Following G2 Esports’ swift 3-0 takedown of MAD Lions in the MSI 2023 lower bracket, we had the chance for a quick chat with mid-laner Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther to get his thoughts on the series and look ahead to the remainder of the tournament.

Credit: Esports.Net / LoL Esports

The Dane was pleased to win the series that repeated the LEC Winter playoffs final, explaining that was “happy with how we played and how we talked with each other” before adding that “it shows, for me, the step up we’ve had from Spring until now.”

“I think the scrims against the LPL and LCK teams really helped us out a lot, so I’m quite happy with the level we’re showing right now and I can see a path to getting even better, so I’m excited.”

This step up has led to growing confidence within the side, shared also by bot laner Hans Sama, that G2 will be able to take down LPL/LCK teams during the remainder of the tournament. The 2019 MSI winner revealed that he’s “very confident” of their chances against Eastern teams: “I think even more so than in a long time.”

“I think that this level of improvement that we showed from playing the LPL and LCK teams really reminds me of back in 2020, where we also had very bad scrims but then we got really good very fast. I think we’re doing that, we’re getting a lot better at a very rapid speed, and I think that if we get another few days of scrims then I definitely think that we can start challenging them.”

Caps also gave his view on how the double-elimination format, introduced to MSI for the first time in this tournament, may give them a helping hand.

“Luckily with the format, we’ll probably end up having to beat all the LPL and LCK teams, but we’ll have to beat them in order of strength – so we’ll have to play the easiest first, then the second easiest and so on. So it’s going to be interesting.”

Now standing in G2’s way is a lower-bracket matchup with China’s Bilibili Gaming who was knocked down from the upper bracket after a 3-0 loss to LPL rivals JD Gaming. If G2 manage to cause an upset, then a meeting with either NA’s Cloud9 or Korea’s Gen.G will be next on the horizon.