G2 SkewMond: "I know that I deserve my spot here"

Despite hurdles in their second game against Karmine Corp, stand tall once again, now secured in the upper bracket finals of the 2026 League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) Versus playoffs. With Movistar KOI waiting ahead, the reigning European champions aim to make a stand and reclaim their throne. In an exclusive interview, jungler sits down with Sheep Esports to discuss G2’s recent practice, his evolution since his rookie year, and how the team turned around its challenging group stage results.

Rudy "SkewMond" Semaan: “First of all, obviously, I'm really happy that we won in the end. If we had lost the second game, I'm not sure if we would have been able to properly bounce back. But yeah, the way we won was not the greatest. Still, in one week, nobody will really care, because the playoffs will just continue. The most important thing is that we played mostly good early into mid-game.

Definitely, I need to get these objectives, especially my Smites and all. It's mostly on me, so I need to definitely work on that one. But yeah, as I said, I think the most important thing is just to get the win. No matter the way you've won, that's the most important. Then we can actually focus on the next games and look to improve the things we need to improve on.

SkewMond: I would be lying if I said that we were that good all along. I just think that we had some stuff to fix, honestly. We needed to get back into the rhythm and actually play together, play correctly, because we know we can do it. We’ve shown it last summer, for example, when we were pretty dominant throughout the whole split. We just knew that there was something in our approach that was completely wrong.

Even our practice is looking much better than in regular season, honestly. That aside, not playing best-of-ones also helps, because we know that, in fearless, even if we lose Game 1, we’re usually a pretty good team and we draft well. So we just know we will always have our chance to bounce back no matter what.

SkewMond: Since we qualified for playoffs, when we won against Fnatic, we just started working way, way harder. We basically went 2x speed, simply because the split is really short. We played our first playoffs match against Heretics this week, and now, next Sunday, the finals will already be there. So it’s going pretty fast. We don’t really have any days off, everybody is putting in the work to actually make it to the finals and win again. But there’s still a long way. There’s still one week of practice, and hopefully we will be able to keep up the pace and show some good stuff later on.

SkewMond: The honest answer is that I don’t really have any friends or anything like that IRL around Berlin, so not really. Obviously, if I was someone who had a girlfriend or some friends in Berlin, it would definitely cost me a lot because I need to focus on what I’m doing and on playoffs, right? But in my case, not really. I’m just playing League.

SkewMond: Honest answer, not really. I’m just chilling, either looking at some games, playing some solo queue. But yeah, that’s it.

SkewMond: Definitely in regular season, yes. When we qualified for playoffs, all of that went away. When you’re in playoffs, it doesn’t matter if you are the first or eight seed, everyone has equal chances to make it.

But our regular season was definitely frustrating. For example, compared to last year when I started as a rookie and our regular season was pretty bad as well, I was more disappointed in myself back then, asking myself a lot of questions. This year I just know that we were doing some stuff wrong, and it feels bad because we were not actually using the full potential we know we can reach.

It was definitely frustrating because since the group stage was played with best-of-ones, if you throw one game, for example like we did today against KC in the second game, it costs you so much. It kinda happened against GIANTX, for example. It can literally cost you your playoff spot. It’s exactly what happened to Los Ratones. If they won that game against Vitality that was arguably won, they would not have been eliminated, which is pretty frustrating.

But now that it’s best-of-three, it’s much better honestly. You can actually breathe. And well, in our case, we’re about to start playing best-of-fives, I’m really looking forward to that.

SkewMond: Individually, I think the main issue I have right now is that sometimes, I feel like I need to do something when I don’t actually have to. For example, in the first game today, I misplayed, and it almost cost us Nashor. So I really need to be more careful in those moments. But besides that, I think I’ve improved my early game way better. Besides that, though, the Smites… it happens, and hopefully I’ll have the confidence to do better next time.

As a team, I think it’s about the way we practice and the way we approach our preparation. For example, the second draft and how we use our scrim games to actually take the most out of them. We need to learn and take the right conclusions before going on stage. Most of the time, you get the right ones after a stage game, especially if you lose, because that’s when you really think about what you did wrong. But the thing is, you should do that beforehand so it doesn’t happen on stage. That was a pretty big issue for us. Right now it’s looking much better, and I think we can even do more. I hope we just don’t drop the ball and keep moving forward.

SkewMond: Not specifically. They’re a strong team, as always. Like last summer, they were our rivals. Well, KC were our rivals at first, but they kind of fell off in the end. So yeah, I’m looking forward to it. That match is gonna be a banger.

SkewMond: Before playing against KC, I wouldn’t have thought so. Even if we won against them today, that doesn’t mean they won’t bounce back next week, and we might face them again. Nonetheless, since we beat KC, I guess that makes MKOI the second-best team by default. I still believe that KC is very strong, so, I’m just looking forward to seeing what they can do in the lower bracket.

SkewMond: Yeah, definitely. I’m more confident in myself now. I know that I deserve my spot here. It’s also way easier to reach out to people. Since you’ve played one year with them, you already know how to communicate. If you come in as a rookie with teammates like Caps (Rasmus Borregaard Winther), Hans Sama (Steven Liv), BrokenBlade (Sergen Çelik), and Labrov (Labros Papoutsakis), it’s a bit hard mentally—not for everyone, but for me, it was. Right now, it’s way easier to give feedback, receive feedback, and just be more on the same page together.

I’m also more inclined toward leadership in-game, especially early to mid-game. Later on, for example in that game against KC, everybody can speak up if something crazy happens in a 40-minute banger. But yeah, I think I have a pretty good role right now, and it fits me well.

SkewMond: I mean, pretty high. I won’t give you a number—I don’t want to curse it or anything. I still think we just need to keep working day by day and focus on what we can improve. I’m pretty confident that we can win, but we need to maintain the form we had these last two best-of-three series and show it in practice before going on stage.

SkewMond: Thank you to all the fans who keep supporting us. Even though our regular season wasn’t the greatest, I’m really happy that we won today and that we’re going into the upper bracket final. We will not disappoint you, and I’m sorry for the smites today—I’m pretty sure I brought back some flashbacks for a lot of fans from last year, if people remember. But yeah, I’m confident the team is looking good right now, and we can make it all the way. Please keep supporting us, and we will make you proud.”