Dylan Falco: Fearless draft “great” for G2

LoL Esports

August 19, 2024

Lee Jones

After an MSI hangover-attributed 1-2 start to the LEC Summer Split, normal service was resumed for G2 Esports via a 2-0 weekend following wins over GIANTX and Rogue. We spoke to head coach Dylan Falco after the action.

We’ve heard a lot about G2’s ‘MSI hangover’ this past week. Is that over now?

Dylan Falco: I’m not too sure about the MSI hangover meme or storyline that’s being pushed a lot. I don’t think we see it as a consequence of MSI. I think we just see the consequence of ‘we didn’t practice that much before our first week of LEC’. So I think it’s okay. I’m really happy we two zeroed this week.

And even if our gameplay wasn’t the best last week as well, I do feel like that could have been a 3-0 or a 2-1 pretty easily. We had multiple barons in the games we lost, so I think it’s ok.

Lee Jones: We’ve heard over the years how G2 is a team that often has strategic downtime throughout the season to avoid burnout and make sure that they’re peaking when it matters.

Is that something that played into the late start to practice?

Dylan: We’re not huge on huge long breaks or just not playing league. I think it’s very important to always stay fresh on the newest patch. For example, moving into a new season I think we’re usually one of the earlier teams to start scrimming.

It was just tight [after MSI], so we actually just didn’t have the time, just the way the schedule kind of went. So we did take a very short break, but there just wasn’t enough actual time that it existed.

Image credit: Riot Games

Lee: What would a successful end of the season look like for G2? Four LEC titles are expected at this point, and it feels like — for example — four titles but a poor Worlds would be underwhelming.

How do you see it?

Dylan: So I think that we don’t take winning LEC lightly. We have won the last four splits in a row, but I don’t think that we have not been challenged and there haven’t been series that have been very close and I think it’s a testament to our ability to prioritize performance and have good match preparations and really have mastery that lets us do that. But I don’t think that means we necessarily have free wins here in Europe.

I think even winning one of the two next splits would be great and we would be very happy with that. If we were to get second or third in Summer, win Season Finals, that’s not because we’re bad and underperforming. That could be because another team is just playing very well. I also think there’s better teams in Europe now with some of the roster changes.

Ultimately for the team, the only success is winning an international event. I think that’s just it for us. So, yeah, if we were to win in Europe and do extremely poorly at Worlds, I don’t think that would be a success for anybody here. I think our MSI was acceptable. I’m not happy with it, but it was okay.

We took a best five off an Asian team, which is something we have not done yet. So I think that’s good to build on. But no, as a team we actually want to win one of these events and we feel that it’s something we can do.

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Lee: As well as some other big changes such as a new international event, Riot just announced the introduction of ‘fearless’ drafting early in the season.

What are your thoughts on that draft mode?

Dylan: Ultimately there’s a few different perspectives. I think anything that’s good for the health of the esport is just good in general, as long as it doesn’t severely impact competitive integrity. I think we should always be open-minded to things that make the game more entertaining and cooler.

I think the fearless draft doesn’t really harm competitive integrity. It slightly changes what skills you’re testing – you’re a bit less prioritized to master one champion and maybe need two or three instead. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a worse skill to test. Some might even argue it’s a better skill to test. So I think overall, if the fans like it more, I would say it’s a positive change.

Also, it probably makes the drafting a bit more important as things can be less pre-planned and you need to be a bit more sharp on how you draft between series. As a coach and as a drafter, I will take the challenge and I think that’s cool if maybe my role becomes a bit more impactful.

So overall, I would say if it makes things more entertaining, I would love it and I’m very excited to do fearless draft next year.

Do you think it will suit G2?

Dylan: Yeah, for us it’s great, right? We have very big champion pools. It might change the way you need to prepare. Sometimes you can have a big champion pool, but you can keep a few roles in a rigid draft structure. So you would have to change how you approach some of that.

If you’re always early picking one of the roles and you’re building around that, even if you have big champion pools elsewhere, that actually cannot be done if five champs just get removed for the second game.

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