G2 Esports surprised the League of Legends community on May 14 by defeating Top Esports and disqualifying them from the Mid-Season Invitational 2024. After their victory, Caps called for Western teams to stop making excuses for their losses.
In the League esports scene, North American and European teams frequently lose to Chinese and Korean teams, and the so-called “gap” is widening each year. G2 is the only team that has looked competitive in the space for a while now. After their victory against TES, Caps pledged not to make excuses for himself and asked other Western squads to do the same.
“Making excuses like, ‘Oh, we’re from Europe,’ or making excuses like, ‘Oh, I’m too old.’ I think it is what it is, just excuses. And I’m done with those,” Caps told Dexerto after the win versus TES.
The excuses Caps is referring to are common for European and North American players. Western teams usually struggle against Chinese or South Korean teams, arguably because, in the EU and NA regions, League isn’t as competitive as in Eastern regions.
Those who travel to South Korea bootcamp often praise the region’s solo queue, where players are determined to do their best and usually play more. The Chinese high-ranked ladder has even gained the nickname of “superserver.” In the West, on the other hand, players often talk about ping issues and others not taking solo queue seriously, especially in NA, which Zven recently mentioned. Eastern teams also tend to put more time into practice when compared to the Western ones, with the latter making excuses like not having enough time or energy to do so.
Western players also complain about becoming too old for the scene. However, Faker managed to win his fourth World Championship in 2023, when he was 27. These are just a few reasons given for the widening gap between West and East.
Caps revealed he also felt beyond his prime and hopeless, especially after reaching two Worlds finals in 2018 and 2019 and then falling short in the following international events. However, more importantly, he recently realized he can achieve anything if he works hard enough. “I just need to do better. I know I can do better,” he told Dexerto. “It doesn’t really matter that I haven’t won Worlds yet, it doesn’t matter that I’m getting older.”
G2 have long been the only beacon of hope for the Western fans in competitive League. They achieved that by winning MSI 2019, reaching the Worlds finals that same year, and staying relevant through other international tournaments. CoreJJ from Team Liquid has even claimed they want to follow in G2’s footsteps.
