KC Targamas: “I’ve been thinking about this title every single night”

Karmine Corp broke the two-faced domination of Fnatic and G2 in the LEC this Saturday by sending the Black and Orange to vacations in the Winter Lower Bracket Final (3-2). After a tense series that came down to silver scrapes, I’ve talked to KC Raphaël “Targamas” Crabbé ahead of the Grand Final this Sunday. We discussed the Fnatic series, the issues his duo with Caliste “Caliste” Henry-hennebert faced recently in 2v2, his individual performances, and what it would mean for him to win a second LEC title.

Ethan: I imagine you must feel relieved and maybe a little disappointed with some games. And maybe a little tired too, I guess.

How do you feel in general after this match?

Targamas: As you said, I’m very tired right now. But I’m also super happy to win today. Of course, when you start the BO 2-0, you already see yourself win a bit, even if you know that you are playing against a very good Fnatic team and you know that they can still come back. So I’m relieved that we managed to close the BO because I think that…

Mentally it would have been hard to get reverse sweep.

So I’m feeling great. Happy and super tired.

Ethan: If you would have told me that a young team like yours, who have just found themselves, against a team of veterans, that make a comeback 2-2, I would have had a hard time believing that you would win the Game 5.

Do you think there’s also something in this team which is that in the moments that count, you just show up?

Targamas: Well, maybe it’s the KC DNA. Even though last year in game 5 against BDS we choked. But Vladi in particular (named Player Of The Series), I’m super impressed by his game 5. He took matters into his own hands even though he had a very, very good pick in Game 5. I think the draft put him in very good conditions. But he still managed to take matters into his own hands. Whereas Game 5 last year against BDS didn’t go that well for him. Now he really wanted to win the game and he solo won so I’m really proud of him.

Ethan: There’s a flash-in a little dubious at one point on Lulu. You almost started throwing…

Targamas: We got a little too excited, he wanted to make the play. After that, we knew that the game was going well. Already after the draft, we were super happy with what we got. We took a bit of a gamble to let Aurora open in game 5. It’s rare because it’s a champion who is very strong in the meta and who is generally picked in the first games, very early on. And they left it to us. They were too focused on the Lulu, they fell into our trap actually, by picking it. I’m happy with the plan we had in Game 5, I’m happy that it worked, even if it was a little bit of a gamble, because they weren’t forced to first pick Lulu, they fell for it.

Ethan: I have the impression that there was something that didn’t work that well in this series, it is that you and Caliste got punished a bit too much in the 2v2. This was also the case last week. Is it something that you talked about, a problem that you identified kind of?

Do you think that these (2v2 punishes*) are isolated cases and that in general it goes better?

Targamas: I think it’s different compared to last week. Today we were very greedy on bot. Last week we just played badly, we lost trades, we lost our flashes and everything. Whereas in today’s games, for example in the second game, we take a very good level 1 trade. I can play it better but I cancel something a bit unlucky. But we still take a very good trade, they are in a bad position and they manage to find the hook on Caliste and take a double kill from there. So it started from a good situation for us, we were greedy. Same thing, the next game on Zilean, we tried a swap because we expected them to swap but they didn’t. It’s always the little mindgame in terms of swaps and for the time being we were losing and then…

Ethan: You’ve tried a lot of cancels back and it did hurt the lane a bit.

Targamas: Yes there you go, I was very greedy on the cancels back because well from the moment we’re back bot with the Zeri if we manage to keep them in lane it’s a very very advantageous situation for us but I was a little too greedy with the cancels on top of it against Xayah Rakan they can easily punish, or base like one of the two, it’s very hard to cancel a Xayah Rakan combo I was too greedy on that, I gave free kills. I’m not too worried about 2v2 because I think that overall we played well. But I could see that we were too greedy today.

3-2 FNC c'était censé être un 3-0 sorry, on a bien évolué depuis, demain finale je vais tout donner je suis toujours pas entièrement satisfait de ma performance merci du soutien je vous aime #KCORP #KCORPWIN 💙💙

— KC Caliste (@CalisteLoL) March 1, 2025

Ethan: I also wanted to talk about you a little individually. Last year there was a lot of criticism about you, etc. But this Winter you still had a lot of statement series, I’m thinking in particular of MKOI and Vitality where you were twice named MVP. Is it something you also missed to have reference matches like that to give you confidence and allow you to know that you are going in the right direction?

Are you satisfied with your progress and the level you are showing in this first split of 2025?

Targamas: Yes of course it’s always nice even if it’s never the goal or what to have my name on the MVP, it’s always a reward that makes you happy and that puts you in a good dynamic for confidence. After that, as I said before, I never lost confidence in myself, I always considered myself a good player. And in particular the fact that it’s going well in scrim every day, since we started scrimming with this team. It was already going well in the summer last year, so I don’t know if I am the best support in Europe, at least I think I’m on the top.

Even if there is still last year’s tag that is stuck on my skin, I can understand that. When you do bad performances, top 10s, games int, it’s normal that there is a tag that sticks to you for a while. But no, I consider myself at the top of the table.

And then, for today, good games, bad games, it’s always a bit difficult as a support. The Zilean game, I blame myself a lot because I know it’s a pick that we’ve played a few times in scrims and it has always gone very, very very well. And I gave too many kills in early and then the game is complicated so I blame myself a lot on this game but otherwise the other games I think I played well and the game Braum you can blame me for getting caught but the game is complicated from the moment we throw our lead a little bit. So no, I’m pretty satisfied today.

Ethan: I’ve heard a lot of players say that it’s a buff to advance from the lower bracket, because you have more matches on stage etc. Especially with the new Fearless Draft feature. So you have one more match on stage than G2.

Do you think it’s a buff or on the contrary is it maybe a bit of a nerf because they may have more information about your week of prep?

Targamas: I think there is a little bit of both. There’s the fact that we showed, especially since we played 5 games, so we showed a lot of things. Now, the fact that we arrive in the BO with confidence is also something important. On the data, I think they have 5 games, but we also played them again this week in scrim, obviously on the last week of scrim, you have to … There are only 4 teams, you don’t know who you’re going to play, so you’re kind of forced to scrim everyone. So we also have some data on G2, I imagine that they still have some stuff that they haven’t shown, other stuff that we haven’t shown, I don’t think it’s going to come down to that, I think they arrive in the BO with confidence, since they beat us last week. We also have a good momentum after today’s games, now we’ll have to rest well and prepare for the games very quickly because we don’t have a lot of time but that’s part of the thing. I was in the opposite situation in 2022 with G2 when we had 3-0 Rogue in the winner’s final. And a week later, we were 3-0 by the same Rogue team, who were coming off a 3-2 draw against Fnatic. So there you have it, even if it was 3-0 and not 3-1 in the winner’s final, I know that we play on an equal footing.

There is no longer a loser bracket, there is no longer a safety net. Now there’s two teams for the title and nothing more.

Ethan: To close the interview, you talked about it, your last LEC title was with G2 in 2022 during Spring. Since then, you’ve gone through some difficult times with Excel, with the KC last year, but you’ve still managed to stay until now, to be the last survivor of the 2024 roster.

How important would this title be for you?

Targamas: This title, frankly I dream of it. For the past 3 years, I’ve been thinking about it every single night, really. All my days, all my nights are focused on having this title one day, even if it’s only the winter, I know it is the beginning of the year.

Ethan: Winning with KC on top, I guess.

Targamas: It’s all the more… Yes, with KC, for me it would be really… As I said, it’s been the dream since I left G2, and since there was the difficult split with Excel, the difficult passes in my career and everything. There were times when I was at my lowest. But I never doubted that I was going to be back at the top one day, and tomorrow it will be for us.

Ethan: If you have any last word for the fans, go ahead.

Targamas: Thank you for the support as I said before. There’s a lot of positivity surrounding me, a lot of people trying to counterbalance all the negativity that there may have been directed towards me, and for that I’m really grateful and we’re going to do everything. First of all, reaching the final for the first split this year is a big thing, but it will be even better if we manage to conclude, so we will do everything to achieve that.

Rapid Fire Questions:

• Win First Stand or Qualify to Worlds? I mean if we win FS but not qualify for Worlds we will feel so bad, while the opposite is fine so Qualify to Worlds, for sure.
• Win the final 3-0 or 3-2? If we can win 3-2, I am always up for it. It’s always more emotions even if it is a bit more scary.
• Senna Nilah or Senna Yasuo? Senna Nilah.
• Atakhan or 2 Drakes? I am a very big Atakhan hater but I will still say Atakhan. You can get a lot out of it, even if it depends of the comp and everything.
• LPL or LCK? LCK. I believe LPL has been a bit messy those past years. Except BLG but they have not even been doing that great this split. So I am not too sure about LPL right now.