The pride of Spain is back on top of Europe, qualified for Worlds, and preparing for their next match against G2 Esports for a spot in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) Summer Finals. Celebration will have to wait, as Movistar KOI continues its run, aiming to claim another trophy on home ground in Madrid. In an exclusive interview, AD Carry David "Supa" Martínez García sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss the level of Europe, the team’s playoff preparation, and battling expectations.

How do you feel about today’s match against Fnatic? Did you expect them to perform like this?

David "Supa" Martínez García: “We had good preparation for today’s match. We knew how they wanted to play, but well, I feel like we didn’t warm up properly. In botlane we died too much and got caught, even though we knew how they wanted to play. They executed what they wanted to do, including their draft. They surprised me. Overall though, the match largely went as we thought it would. They did some things well, and we did some things poorly. I really liked the match in the end.

Do you agree with Elyoya that it’s hard to have decisive 3-0 matches when teams are close in level with fearless draft?

Supa: For 3-0s, the problem is that we are still not consistent enough in Europe. In general, apart from the very top league teams in the world, everyone still are rather inconsistent. Today, for example, we could have 3-0ed or 3-1ed, but it was pretty volatile. Every game except the last one, and the third, was like this. We still need to work on consistency. The problem is we played so little in the last two months—only five series. It feels different than scrims, which is nothing bad, but if we were able to play more, consistency on stage would be much better, and we would see better performances from all LEC teams.

How do you feel about the level of Europe compared to the LCK and LPL?

Supa: We are closer than before. When you are so much worse than them, it’s easier to improve rapidly than when you are already good and only missing small things. We are already nine months into competition, so the mental aspect is really important—not just for us, but for everyone. Whoever handles it better will have a big advantage.

Individually, they are better because they’ve been tested in harder situations and played more games. So it’s about how fast we can adapt. Now that we are ready for Worlds, we are going to put everything into preparing for it. We will probably bootcamp beforehand, and that will be key. It showed at EWC more than at MSI, where our performance wasn’t enough. We have the advantage of international experience this year, so we know what can go wrong. Before going to Worlds, I will make a clearer plan for what can go well and what can go wrong.

Have you ever felt burnout from playing League for long periods? Is this mental aspect difficult to balance?

Supa: Honestly, I have never experienced burnout in my career. Of course, there are days that are harder, when you have less motivation, but in MKOI, and in G2 from what I see from outside, we work really well on taking enough rest and working well outside the game. We are “forced,” but not really, because we choose to do gym, exercise, stay healthy, and sleep well. These things help us a lot. From what I see, other teams don’t have these healthy habits, and not everyone is willing to do it at the beginning. I would say G2 and us have the advantage of putting effort not only in the game, but outside as well.

A clip surfaced from your group stage loss to Karmine Corp where Tomás "Melzhet" Campelos Fernández said, “Your feedback is bullshit. We’re going to play how I say we play. And if we lose, it’s my fault.” How much agency do players have over picks and strategiest?

Supa: I would say it’s kind of 50-50—some players have more input, some less. We work in a way that focuses on winning games, and depending on the player, they have their strong points or things they like more, depending on the game. This is something we still need to work on because it can make games too chaotic. But if you are confident, you need to keep going confidently. Don’t start doubting in-game; play how you feel is the correct way to win, and then you can adjust later. That’s what we showed against Fnatic. We did some things badly, but the same things that went wrong today worked really well yesterday in scrims. It’s just about details and continuing to work.

How do you expect your matchup against G2 to play out? They seem to always lose finals when winning in the upper bracket. Maybe you’ll have to “strategically” give them the semifinals win?

Supa: Honestly, if we lose, unlucky, I’ll just need to repeat the same run as in Spring and win from the lower bracket again. More seriously, my goal is just to enjoy the competition, go into next week with no fear, doing what I think is good. If we win, well it doesn’t really change much. We’ll have the winner’s bracket advantage. If we lose, it’ll give us a perfect chance to work on ourselves. We have strong opponents that help us improve, and facing G2 twice would give both ourselves and them more preparation before Worlds.

Do you think MKOI could compete well against G2 next week? Many see G2 as unstoppable, but do you feel people are underestimating MKOI?

Supa: MKOI is the team that no one expects much from. When people have high expectations from us, it feels like we often disappoint. The reality is that no one thought we’d beat G2 during the Spring finals. People talk about others losing to us, but not about us winning. I don’t think our match is going to be a stomp though, it’ll be a really tough battle. I just hope we see good League of Legends, that we all take good lessons, and that we see some nice fighting on the rift.

Do you have a message for the fans you’ll be seeing in Madrid?

Supa: I hope, no matter if we go to the finals or semifinals, that they’ll be there cheering as much as possible. If we can get two matches in Madrid, it will be crazy, but obviously everyone would prefer if we got a single one, as it’d mean beating G2 next week. The Madrid road trip was insane, MKOI had so much aura in this tournament compared to the rest of the teams. I hope it’ll be the same again and that everyone enjoys their time, because we never know when we’ll have another finals in Madrid.”