G2 Romain: “It’s a really short tournament, so it’s going to be easy or hard to build momentum.” – First Stand 2026 Interview

G2 Esports is ready. Ahead of the start of First Stand 2026, we chatted with G2’s general manager Romain “Romain” Bigeard, to hear his thoughts on how the team is doing and how he gets his incredible muscle build.

Davide: How has the team settled in so far? I know you guys got to Sao Paulo just a few days ago.

How was the flight? SkewMond told me you guys met Gen.G on the flight.

G2 Romain: They flexed on us a bit because they were all traveling business, and we were just traveling Eco+. So it was funny to enter the plane and you see all the Gen.G boys going to the business area, which you have to cross to get to Eco+. But outside of that, which was a bit of a flex from them, it was a pretty smooth trip. To be fair, we traveled at night. We had already changed our schedule in Berlin to make sure we were as least impacted as possible by the jetlag. And the whole schedule is morning-oriented here, which is not the case in Berlin. The traditional day for pro players starts at like 12 or 1, and here it starts at 9 or 8, which is more or less the same amount of time as the jet lag. So we are actually full speed already and we don’t really feel tired or stuff. So really looking forward to the event starting tomorrow.

Davide: That’s really good news, I guess. Before we talk about First Stand, I wanted to ask you about the LEC Versus Final. You guys had a very rough start to the split, but then you ramped up heavily in playoffs.

How was it for you to live that final against KC in Barcelona?

Romain: I wouldn’t say we had such a rough start. We did not have the best start. But at the end of the day, as long as you make playoff, you’re chilling, right? What really matters are going to be your first playoff games. You can win every single best-of-one. If you lose the first best of three, it was all for nothing.

So I think we did the job there by being up to speed, by being good when it mattered. And yeah, we had a good playoff. The final was historical, especially Game 5. That said, we were winning most of the games, right? Like most early games, we were winning and then we got ourselves in a bad position for games 3 and 4. Game 5 was just insane, just insane. I’m really, really happy we won that one. It felt really good. But, yeah, that was a crazy one.

Davide: Heading into First Stand, there will be a lot of expectations coming from competitive results,

But what do you think would be like a satisfying or successful event for you, regardless of the results?

Romain: It’s a hard question, right? I don’t want to think about it too much. In terms of expectations, we’re gonna work on beating every single team. The first one is Vietnam. They are a good team, probably not the best as a tournament in terms of standing and expectations, but it’s Bo5. You have to win it. You know, if you win, people are going to say it’s expected. If you lose, they’re going to call you shit.

So you just have to stay in the present and especially in Fearless. Every game is a game 1 because it’s a new draft. So it’s really different than two, three years ago when every game was the same draft, which you were trying to min-max. Now it’s fearless. Every game is a new game.

It’s not because you won the first two that you’re going to win the third one, as we know really well, especially at the final. So we’re going to take every opponent one by one. It starts with Vietnam, and then it’s going to be China or Korea, either win a bracket, loser bracket, and then, let’s see, it’s a really short tournament, so it’s going to be easy or hard to build momentum. I’m just excited about it. It’s going to be fun.

Shoutout big Dhokes 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/nADLSQuW3V

— G2 League of Legends (@G2League) March 15, 2026

Davide: My next question is about Caps and SkewMond. There’s no question that Caps is the Western GOAT. You have been working with him for quite a while. You also have SkewMond, who seems to have reached a new level of maturity this year compared to 2025.

How is it to work with both of them behind the scenes?

Romain: It’s a privilege to work with Caps. He’s, you know, if you start life and let’s say you have something you’re designed to do, Caps is exactly where he’s supposed to be, doing exactly what he adores doing, which is play League of Legends at the highest possible level. So it’s just privilege and an honor to be next to him and to help him achieve his dream, which is to win Worlds and be the best League of Legends player ever. So it’s just fun on a daily basis to work with him.

And Skew (SkewMond) is maturing, as you said. That’s his second year. Last year, he was discovering a lot of the setup and a lot of all the adventures which we had all around the world, from Madrid to Paris to Vancouver to Riyadh to China. So it was a lot of fun experiences. And now he’s had those, so he can focus even better on just being an amazing League of Legends player. And it just makes me really excited for the year.

Davide: In a chat with Laure (Laure Valée), you mentioned the nine dinners as a bonding exercise that you tried. Can you walk me through how the pairings ended up?

Romain: Yeah. It was me.

Davide: How did those dinners help with creating a better group dynamic?

Romain: I mean… The work you do before the year starts is always really important to set up the mood because you are working without the stress and pressure from competition, because it’s before I have a lot of workshops and exercises ready due to experience and the past. I could not use the same tools twice on the exact same group of people. So we had to reinvent ourselves a bit. And yeah, I thought we do a lot of one-on-one on a daily basis, so we are used to the exercise, but usually the one-on-ones are shorter, like 10, 15 minutes, or 20 minutes.

Those dinners were the perfect opportunity for people to really take time to have deeper talks and deeper conversations. And it was really important that everyone would talk to everyone. It empowers the coaching staff towards the player. It makes sure the players can talk together, and it makes sure the coaching staff is aligned together. So it took us nine days, the nine dinners. And it was fun. People went to different places. The length of those dinners was different. So, yeah, I had a full list to make sure everyone was meeting everyone. Right. And it was fun. We’re keeping a really good memory of it.

Davide: The next question is about the Esports Nations Cup. France is one of the leading countries when it comes to European esports. Considering you’re French yourself, where would you think the French national roster would rank? Based on community votes, the roster would be Adam, SkewMond, nuc, Kaliste, and Stend. Caliste is technically in contention with Hans [Sama].

So what do you think about that? How would that roster perform?

Romain: I think we’re top 5. Then we’re gonna see right at the tournament. So really, really excited for this one. There are so many talks about the topic, and finally, we have the opportunity to see the real results. So this has the potential to do crazy viewership and to create a lot of drama. So it’s fun.

Davide: You’re very well known for your insane body painting and physique. I really want to know what your secret is to that muscle building.

Romain: Keep going. Just keep going. It’s the dumbest MMO ever. You have daily quests, you have weekly quests, you have monthly quests, and if you don’t complete all of them, then you lose gains pretty fast.

BRAZIIIIILLLL https://t.co/oqHxnBwiDC pic.twitter.com/ayXYoSuhXC

— Romain Bigeard (@RomainBigeard) March 15, 2026

So the most important step is to enter the gym. That’s it. You could literally go to the gym and leave. That’s better than a lot of humans. So just go, just go again and again and again and again and again. And it takes years. I’ve been doing that for 10 years plus, you know.

Your body is a really dumb tree and you grow branch by slowly, gently poking them. If you step on the branch because you want it to move right now, you break the branch, and then you cannot do anything for three months, and then you’re losing everything. Take your time, but go again and again and again and again.