On May 28, G2 Esports' run at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational came to a stop as they were swept by T1 in the semifinals. The games were rather one-sided throughout the series as T1 advanced to the finals. After the match, G2 Esports joined the media for a press conference.

(To Dylan) What or who from T1 gave your team the most pressure? How do you think tomorrow’s match will go?

Dylan: I think the draft, at least from my perspective, they had a lot of very good plans in the mid-jungle situation. For example, in the first game, we had Galio, but they had a Tristana prepared which was something that wasn’t there yesterday. I think they didn’t have as good answers in the Rumble Stage. I think that was definitely where I felt pressure as a coach. 

I think T1 are the favorites tomorrow, but I do think they’re 1-1 against each other in the Rumble Stage, so anyone could win. I think that T1 have been so far ahead in almost all of the games they played so far. With their draft looking a bit better today, and then looking a little bit better closing out the games, I think they’re a little bit at an advantage.

(To Targamas) It was your first international tournament. What is the biggest difference between playing here and in EU? What do you think you need to improve?

Targamas: The biggest difference is that the bots are way better. Like Keria and Ming, they just play every champ in the game. It’s always hard playing against them. It’s like they’re always ahead. In lane, every matchup is just losing. They just play almost all matchups to perfection. It’s really hard to get the advantage against them. They just smashed me on some champs. 

To me, the biggest takeaway is to just practice more. I felt that I wasn’t at my best level in the games. Like today, I feel I could do so much more, especially on champs I’m used to playing. Like on Pyke, I could do more in the game. For me, the takeaway is to practice to become more like them, hopefully. [Laughs]

(To Flakked) Xayah is a champion that Gumayusi plays very well. Why didn’t you ban or pick her?

Flakked: I feel it was the best plans for the draft. I think we had a really good idea against Xayah, but on stage that didn’t go that well. I’m happy with all the draft plans we had against Xayah, I think Aphelios and Miss Fortune are really good against Xayah, but I think they performed better than us, T1’s bot lane. I guess Xayah is better after the laning phase. So if she can lane well against Aphelios, she’s going to have a very nice game. With the Aphelios, the role is to win lane.

(To Caps) What’s the biggest takeaway from this MSI? What does the team need to improve?

Caps: I think there are many takeaways from this MSI. Playing against really insane players always, I learn a bunch. I think for us as a team, we probably have to clean up the early game a little bit. In a lot of games, we fell quite behind very fast, it was hard to make a comeback. Even sometimes, we managed to do so like in the first game against T1.

But if we had some close early games, we could have shown all the things we showed in Europe in the later parts of the game. So we’re looking out for those, and if we could do that, you’ll probably see a different G2 at Worlds.

(To Jankos) This time, MSI was held in Busan. You probably went out to see the scenery. What was the most impressive moment in Busan?

Jankos: We also get an extra day now to see things in Busan. I think the city is very beautiful, the food is good, scenery is nice. My favorite part about Busan was playing in MSI, but I suppose we don’t get to play tomorrow, so that sucks. We came here for a tournament, so we focused the most on MSI. Of course now, it feels very bad that we dropped out in such a dominant fashion to T1. At the same time, I’m really glad that we got to come here and we got to use this time to grow more as a team. I’m sure that it will benefit us quite a lot for the summer split and Worlds. 

(To Dylan and Jankos) Is there anything you got to learn as a team, or any visions to improve the team?

Dylan: A lot of the time in EU, we could get away with drafting and preparing strategies that lost a bit harder early, than what we could get away with here. I think that’s definitely a big one. Weak lanes are punished really well by teams like T1, the best teams. Even in some of the games, we played comps that scaled very well, and we’d get away with it, but we simply could not. That’s something I learned.

Jankos: Definitely we had a lot of scaling picks from our side that was being punished by the teams. The preparation overall throughout the tournament could have been better. I think that our early game plans worked a lot in Europe. Even when we had weaker team compositions in the early game, we could get away with it. Here, against a better team, like T1, we have to adapt a lot and we would get punished way more. I think we have to change what we think about the early game, or how we approach games in Europe where we were getting away with way too much.

(To Caps) There are many G2 fans in Korea. You’re back here in Korea after 2018. How do you feel wrapping up the tournament in Busan?

Caps: I’m really happy to be back at MSI, especially in Korea. I was actually surprised about how many fans we have here in Korea. When we went to get food or something, there were always people meeting us, greeting us, wishing us the best luck. I’m very thankful for that. Sometimes they were even giving us snacks and other gifts. That was really nice. I want to say thank you to all the fans for supporting us and cheering us on. Even now.

(To Caps) What was the most disappointing moment in today’s game?

Caps: I think it was all the games gave me some disappointment. Probably the most disappointing was the second game. We were in kind of a good position, and then we went to check Nash, and I got one-shot. It was the best chance we had in the series. That moment was the most disappointing.

(To Broken Blade) When you were in Schalke last year, you got a pentakill against G2. Now you’re their top laner and played the spring and MSI. How was your experience playing a season in the best organization in Europe?

Broken Blade: It’s been a really good split, although we had a more disappointing MSI. I think everybody in G2, not only the players, but the whole organization exists to win. I’ve always wanted to work with these kinds of people. I’m happy and grateful for that and I’m excited for the future.

(To Dylan) When I asked BrokenBlade in the last scrum what it took to get G2 back on track, he said you just needed to get back on track. In your opinion, have you managed to recover this rhythm?

Dylan: I think that we weren’t able to recover from the Rumble Stage in time to face such a strong team like T1. I think we came in with not as bad plans as we did in our lost streak during Rumble, but we didn’t win so our focus now is getting back on track for the summer split.

(To Romain and Dylan) G2, like any team, would experience significant growth by going through international tournaments. How would you describe the difference between G2 before MSI and after MSI? And also, what is the one thing you are most proud about G2 right now?

Romain: Our team environment and our capacity to always bounce back, always be happy, be honest between one another. I think we we made the best team in the world. We won some, we lost more. [Laughs] A lot of really good learning before going back to Europe. We are a really good team, but we need to be even better. We need to improve everything, every process we have. Where we train, where we see the games, where we practice, where we talk to one another. It’s an excellent reality check. It’s a bit painful, [Laughs] I’m not going to lie. Good run. Sad run right now, but tomorrow, we draw the list, we see what we get and go back home.

Dylan: I think our ability to adapt and solve issues was a huge benefit here. I just learned a lot.

(To Caps and Jankos) With your head out of MSI and waiting for the Worlds, will you take a vacation these two weeks before coming back for the LEC or will you stay to practice in a bootcamp with the team? Also, for Flakked, you are going to have more nightmares with Renata or Romain tonight?

Jankos:We are going to take about 13 days off. We are going back to EU on Monday. We’ll have some time to spend with friends and family. After that, we’ll come back and start practicing for summer split and worlds.

Caps: Yeah, same.

Flakked: I’m not sure if I’m going to have more nightmares with Renata or Romain. I think both scare me a lot, and both are really dangerous. I’m joking. I think Keria’s Renata was painful today to lane against. I think he’s really good with the champion. If I had to say either Romain or Renata, I would say Renata. 

(To Targamas) Before starting this tournament, you said that it was like a dream to play in MSI. Now that you tasted your dream, are you more eager to play at Worlds this year?

Targamas: I didn’t really accomplish my dream. My dream would be to win MSI, to win Worlds. I’m really happy to play this tournament and spend this month here in Korea together with my team. It’s a really unique experience. I really cherish those moments I had with my team. I’m just excited to play the LEC summer split again with the new patch and everything, and all that we learned at MSI.

If we can make it to Worlds, I would be very hyped as well. I’ve never played at Worlds before. MSI is a big tournament, but Worlds is like 10 times bigger. It’s historic when you talk about LoL esports. Worlds is the biggest assignment. So many people watch this, so many people support the teams. I hope we can make a good run. If we meet the Asian teams again at next Worlds, I hope we beat them.