going into the match but G2 Esports shocked Busan, Korea with an upset. G2 completely dismantled the Korean squad in just 39-minutes with stellar team fighting and patience, while scaling with its comp.

The fans watched two lanes very closely: the mid-lane and the bottom lane. The skill check and duel between Rasmus "caPs" Borregaard Winther and Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok have been one of the closely followed narratives in LoLEsports with caPs being called “Baby Faker” for so long. Apart from that, the Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong, Ryu "Keria" Min-seok vs Victor "Flakked" Lirola Tortosa, Raphaël "Targamas" Crabbé was also one of the hype matchups.

caPs talks about G2’s draft and going up against Faker

Faker might be the GOAT of League of Legends Esports but caPs has bested him multiple times over the years. caPs is now 9-3 in the head-to-head against Faker, a figure so skewed in favor of the European prodigy.

In the post-game interview, caPs spoke about the team fighting composition that G2 Esports chose to roll with. He said, “We kind of hit them with the EU meta and lots of the picks, they probably didn’t see them in Korea.” caPs acknowledged that the team struggled in the early game but scaled well since it was a team-fighting composition. He also thanked Riot Games for the bounty system that helped the team come back into the game.

Talking about Faker, the European mid-laner stated, “He [Faker] was a big inspiration as to why I wanted to become good at League. I saw him in Season 3 at Worlds and winning the trophy. Playing against him now, nine years later, is kind of crazy and I am happy that we got the first game against them.”

Game 1 of MSI 2022 Rumble Stage - Drafts

The drafting phase was nothing out of the ordinary with Faker opting for his comfort Twisted Fate pick and G2 locking in its iconic caPs Yasuo and Diana for Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski. Choi "Zeus" Woo-je and Moon "Oner" Hyeon-joon also played their signature champions Kennen and Viego, respectively.

Rumble in the bottom lane

After a very bloody trade, Gumayusi and Keria got a level 1 first blood on Targamas. At 4 minutes, T1 pressured the bot lane by investing a Viego gank and by pushing the enemy duo under its tower. With its bot lane having priority, T1 collected its first dragon – Mountain Dragon – and Rift Herald of the game. It became evident that G2 was playing to scale with its comp and was ready to let go of early objectives.

T1 funnels gold into Tristana

With 4.9K gold in his pocket, Gumayusi was the richest person in-game at 11 minutes, thanks to the first tower gold that was funneled into him. Time and again T1 punished the unnecessary aggression of Flakked and Targamas. At 15.30 minutes, G2 collected the second Herald of the game. Both Jankos and Sergen "Broken Blade" Çelik on Ornn were nowhere to be seen on the map.

A glimmer of hope for G2 was that caPs collected a couple of tower gold on the top lane. What looked like a fight that looked like G2 had won was immediately turned around with Oner getting multiple resets with the Viego ultimate. Following this, T1 was ahead by 5K gold and collected the third dragon.

G2 shows its team fighting power

At around 24 minutes, a massive team fight broke out near the mid-lane tower of T1 and it stemmed from the back of G2 catching off Keria. At 26 minutes again, G2 came out on top and collected the Baron Nashor buff, which T1 tried to sneak. The gold lead got completely reversed with G2 leading the charge and demolishing T1’s bot inhibitor. G2 Esports wiped the floor once again with T1 at 33.30 minutes and the European squad got Baron and the third dragon off the back of the team fight win.

G2 opted not to siege the nexus towers of T1 and backed away after getting the inhibitor. At 37 minutes, the Korean squad had a gold deficit of 3K and lost two of its inhibitors. G2 ended T1’s win streak with a 39-minute victory.