After G2 Esports Perkz announced that he would go bot lane after reaching World Semifinals in 2018, no announcement could top it off for quite some time.
This year G2 Esports surprised the community once again by announcing that Perkz and Caps would swap the mid and bottom lane roles for the upcoming LEC Season.
Wait, are @G2Caps and @G2Perkz really doing this? 🤯
Sorry @CarlosR, looks like you'll have to play mid another year pic.twitter.com/IMvL3p6vXR
— G2 Esports (@G2esports) December 13, 2019
When G2 first announced the acquisition of Caps in 2018, most fans were confused. Along with the announcement of Caps coming on board, G2 also announced Perkz’s transition to the bottom lane. Many doubted this move, as this hasn’t been seen before, especially not in the west. The only example of this working out in the past was Jo ‘CoreJJ’ Yong-in moving from ADC to support and winning a League of Legends World Championship in his new role.
However, G2 quickly proved their doubters wrong as they dominated both LEC split and won the Mid Season Invitational. Perkz was arguably the best marksman in the EU, while Caps shone in the middle lane like he used to back on Fnatic. Even more, they were seen as one of the favorites heading into the 2019 World Championship. Once there, they reached the finals but ultimately lost to FunPlus Phoenix in a three-game series. It will be interesting to see what happens to G2 after another role swap, but we can be sure they’ll do their best to prove their doubters wrong once again.
Caps reiterated in multiple interviews that he would like to go for the contender of the Greatest of all Time in the West and as a way of achieving this, would be to play in multiple roles and become the best. A precedent in LEC was set by his team member Perkz, and Caps will be the second one to follow that path.
While the future for G2 Esports is uncertain, one thing is for sure, if this role swap does not work out, they can always go back to Caps – mid lane, and Perkz – bottom lane, so this transition should only be helpful for the team, to keep them aware of the difficulties the other one is facing in either mid or bottom lane always.
While it is easy to play one role and master it correctly, the tunnel vision on one’s role can be detrimental to the overall team atmosphere if the player refuses to see and understand the strengths and weaknesses of other roles.
G2 Esports was the Best Western organization of the year 2019, by achieving multiple wins and reaching the World Finals. While some decisions could be seen as sporadic, the community should have some faith, as they have proved already that they have the best players in the European scene.