G2 Labrov: "After 2022, after Vitality, [...] I felt like maybe I wouldn’t get another chance"

With five consecutive wins, including two victories during this roadshow in Spain, confirmed their place on the podium of the LEC Spring Split group stage this weekend. After defeating 2-0 and then by the same score across the first two days in Madrid, Labros "" Papoutsakis answered questions from Sheep Esports ahead of the final series of the weekend.

Labros "Labrov" Papoutsakis: “Yeah, for sure. Game 1 was pretty clean, perfect, or almost perfect game. Game 2 I think was mostly good. There were some mistakes, but I’m happy overall with our teamplay.

Labrov: It always feels nice playing on a big stage, right? I still get the adrenaline from doing that. I would say maybe a bit less because it’s a regular season game, so the stakes are not as high. But still, it feels really nice, and I’m glad we can be here right now.

Labrov: I think support has a lot of impact, but it’s mainly about having a good laning phase, so it’s not only a support thing; it’s a botlane thing. I would say mostly for teams, to be honest.

For solo queue, it’s a bit harder if you don’t know whether your ADC is ready to give in autos and stuff, so it can be difficult. But I think supports are strong, especially Bard as well. He can accelerate the game — not the way I accelerated yesterday against KC by dying (laughs) — but by roaming and setting up plays.

Labrov: It’s a lot about communicating and enabling your teammates, for sure. But I also think it’s important to have really good mechanics. Some supports like Keria (Ryu Min-seok) or ON (Luo Wen-Jun) are very good mechanically, and that’s why they can play things like Anivia, Camille, or these kinds of picks.

Labrov: Maybe. We might find out tomorrow, you know? (Laughs)

Labrov: Yeah, for sure. Especially when it comes down to important games. I personally really enjoy playing with Caps. I mean everyone, but especially Caps. He doesn’t talk much, but I feel like whenever he says something, it’s really important for the game, and you can trust him. He’s not going to talk more than needed.

For me it’s really nice because he reads the map really well and makes good decisions. Same for BB, I think. He can also take the captain role in the game and hype us up and stuff.

Labrov: Yeah, I think after 2022, after Vitality — the “super team,” right? — and we didn’t even make playoffs; it was really hard. I felt like maybe I wouldn’t get another chance, or at least not on a very good team.

And after that, the offseason was pretty hard for me. I had barely any LEC offers. Then I ended up joining BDS, and we surprisingly did really well. So even though I experienced that, I’m happy it didn’t end badly, and I don’t want to go through that feeling again.

Labrov: Yeah, I think I’m for sure not playing bad. But I still feel like I can improve a lot. I’m obviously satisfied with how I’ve played, but the goal is always to reach a better level.

Labrov: I think it’s everything. There’s not just one thing. There are so many parts of the game, mechanics, knowledge, laning phase, meta read, mid game, how you play with your teammates. Literally so many things. That’s the cool thing about League.

Even though I’ve been playing for six years or something like that, I still feel like I’m learning a lot of concepts about the game. So it’s definitely exciting.

Labrov: Yeah, I think we can be the best team, and I think we can even be really strong internationally. But at the same time, we can also be very sus and lose to a lot of opponents like in the LEC Versus against Los Ratones, so I don’t want to say too many things. I just want to focus on the moment, on preparation, and I’m looking forward to the future.”