Currently, all major regions from Asia to Europe have completed their Spring Splits, and with the cancellation of MSI 2020, the mid-year transfer market is starting earlier than ever. The European region is no exception, as G2 Esports has fired the first shot by… saying goodbye to mid-laner Perkz and welcoming back mid-laner Caps and AD carry Perkz, in short, these two guys are swapping roles just like last summer.
G2 Caps: “We had a quite fun spring with this lineup, but now it’s time to say goodbye.”
G2 Perkz: “PERKZ and AD carry Caps are back, welcoming the return of Uma Jan and Claps (the names of Perkz when playing AD carry and Caps when going mid – Ed.)”
G2 Esports Coach Grabbz: “Honestly, we almost let Wunder play AD carry, but the final decision was to revert to the 2019 lineup for the summer split and the upcoming Worlds. Having the two best mid-laners and AD carries in the West on the same team sometimes gives me headaches.”
G2 Jankos: “I don’t see much of a difference when the mid-laner becomes the AD carry in the team, whichever position it is, you both steal my jungle.”
Temporarily setting aside the “funny” issues of this “circus” team, we can clearly see that G2 Esports is very eager to return to their strongest form by swapping positions similar to the 2019 lineup, when they won MSI and were the World Championship runners-up. With no MSI this year, the spring split is nothing more than a testing ground for the top teams, but the summer split and the upcoming Worlds are a completely different story.
In the recent spring split, while it is true that G2 Esports still won the LEC, it was due to their overwhelming superiority compared to the other teams rather than any individual’s carry potential, especially Caps, who was considerably less impactful than his teammates. The reason is very clear: Caps is a “rookie” in the AD carry position; he may have high skill, but he is not yet truly sharp with the habits and specific mindset of this role.
Meanwhile, Perkz has shown exceptional skill in both positions, even making it into the top AD carries at Worlds 2019 and having a highly effective spring split in the mid-lane. As the summer split and Worlds approach, a team with high ambitions like G2 Esports certainly wants to find the strongest lineup possible, so it’s understandable that Caps is returning to mid and Perkz is going back to AD carry.
Hopefully, G2 Esports will continue to maintain the form they had last year and can break the dominance of Chinese teams in recent Worlds.