G2 Hans Sama: "I'm making an effort to be more vocal on macro aspects we were neglecting."

Sitting comfortably at the top, Hans and G2 Esports now await their opponents in the LEC 2024 Spring Finals after defeating BDS last week. An exclusive interview with the bot laner of the team.

🇬🇧English

Steven "Hans Sama" Liv, competing in the 2024 LEC Spring Split for G2 Esports.

"It requires a lot of attention from me. It's always a challenge for me to balance this [with concentrating on my own game.]"

Now comfortably seated at the top and awaiting the LEC 2024 Spring Finals, Hans Sama and his team, G2 Esports, bide their time as BDS and FNC prepare to battle for the chance to face them on Sunday. In this exclusive interview, the bot laner details what unfolded in their latest series and more.

| G2 just took on BDS and won, advancing to the LEC 2024 Spring Finals. Hans, how are you feeling after this match?

Hans Sama: "I'm still feeling a little bit out of breath because the last game was such a banger. We were very behind, and we found a lot of angles; everyone was speaking a lot, so I'm still out of breath because of that. But it was quite an interesting best-of-five, and I would say it was quite fun."

| How happy are you with your personal and team performance in this series?

Hans Sama: "I believe we're kind of happy with some of the games, regarding our performance, and a bit less satisfied with others. Overall, the team seems pretty content with the performance because we've executed what we've practiced quite well. Achieving this is always gratifying because the harder you try and the deeper you delve into the game during practice, the more evident the results become. So, we showcased some of the outcomes of our practice in today's match. As a team, we feel very good about it. Specifically, I want to mention the swaps, as there were about three games where we swapped on them."

| The lane swaps are definitely something everyone will be discussing for a while now. Did you have inspiration from watching teams like NIP in the LPL? Did you have any time to practice it beforehand or did you pull this strategy out on a whim?

Hans Sama: "We had like one or... I believe we had about three days or so, just a week of scrim to try it out. I don't remember who brought it up, but someone definitely mentioned it, and it wasn't me who initiated the discussion. Playing this lane swap meta brings back a lot of memories because you're actually lane swapping at level one, and there's a lot of micro knowledge that you may have acquired back in 2017 approximatively."

| That was a long time ago, yeah.

Hans Sama: "Yeah, there was a mega lane swap meta back then, with top laners staying at level 1 for a huge part of the game. That's the game we played today, and it worked well with our hyper-carries. That's why I really pushed for picking Aphelios in game 4. I didn't expect to pick it, but I was like... We are going to be lane-swapping so, might as well just pick a strong AD carry. Aphelios with Severum/Crescendum is always a decent champ in that regard."

| Considering that you now are 21-4 against BDS, I would say that the level they have shown today went beyond most expectations. Were you surprised by their read of your lane swaps, especially in the first game?

Hans Sama: "I was quite surprised by their reaction in game 1 because we didn't show any signs of lane-swapping if I remember correctly. They attempted an early invade on our bot side, but there was no indication that we were planning to swap lanes. I suppose we picked some champions that would be suitable for a lane swap, like hyper-carries and tanks for the top lane. It was very surprising to see all five of them heading top."

| Adam told us in an interview that they expected the lane swap after seeing your Sion pick and having known about what happened in the LPL.

Hans Sama: "I guess they somehow knew. They're just so good [laughs]. I won't lie, I was kind of confused. I was in the top lane at that moment just staring at my screen while trying to figure out how to get out of this situation because everything devolved into a full-on fiesta. I could have actually killed Varus, I remember. But I was really thinking hard; my attention was focused on whether I needed to push that wave and then go bot, or if I had to slow push, or... It's just so messy when this happened."

| That aside, we saw Draven being banned in every game today. Are you sad you couldn't play him?

Hans Sama: "I believe most teams should ban it because it's super OP. But I just haven't had the chance to play it yet. He's the most OP champ in bot lane, but I guess most people don't really play it. So, for them, they ban it. They have to keep banning it, I think."

| Caps told me last week that you took on a more vocal role within the team recently. Have you been working on your communications lately?

Hans Sama: "It's always a big challenge for me. During the game, there are times when I talk a lot and times when I'm more quiet, depending on my focus and what's happening. Last week, I made an effort to discuss more of the macro aspects that we were neglecting, to improve our overall play. I focused a lot on that. So yeah, I talk a lot sometimes. That doesn't mean my team doesn't talk; they talk a lot too."

"It's just about certain aspects, like micro-wise, bot side, as a four-man or three-man, which are important. You have to execute the correct wave of macro when you play with your jungle, with your mid, and how you connect with them. There's a lot to consider, so I try to think about it."

"But it definitely requires a lot of attention from me, especially if I'm doing it in-game. It's always a challenge for me to balance both, where I need to look at the champion on my screen and think about the whole perspective of the game, the macro. I just need to train so I can become faster at both."

"I want to keep calling some of the things I'm calling and focus very hard mechanically."

| Have you finished Solo Leveling? What rating would you give it and what are you watching now as a team?

Hans Sama: "We all finished Solo Leveling, and I must say, it's really insane. I would personally rate it 10 out of 10. I was so hyped about it. It's such a pity that it's only 12 episodes. I guess I'm gonna have to wait for season 2 soon."

"Right now, we're watching House of the Dragon. Some of us on the team are also watching Hunter x Hunter. Some of my teammates haven't watched it before, so we're enjoying it together. It's really nice. We're around episode 45 or 50, and it just keeps getting better and better."

"And yeah, I'm eagerly waiting for the next season of The Boys. I don't remember when it comes out, but we were even renaming in-game to one of the characters in The Boys each. So yeah, there will be a lot of things to watch."

| You might have heard some of the Twitter debates around Vitality's Hylissang. Pad has been saying that people misconstrued Hyli and that they fail to see when he's "creating space". Tell me, was Mikyx running it or creating space in game 2?

Hans Sama: "Oh, actually, I didn't see the drama on Twitter. I don't really open Twitter, to be honest. Yeah, I think creating a lot of space, and definitely, Mikyx is that same type of player. Trying to create a lot of space sometimes is kind of your habit, so it's a bit harder to always think of all the angles they can attack you, especially when a lot of people know those specific super players who would step up a little bit more than the others. They will try to target Mikyx. He might be alone, just attack him, don't be scared."

"But for sure, Mikyx was trying to get a lot of space, and I think, in general, games can go very poorly if we don't put up enough pressure. Sometimes, things will go downhill, like some games we've had today. I think we were just very weak after what happened at Dragon. We got a kill on Nami, everything was going perfectly, and then the Dragon was a complete disaster. Actually, if those two things didn't happen, I would expect maybe a cleaner series."

"Like when we went for the Dragon in the first game, and we tried to go back to our bot lane and we got double killed. I died pretty later than that, so I was losing the whole wave after this. So Lucian is like... Giga OP and then he carried the game. And then the fourth game was like we were so ahead, we just have to control ourselves because we were like, I should have stepped up and been like, okay, we have to do this. We're not going for the dive. We want minions especially. And like we were 2k gold ahead, I think, having a stronger top laner. That is a tank against Rumble. So I thought this game was such a free win after 5 minutes, it just has to keep going that way, but then we just... threw."

| We have to end the interview here as we're running out of time but, without any explanations, who's joining you in the finals?

Hans Sama: "BDS."

Hans Sama and his teammates. Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games

Header Photo Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games