G2 Esports kept their head afloat in the 2022 LEC Spring Split playoffs. Against Team Vitality, G2 pulled no punches and with a clean 3-0 victory sent their opponents home. Their next opponent in the bracket is Misfits Gaming. Support player Raphaël “Targamas” Crabbé has no doubts his team can close that series out too.
Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games.
After the series against Vitality, Targamas sat down to talk about the win. He discussed his team’s mentality after the loss against Fnatic last week and why he remained confident in his team’s abilities. Targamas also spoke about the importance of momentum and the importance of it for the faith within the team.
Hotspawn: Congrats on the victory, Targamas! That was quite a stomp, honestly, which was a big surprise to many. Did you expect this?
Targamas: I kind of expected it because I think Vitality has been pretty weak the whole split. Also, in scrims lately—of course we didn’t scrim them this week—but when we were in the playoffs prep, we saw that they were very weak. I even thought at some points that Excel would win against them very convincingly. I just think they have a good laning phase, but after that it kinda falls apart for them. I think it showed today that, after the first ten minutes, they just don’t really know what to do.
Also, for some reason, they don’t play for drakes. [Laughs] So, we kind of auto-won two games just because we had the drake pressure. We had the scaling and the drake pressure, so it was a hard situation for them. Maybe I wouldn’t have thought 3-0, but I was very confident going into the series.
“Of course, we were not happy about the result, but it was something positive to take from the series against Fnatic.”
Hotspawn: The first game was pretty one-sided, the second game was pretty one-sided, but the third game put you on the back foot and you turned it around impressively. Can you walk through that game?
Targamas: Well, they are 0-2 in the series and they are choosing the sides, so of course they’re gonna pick blue side. They have the ability to pick something good first and then it’s up to us to have a good reaction. I feel like our draft was fine, but theirs was too in the last game. We didn’t play well early. But in the series, especially when they’re 0-2 down, the pressure is on them. We’re playing Jinx, Lulu, stuff like that, so there’s always this comeback potential. [Laughs] Maybe you get a reset in the fight and then Jinx just gets a pentakill.
We also knew that Vitality were throwing very hard against Excel when they had a lead. They often go for kills and die when trying to go too far. It happened again this game, they just gave us another drake when they could have gotten the soul with a pick on caPs. But they just chased us and died.
We kind of knew that this game was gonna be hard, but Vitality was capable of throwing. We practiced on stalling the games when we have a rough early game. We talked a lot about how to make the enemy sweat to win the game so we could maybe come back in a game. I guess this was that game.
Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games.
Hotspawn: You mentioned the confidence you had going into the series. That confidence comes after what I would say was a pretty convincing loss against Fnatic last week. Was it easy to rebuild that trust?
Targamas: Hm, I think the series ended up pretty one-sided from an outside perspective, but I felt like every game was very winnable. We all feel like we actually had good early games against Fnatic. We lost because they were the better team. They were playing the teamfights better. But the fact that we had good early games kind of gave us confidence. It was often something that was not good for us during the [regular] season. There were a lot of games where we fell behind early and then we lost the game at 20 minutes. Of course, we were not happy about the result, but it was something positive to take from the series against Fnatic. That we are capable of going up against them and get a lead against them. They are maybe the best early-game team. So, that was something good going into the loser bracket.
Hotspawn: G2 have been very energetic, very positive as a squad this split. We’ve seen some of your post-game celebrations. [Laughs] Did you manage to keep that vibe during the week?
Targamas: I don’t think anything changed. For sure, there is a lot more pressure because it’s actually do or die now. If we lose a series, the season is over and we have two months without any games. So, of course, I’m a bit scared because I don’t want the season to end here. But overall we’ve been very positive in the team. There are never any issues, really, between the players or in the environment. It’s always very joyful.
” If we can keep building this momentum, maybe we can win against Misfits and go into the last week and stomp other teams as well.”
Hotspawn: How did that translate to the vibe in the series itself?
Targamas: It helps when you have a nice start to the series by getting the first game. It just helps build confidence. I think it was the kind of series where it was very important for us to win the first game. Personally, as I said, I felt a bit more stressed. I really didn’t wanna lose. Right now, we have this momentum. The way I see it, this series might just be the hardest for us because it’s right after we lost. We have to build the momentum and now we have a three-game win streak.
Hotspawn: Is keeping that momentum important?
Targamas: For sure. I think everyone is just more confident if we’re used to winning. They will go for things that they wouldn’t go for usually. I think this third game, maybe we would have lost it if we’re not 2-0 up in the series. But I think we still managed to stay calm because we had this lead and we know that we’re the better team. We stayed calm and found a good place, so I think it’s very important for us to keep the momentum.
We play against Misfits next and I think they have good things, but they also have really big weaknesses that we can exploit. So I’m very confident going into the series. I think, if we can keep building this momentum, maybe we can win against Misfits and go into the last week and stomp other teams as well.
G2 plays their next series in the 2022 LEC Spring Split playoffs against Misfits Gaming on Sunday, April 3, at 5 PM CEST. You can watch the series live on the official LoL Esports site.
