In the League of Legends, G2 Esports is the best team in Europe. One of their secrets is that they have brought together two former rivals. In fact, Perkz and Caps played the same position and would have had to compete against each other for years for the crown in Europe.
What is special about G2 Esports: The strange thing about G2 Esports is that they now actually play with 2 mid laners who were rivals for several years and had the same position.
- The Dane Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther (19) was the mid laner of Fnatic from 2016 to 2018, the toughest competitor of G2 Esports
- The Croatian Luka “Perkz” Perkovic (21) has been the mid laner at G2 Esports since 2015
However, there is actually no room for two mid laners in a LoL team. It’s like having two playmakers in a soccer team.
What is so special about the mid laner? The mid lane is the “most prestigious” position in LoL. Here, the stars of their teams often play. They collect a particularly high number of kills or decide matches. They often play aggressive mages or assassins. Those are the plays that are later compiled into clips and admired on YouTube.
Some of the biggest stars and leaders of their teams have been or are mid laners:
- The legendary Faker is considered the best player to ever play LoL. He is a mid laner
- The most famous player in the West, Bjergsen, also resides in the mid lane
- and the shooting star of the current Worlds, Doinb, is also a mid laner
Caps and Perkz – 2 Rivals
This is the backstory: Since 2013, Fnatic has won a split in Europe 7 times – G2 Esports has won the split 6 times in the first half of the season. Only one other team has been able to win a split at all. Fnatic and G2 Esports are clearly the two dominant teams in European LoL
Caps and Perkz have been among the dominant players in Europe in recent years. They were declared rivals, natural opponents.
Both wanted to be stronger than the other because the other was clearly the competition and stood in the way of their own hunger for success.
The rivalry drove both to peak performances, as they explain in the video “Duos” on YouTube.
Perkz Gives Up Position for International Success
What happened then? As Caps describes in a video, G2 Esports approached him in the 2018 off-season to see if he would switch to them. He didn’t see it as an option at all because Perkz, his rival, was already playing there. For Caps, Perkz was clearly the face of G2 Esports.
But the Croatian had set his mind on teaming up with Caps to become stronger as a team instead of constantly fighting against him. Perkz wanted to win on an international level so badly that he saw Caps as the only option to become even stronger.
When Perkz then thought about how he could make that happen, the path was clear: Perkz would switch to the bot lane to make room for Caps in the mid lane at G2 Esports.
Such a “role swap” is relatively rare among professional LoL players.
Perkz says it was something he just suggested, and once it was said, everyone realized: Yes, we have to do that.
Like Messi and Ronaldo on the Same Team
This is what G2 Esports’ CEO says: G2 Esports owner Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez cannot praise Perkz’s move enough: It is completely crazy to give up the position that made one great, thereby also giving up the star power. After all, the mid laner is considered the focal point and star of a team.
Perkz also said he would have only vacated the mid lane for two players worldwide: For Faker and for Caps.
According to Ocelote, it is now like having Messi and Ronaldo on the same team:
- Caps is the ultra-talented, easy-going genius who has a lot of luck
- Perkz is the meticulous worker who trains hard
Ocelote says: When they used to play against Caps, he was always terribly annoying. Perkz did well and was often well fed, but Caps would always roam the map, collecting kills and causing trouble.
And it was so annoying, Caps really got on their nerves.
Now Ocelote is happy to have him on his own team so he can annoy the opponents.
Star Player Puts Ego Aside
This is what Perkz says: According to Perkz, he made the conscious decision to dial down his ego a bit to give his team a better chance to win internationally.
In the past, he always felt he was the main reason why G2 Esports won. That is no longer the case.
He had to ask himself: “Do I want to be the carry or do I want to win?” And he made his choice.
What lies behind it: This is of course a nice story that G2 Esports tells in an advertisement.
However, it must be said that G2 Esports is not only excellently staffed at 2 positions, but at all 5.
Jankos, Wunder, and support Mikyx are top players who are crucial for the success of their team.
The times when a single player could lead their team to success are over. Nowadays, even star player Faker needs a strong team around him to dominate.
However, the fact that Perkz has made so many sacrifices to make room for Caps is quite extraordinary. On Sunday, G2 Esports plays in the semifinals of the LoL Worlds 2019 against SKT1 and Faker. We will see if the “Messi and Ronaldo of LoL” can really harmonize and dominate as a team.
Update 3.11.2019: The semifinal of the LoL Worlds 2019 has already been played.
