LR Nemesis: “Baus’ Gragas is the best Gragas in the LEC” – LEC Versus Week 2 Interview

It’s win streak time for Los Ratones, who managed to snatch a second victory in the regular season of the LEC Versus against Shifters. Despite conceding a major gold lead to the opponents early on, the team managed a major comeback, led by top laner Simon “Baus” Hofverberg on his iconic Gragas. Following the end of the series, we talked with LR mid laner Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek to hear his thoughts on the match and how LR was able to turn the narrative in their favor.

Davide: First of all, congrats. That was quite the series, I must say. It was an insane comeback.

What does this second victory mean to you and LR in general?

Nemesis: The second victory is very needed because our standings are not the greatest right now in order to reach playoffs, so in that sense, it’s very relieving in terms of the game. I don’t think it went really according to the plan and realistically, we probably should have lost this game so [there’s] a lot of work to be done.

Davide: What was the initial plan?

Nemesis: Without going into too many details, I believe we were around 10k gold down. And you know, that’s just not normal League of Legends.

The LR Special#LRWIN pic.twitter.com/bxHx9RxpGv

— LosRatones (@LosRatoneslol) January 26, 2026

Davide: I want to talk about the Gragas pick because it’s one of Baus’ flagship champions. I would say he struggled a lot against Nidalee, which is kind of expected, but then made this insane comeback to the point where he won player of the game.

What do you think about his Gragas?

Nemesis: I mean, Baus’ Gragas is the best Gragas in the LEC. I don’t think the champ is that good right now, at least, in terms of stats. But yeah, when Baus plays it, he makes it work. He’s really insane on Gragas. He always finds very good engages and angles that other Gragas don’t. And he also lanes a lot better with Gragas than other players. So for me, he’s probably the best Gragas that I know.

Davide: You’ve now won two series and went 2-1 this week.

What changed between week one and week two, considering all the struggles that we’ve seen over the past weeks?

Nemesis: The biggest difference maker was understanding the meta a little bit better… Because what happens in scrims is not really representative of official games.

Official games work a lot differently, so you can’t fully prepare. And then on top of that, there are scrim bubbles and we didn’t scrim every single team. So some teams will just have a worse read and other teams will have a better read especially in Bo1 format which can lead to teams looking a lot worse than they actually are or a lot better than they actually are.

So for me, yeah, the main difference is we understood maybe the meta a little bit more, just every role in general. Maybe like how the game is being played a little bit more because let’s be honest, it’s still a new season and things have changed a lot this season, a lot more than previous seasons.

Davide: You mentioned changes in the new season.

What has changed mainly as a mid laner for you?

Nemesis: I would say it’s a lot of changes. For example, combat summoners are a lot better now than teleport. I would say the way minion waves work is a lot different, so that changes matchups completely, especially melee versus ranged matchups, [which] are completely changed this season. I would say the early game is probably a little bit more important than the previous season. And then I guess also like the way home guards work, right? Your base timers are a lot different and some champions prefer basing a lot more than other champions.

Davide: Speaking of mids, I think you’ve probably been the best player on LR in the past two weeks in terms of consistency and performance overall.

If you’re looking at the LEC midlane mid laners pool right now, where do you think you sit, and why would you think you would belong in that place?

Nemesis: I haven’t played against everybody, but I’m just gonna say I’m the worst mid laner in the LEC. That way, nothing can fire back against me. You know, I haven’t played professional league for a long time and other players have practiced for years at this point, while I had a massive break, so it’s a lot to get used to back to playing.

In what way do you think you changed compared to when you first started your first stint in the LEC compared to now?

Nemesis: I would say similar in a lot of aspects.

Maybe the thing that I changed the most is that I am more direct with people because back then I felt like I had a very small voice even though I knew what I was saying was correct or accurate. I felt like I was just because I was like the newest person for example or the one with the least amount of achievements, I guess people didn’t really value what I had to say. But now, it’s different and I’m a lot more direct.

Davide: Two weeks have passed, two weeks are left.

What do you think the team needs to work on a little bit more to lock that playoff spot, that top eight spot?

Nemesis: I would say [we] need to work on obviously all aspects of the game. Early game needs to be more stable, or mid and late game needs to be more decisive, just in general, planning around objectives, how laning phases are going. Just laning, yeah, drafting… like everything, I guess.

witchcraft

— Nemesis (@nemesis_lol) January 26, 2026

Davide: Next week, Obviously you’re facing MKOI, G2, and NAVI. Potentially could be the toughest week for you guys, considering how MKOI and NAVI have been the best teams, and G2 is still G2 even though they’re struggling a little bit more.

What do you think of each team right now and which team do you think you have a higher chance of getting a victory?

Nemesis: I’m not sure which team we have the high chance of getting a victory, but I would say it’s going to be the toughest week for sure, I think.

Well, it’s hard for me to say much about MKOI because I have the least experience, amount of experience playing against them in general. But G2 is a team that has really good players and they’re able to. Even if they look bad in week one, I’m pretty sure they can look completely like a different team in week 2 and they have already done this in the past multiple times.

So for me, G2 is very scary to face, and NAVI for me is probably the most surprising team of the split. I genuinely think they are really good and I’m really impressed [with] what I’m seeing so far from them.

Davide: Rekkles said in another interview that it was quite scary for him not knowing what would happen after the end of this tournament, since he technically likes to plan out everything at the start of the year.

What does your future look like and is there anything in particular that you want to achieve on a personal level this year?

Nemesis: It’s very hard for me to say because the future of LR is undecided. For me personally, I’ll just do kind of the same thing I was doing before, which is having a high emphasis on myself as a person in terms of physical and mental health, I guess. And then, you know, I’ll keep playing league.

Is there anything else you would like to tell the fans or anything you want to say?

Nemesis: Well, to the fans, I would like to first of all apologize for the amount of heart attacks and for a little bit of a rocky start, I guess we’re trying our best. It’s not very easy. You know, not to make excuses, but it’s a lot to go through when you have a very limited amount of time and the new season completely changes the way you play.

So I felt like the build-up that we had the previous year didn’t really help at all right now. We have to literally relearn the game from scratch, which is a big challenge. And, yeah, we’re gonna keep trying our best and hopefully make playoffs.