We all know that this year’s finals of the MSI 2019 was won by the G2 Esports team.
This year’s competition was all the more important for us Slovenes, because the finals featured a real Slovenian hero, known under the name Mihael Mehle, while in the professional LoL world, he is more famous under his nickname “Mikyx”.
We recently contacted our champion and now, when the dust has settled a bit, he answered all our burning questions regarding both the recent MSI tournament and his readiness for the future.
About a week ago your team successfully won MSI and thus became the 1st Western team, since Fnatic, to win a major RIOT event. If someone would have told you that in December, when you joined G2, would you have believed them?
Yeah, the goal when joining this team, was to win every tournament so I would believe it, even though it would seem crazy.
At MSI you faced the best team from each major region. Which team impressed you the most and why?
I was mostly impressed by IG and expected them to make the finals because all of them are really good individually and as a team. I’m pretty sure they heavily underperformed in semis and I hope we get to face them in finals next time.
Many analysts ranked G2’s Bot Lane behind IG’s, SKT’s and even Team Liquid’s at MSI, but from what we have seen you and Perzk outperformed everyone, even though you could not train as much as you wanted due to your wrist injuries. Do you think that you two overperformed, other bot lanes underperformed or are you just the best bot lane duo in the world right now?
I think me and Luka played like we usually do so I would say it’s either enemy botlanes underperforming or we were just better, since I wasn’t really impressed with anyone at MSI compared to when I was at worlds in 2016 and everyone was so much better.
Speaking of your wrist injuries, how are you feeling? Are things improving as planned or are there any complications? When can we expect you at full strength?
Right now I’m feeling quite well, things have gone a bit better than planned since I thought I would not be able to play for summer but it turns out I will be able to. You can expect me at full strength for worlds.
Due to your injuries you played close to zero SoloQ games in the past 3 months as well as scrimmed up to 1 or maybe 2 games per day with the team. Do you think that affects your performance? And if yes, how much better do you think you could be?
I started playing SoloQ 3 days before MSI and then played like at least 1 game of SoloQ and sometimes 3 games of scrims per day during the tournament, so it’s not like I didn’t play the game at all. But I think I would for sure be more comfortable if I played more since I would know how most matchups play out.
When looking at supports all around the world, many place you at the top of EU, but not at top of the world. Even at MSI, we saw CoreJJ being placed over you. What are your thoughts about this? Do you think you are the best support in the world right now? If not, do you think you will get there once your wrist injuries are fixed?
I think at the start of MSI it was fair to say that CoreJJ might have been better since he was smurfing in NA but I felt like he played worse during MSI, except in semis, but in that series Baolan was playing worse than usual aswell. When facing him, I didn’t really think he was that impressive and overall support players/botlanes at MSI were not as insane as I thought they would be, since they were really hyped going into it and it made me realise that EU botlanes are actually quite good. I don’t think I can say I’m the best yet since I didn’t get to play all the supports that I think are good like Ming, Meiko or Tusin on an international stage yet, but I will get a better idea at worlds. I think my wrist injury doesn’t change much in that regard, it’s just about how much I can practice and feel comfortable in playing specific matchups on stage.
If we look back a bit, you joined European LCS back in Summer Split 2016 with Splyce. You managed to get to finals and Worlds in your first split but after that, you didn’t have much success. What made it different from G2? Are your teammates just that much better than before or do you just mesh better with the team than in the past?
I think in G2 everyone is just so good individually, like the best in their roles and we are also good as a team, since we just kinda clicked since the start and it’s quite rare for teams to have that.
In Spring split you lifted the trophy for the first time and became the first Slovenian player to do so. Did you expect to win Spring split at the beginning of the year or did it came as a surprise to you?
When joining G2 my goal was to win every tournament we participate in, so Spring split of LEC was just the first step. I was surprised at how easy it was though, when thinking about how hard I struggled to do it for the past 3 years.
At the beginning of the Season, Slovenian fans expected you and Nemesis to meet in the finals of LEC and play for the trophy. Sadly, Fnatic did not perform to expectations and ended up in 3rd place. Do you see Nemesis as a rival, since you two have been competing against and with each other for the past 7 years?
Well, I don’t really see him as a rival and I don’t think we competed against each other for the past 7 years, since he played in LVP for the majority and even back in Slovenia, we were on the same team most of the time, so I see him more as a really close friend and I hope he succeedes and I get to beat him in the finals next time.(Same for Crownshot)
We are just a few weeks away from the Summer split. What are your plans? Is anything else than winning Summer Split and qualifying for worlds as European 1st seed a disappointment?
Well the plan is to obviously win it and yeah, not winning summer would probably be a disappointment but I would gladly take that, if it means we go on to win Worlds right after.
In about a month your team will join Origen and Fnatic at Rift Rivals in LA. Are you excited to play vs a NA team or do you see the tournament as a nuisance, just like Perkz said?
I don’t mind the tournament itself, just the travelling part might be a bit annoying, since we already travelled so much for MSI.
Before we end the interview, I have a non-league related question for you. We all know you are a big anime fan and since you can not play SoloQ due to wrist injuries, does that mean you spend your free time watching more anime or did you find another hobby? And what are some good anime you have watched recently?
During my free time I actually tried to not do too much non-League related stuff, so if others were playing soloQ, I would either try to watch them or watch VODs myself. This was quite draining to do it for the whole day, but thankfully my team is very kind, so we did a bunch of team activities, so I was not too bored. In the end, I did start playing a mobile game to pass the time and watched 1 anime, which was The Promised Neverland. It is really crazy good so I would recommend everyone to watch it, since its short and just insanely good.
Is there anything else you would like to say to your Slovenian and international fans?
Well, thanks for supporting us and I hope you look forward to the future of our team, because it’s gonna be bright.
