G2 Mikyx: “I feel like most of our wins have to do with better drafts than we had before”

G2 Esports finally locked in their playoffs spot for 2021 summer in Week 7 after a 2-0 week against SK Gaming and Misfits Gaming. Week 8 is a superweek so there is still seeding to play for as G2 Esports face MAD Lions, Schalke 04 Esports and Excel Esports.

G2 support Mikyx spoke to us after their victory over SK Gaming and talked about his thoughts on the LEC currently and some musings about the support meta right now.

First and foremost, thank you for accepting this interview. Congratulations on the win against SK! The game seemed close until the game got later and G2 were dominant after, did you expect the game to be this close? What are your thoughts on it?

Mikyx: Thank you. From the draft, I felt like we had a good draft and we had a little of an edge, and the longer the game went the better it should be for us. Although, the game did start off pretty well with the mid lane going in our favour and then we kind of butchered the bot lane play after.

After a mid lane fight where we killed Blue, I thought to myself the game was probably won. And then we won the drake fight and we got the Baron after, it was most definitely over.

That’s fair enough. Was it Jankos’ birthday buff for G2?

Mikyx: Yeah, you could say that! He did get to play Viego, and this champion is pretty strong right now. If you get Viego, you’re expected to 1v9 the game, even though he kind of choked in the bot lane play where he was supposed to kill Tristana, he missed his W and ultimate and only hit his Q, and donated the kill over instead. Anyways, it was disgusting to watch but he’s already 26 so… it’s expected for him to make mechanical misplays!

At least the buff worked! What were G2 focused on coming into this week and are Nelson’s ideas coming into fruition?

Mikyx: I would say so, yeah. I feel like most of our wins have to do with better drafts than we had before, at least when we were on a big lose streak. For example, the Fnatic game was hard to win from the draft and even the Team Vitality game was a bit iffy.

Now we have a better understanding of how to play and what we want to play, and we also got more used to just implementing his ideas like objective setups, which I think we’re doing much better on. I feel like I’m tracking the enemy support and moving around the map much better as well.

Generally speaking, what are your thoughts on the LEC this season since we’re seeing many upsets and the like?

Mikyx: I feel like the LEC is pretty strong right now and I don’t think there’s an absolutely horrible team. I think every other team is pretty good and you never really know who will win the game, and it always seems like it could go either way whenever I watch a game.

It’s also harder to play against all the teams and when the teams are somewhat close in skill, so I feel like the draft decides a lot of games. I think right now, the most important thing is the draft and the better coach wins (laughs)!

I’d like to get your thoughts on Fnatic so far. I believe G2 are 0-2 against them this season and are on top right now. Do you think they will continue their form or will they falter later on?

Mikyx: I think they are a very strong team and will probably stay strong till the end, because all of their players are good. I was expecting Adam to be a bit worse coming into the season but he’s been playing really well. I guess I wasn’t sure how Bwipo would do in the jungle but he’s doing well. The rest of their players are performing very well too.

But most importantly, they’re playing well as a team, which is the most important aspect of pro LoL. I don’t think they’ll fall off anytime soon unless they have some crazy slump in the coming weeks.

Will we see a G2 vs Fnatic finals once again then?

Mikyx: I would assume so, yes!

Let’s see then! I’d like to get your thoughts on the current bot lane meta at the moment, since we’ve been seeing picks like Ziggs make it through. Do you think we’ll be seeing more variety in support champions being picked then?

Mikyx: I think Ziggs is being played because he got buffed quite a bit and usually he’s pretty good at 2v1’ing the lane. If his support is off roaming, Ziggs can clear the wave and he’s very good at taking towers. He’s also a massive AP threat especially if you have an ad mid lane champion.

I think for support champions it’s mostly the same like Nautilus and Leona. I don’t think there will be any new support picks besides what I’m playing like Gragas and Poppy. Poppy is very situational, but I think Gragas can be played more. I don’t know why more people don’t play it, I think he’s really strong. I think the most contested ones are Thresh, Nautilus, Leona and maybe Braum, but that’s been going on for some time now. Maybe Riot should nerf these champions a bit more.

Talk to me a little bit about your odd support picks then, like Gragas, Poppy and even Pantheon. Do you think the current meta allows supports to pick basically anything, since other players in different positions have been somewhat doing that, or do you think support picks are more restrictive?

Mikyx: I think it’s still more restrictive if you’re on support because supports usually have the responsibility of picking a good champion into enemy compositions. Supports are not balanced around their numbers but around their kit, so If your kit is good against the enemy team then your support pick makes sense. That’s why for example, I picked Poppy support because the enemy team had Tristana, Diana, Renekton, Viego who all had jumps or dashes, and against Taric for I could disengage his ultimate. Gragas against SK was good for Leona and Syndra, and fine for Mundo.

Other than that, if you don’t have any specific counterpicks, usually you’re fine blind-picking Leona, Nautilus, Braum and Thresh. Examples like when Fnatic picked Taric against us in Week 3 when we had a full dive composition, that was really good. That kind of won them the game I think.

I still think you’re limited in a sense where I don’t think you can play that many ranged supports right now. I feel like they’re too weak, and for example you can’t play Veigar support which I enjoy playing. You still need to play tanky supports if you want to be useful.

What are your thoughts on Tahm Kench support right now after his rework? Do you think he’ll still be a staple in pro play?

Mikyx: I did play him a bit in solo-queue and he feels quite strong in lane but I’m still not sure when I want to pick him. Before, you picked him bot lane so you could eat your botlaner and deny the opponent’s engage. But now, you have to wait for level six and he also has like a two minute cooldown on his ultimate, so it’s a bit awkward now, but I do feel his laning phase is stronger with the changes to Q and W and he’s stronger into ranged matchups because he can W into them. I’m not sure when I’ll play him, though it might have been a good option against SK but I didn’t think of it. He feels a bit weird right now.

I think he could still be picked a lot in pro play. I feel like he brings a lot of value in terms of 3v3’s bot-side, winning lane and still protecting your carries from strong threats after your laning phase. So for example, the opponents pick Camille and no other champion can save you from her except TK, so that could be a counterpick in a sense, or against champions that have a lot of single target catch potential. We’ll have to see.

Before we end, a fun question for you. Since this season has been weird with swaps and all, if you had to roleswap, which role would you roleswap to and why?

Mikyx: I want to play mid lane because I think mid can play the most champions out of any role and has the most impact besides jungle. I feel like you can express your skill better there and there’s so many opportunities in the mid lane, it’s crazy.

I can also play my AP Gragas. It’s overpowered by the way but no one plays it. It’s really sad!

I guess Caps will be moving away and you’ll play mid then…

Mikyx: Hopefully, yeah (laughs)!

We’ve come to the end of the interview, anything else you’d like to add? Any shoutouts you’d like to give?

Mikyx: I hope the fans keep supporting us and we should be better in the playoffs!

Thank you Mikyx!

Also read:

Can G2 Esports win Summer? Join the discussion on social media or our Discord!

You can also help improve our website by submitting direct feedback!

Image Credits: Riot Games (Michal Konkol)

*The listed articles are provided through affiliate links. A purchase after clicking through them supports us at esports.com as we will receive a small commission without additional cost to you.