Caps interview: Mid-laner on G2’s chances at MSI 2023, what he thinks of London and the NLC, plus we teach him cockney rhyming slang!

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MSI 2023 finally gets underway in London this week! With EU team G2 Esports playing Loud on the first day of play-ins on Tuesday May 2nd, we caught up with number one ranked solo queue player and G2 mid-laner Caps, to ask him about EU’s chances at MSI, what he thinks of London – plus we tested his knowledge of cockney rhyming slang and East London culture in this Caps interview…

(Edit, since posting this interview, it reached the esports community well and caused JME to tweet ‘Man like Caps’. And you can watch part 2 of our interview with Caps after G2’s loss to BLG and exit from MSI 2023 here).

Welcome to MSI London, Caps! How are you finding it here so far?

We arrived a few days ago, it’s been nice so far. Really nice weather actually – I was not expecting that! Solo queue has been treating us nice, scrims going good.

I’ve been to London a few times before. When I first joined Fnatic in 2016 I was announced in London, so I’ve mainly been around the Fnatic office, usually when I’ve been there it was short trips, so I didn’t get around to see much. But I rushed to the Nando’s, and that was nice! I know that’s a popular place.

You’re one of two EU teams at MSI 2023. How do you feel the home crowd will be? Do you feel they will get behind you and give you a lift on the stage?

I’m definitely hoping so – I think that would be awesome. We’re gonna go up against a lot of really strong teams, so having the crowd’s support is going to be very important, especially because it’s a new format for MSI 2023 with a lot of best-of-fives.

So having the energy to play a full series is important, and you really get that when the crowd goes crazy, when they’re chanting, so I’m hoping for some energy from the crowd.

What are your goals at MSI 2023?

We definitely want to win it all. We had quite a poor performance in LEC Spring and came out in fourth place, so we really want to show that was fluke and we can do a lot better.

The first step is just making through to the main stage of MSI, but then we also want to win that.

With Mad Lions also at MSI after winning the Spring 2023 LEC, how do you feel EU will do overall here, considering there’s some tough competition from other regions.

I think the other regions are quite strong right now, so it’s going to be a challenge and we’re going to have to do some catch up before. Like, try to find some cool picks, and maybe find out some strats to beat what they’re doing, but I believe in us, I think we can do it, we just really need to go all out and show the best versions of ourselves.

I would love to see you guys win MSI for EU again.

Mikyx is undefeated right, so he’s carrying us, hopefully! (laughs)

What are your thoughts going into your first match against Loud from Brazil?

We actually got to scrim them for a bit before the LEC quarters, so we have a decent idea of how they play and how we can match up against them. So I feel like we’re the favourites, but at the same time, everyone who’s coming in either won their league or finished at the top, so they’re not going to go out easy.

So we’ll need to be at our best to take them down, especially with the way the format works now, we need to come out of the gates swinging.

As a Dane, how aware are you of the UK, Ireland and Nordics NLC and what are your thoughts of the next generation of Danish talent from the lower leagues?

I feel like the past few years have been harder. Five years back there were a lot of Danish players, I think we had the most in EU, which was pretty crazy, but nowadays I feel like we’re losing a lot of the Danish pro players.

So I’m hoping that the next years will see a new wave of Danish pro players coming in, but they need to take that last step.

We don’t have many UK players either. Why do you think that is?

It’s hard to say why. In Denmark for example I know CSGO is really big, and I can imagine the same in the UK. Maybe there are other games people prefer over League, it’s hard to say what the specifics are.

Caps interview quickfire round – fun questions on East London

MSI 2023 takes place in East London, so I’m going to add in some questions here about the area and its culture. Have you heard of cockney ryhming slang before?

What?

*Explains what cockney rhyming slang is.* Do you know what ‘dog and bone’ means in cockney rhyming slang?

Scone?

Nearly. Phone. What about Steffi Graf?

Laugh?

Yes!

Perfect.

Do you know what Eastenders is?

I don’t think so.

*Explains what it is, a BBC TV show set in East London*. Lastly, what form of music came from East London?

Battle rap.

Good guess. Grime music. Artists like Dizzee Rascal, JME, Wiley…

…I’m not too familiar with a lot of rappers, sadly!

Thanks for the fun Caps interview, is there anything else you’d like to add?

I’d like to thank you guys for supporting us. It’s not been the last few years we would’ve wanted, but we can turn it around for sure. And I think this MSI will be a good first step.

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Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.