Photo by Gary Handley/Riot Games Flickr
Well well well… it’s been a bit of a surreal start to MSI 2023 in London for us at Esports News UK after our interview with Caps saw UK grime artist JME tweet out ‘Man like Caps’.
What on Earth happened? Let us explain.
A couple of days ago, we were at Riot Games’ press preview event ahead of MSI 2023, the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational taking place at London’s Copperbox Arena.
Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco had the opportunity to speak to Caps, the Danish mid-laner for European esports organisation G2, in this Caps interview.
Half the interview was your usual esports interview, and the second half featured more fun questions about East London, what with MSI taking place there. We asked Caps about Eastenders, cockney rhyming slang and… grime music.
The interview did pretty well, and caught the attention of UK content creator, caster and former pro player Caedrel, one of the streamers providing MSI 2023 co-streams.
'He's asking @G2Caps if he knows @JmeBBK?!' ???? pic.twitter.com/sUrjiUG26W
— Dom Sacco (@Dom_Sacco) May 2, 2023
Shouout to Ruddy Esports owner DonJake, who encouraged me to tweet at JME’s handle after I was mulling it over in the MSI 2023 press room earlier on Tuesday
After this, G2 went on to win their opening game of MSI 2-0 versus Brazilian esports organisation Loud.
Caps played both games as Nautilus in the mid lane.
The match also came after he topped the EU West solo queue ladder.
Caps is one of EU’s most well-known players, and with the hype building around MSI, JME took notice of the tweet and/or what had happened. This led him to recognise Caps, with the words: ‘Man like Caps’.
A few days later, Caps responded with ‘Man like JME’.
Man like JME ????
— Rasmus Winther (@G2Caps) May 4, 2023
G2’s League of Legends Twitter account tweeted shortly afterwards, quoting the tweet saying: “It’s over, we’re winning MSI.”
Others wondered what on Earth was happening, and if JME is a League of Legends fan. So we wrote this article for some added context.
LEC video producer Renato Perdigão said: “What is going on lmao.”
UK caster Jamada added:
“This is the crossover I didn’t expect but I am very open to happening.”
Jamada
DonJake commented, ‘Dom Sacco influence is crazy’, and tweeted JME hoping to interview him. DonJake also interviewed G2 BrokenBlade, who said he listens to ‘classic drill’ music, another form of music that has its own UK variations.
Esports host Sjokz also got involved in the London culture, dressing up as a ‘chav’ in this tweet.
For those wondering what ‘man like Caps’ means, it’s a slang saying used to praise someone. JME is basically saying Caps is the man.
We’d love for some kind of crossover to happen. Maybe JME could collab with Caps or G2 or even make a Worlds song for Riot Games in the future?
Who knows, but for now all we know is we’re gassed JME is tweeting about League of Legends. Man like Caps, indeed.
It’s not the first time JME has got involved with esports. He’s a long-time gamer, and JME got involved in some Gfinity esports activities a few years ago now.
Update (August 31st 2023): The ManLikeCaps storyline continues. DonJake has interviewed Caps asking him about the following (note: explicit lyrical content warning).
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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.
