Having switched sides, Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle is out for revenge, with one name at the top of his list: G2 Esports. Now leading Fnatic, his former organization's rivals, the Slovenian support is gearing up for his most anticipated match of the split, aiming to ride a wave of glory in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC). In an exclusive interview, Mikyx explains why teams should fear Fnatic, answers fan questions, and reaffirms his hunger to prove himself once again.

You've played 95 games against Fnatic since joining the LEC in 2016, winning 61% of the time. How does it feel to now join Fnatic after all those years of rivalry? Has it been strange for you?

Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle: "It feels a bit weird, but at the same time, even when I played against them, it always felt like a team I had some kind of connection with because they were the first team that really saw me. I started as a sub for Fnatic, so I didn’t really see them as enemies. That changed when I joined G2 and the rivalry really grew. It’s definitely taken some time to get used to everything, but I think now it’s kind of settled in.

Romain mentioned that a fresh start might have been necessary for you. Do you agree with this perspective? How are you looking at your upcoming matchup with G2?

Mikyx: Well, I guess I don’t really see it the same way—that I needed a new start or whatever. I definitely think changes were necessary in the team, but personally, that wasn't what I would have changed obviously. But yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to playing them. It’s my most anticipated matchup. Right now, they’re not doing too well—they’re 1-2. Let’s see if they can bounce back. It would be a bit lame if they just start losing to everyone. I only want them to lose to me.

The dream scenario would be beating them in the finals, right?

Mikyx: Yeah, that would be pretty nice. Semifinals would work as well, you know? I don't really mind. At some point in the best of 5s.

With so many rookies coming into the league, how does it feel to be one of the older players now? You're the third oldest in the LEC, which is crazy to think about. Do you think you can still compete against the younger players and combat the "washed-up" allegations?

Mikyx: It feels a little messed up that I’m the third oldest because I used to always make fun of Jankos and the older players in the LEC for being washed. I guess the difference is that I play support, so it’s harder to notice I’m washed compared to other roles. So, I have that going for me.

But overall, I don’t think any of the rookies coming in are extremely good. Looking back to 2017, 2018, and 2019, there were always big names getting hyped up, even from solo queue. People would say, "Oh, this guy’s really good, he’s going to do well." I remember in 2019, players like Nemesis, Humanoid, and Larssen came in, and they were all really hyped.

Nowadays, it feels a bit more random how people join the LEC. They get picked up from places like the LFL 2nd Division or whatever. I get it when someone wins EMEA Masters, they’ve proven themselves, but a lot of the other pickups seem more random.

Last year on G2, you had great chemistry with your teammates, but it was also mentioned that this made it harder to challenge each other or address issues. How does the atmosphere feel now in Fnatic? Is it different from last year?

Mikyx: I think when it comes to discussing the game or giving feedback, it always depends on how well the individual can take it. At the start, it’s usually easier, and it gets harder the longer you work with someone or when you keep seeing similar mistakes.

Right now, we’re doing well in that regard in Fnatic since it’s still early days. We'll see how things go in the future. In G2, it was easy, especially at the start. I feel like it’s kind of similar here, but it’s easier when there’s a rookie, like Yike was for example. It was easier to give him feedback and for him to receive it.

But now, we’re five veterans, and everyone has their own way of thinking or playing the game. So, I assume it will get harder down the road to talk about mistakes or give feedback compared to working with a rookie. Still, I don’t think it should be too big of a problem as long as everyone is mature about it, which I think we are on this team. So, I think it’ll be alright.

Given that Fnatic is ranked first by many in the LEC tier lists and G2 seem to be in a slump so far, do you think it’s fair to consider you guys the favorites for this split?

Mikyx: Yeah, I would definitely say so. So far, looking at the games we’ve played in scrims—though it’s not the biggest sample size—we’ve done very well and won convincingly. The game we lost on stage, the first one, was pretty rough from the draft onwards. I think everyone was kind of choking, which is pretty normal for a first game, myself included. There was one play in mid where I missed my W on the Varus, and Rell was next to him—it was crazy.

But yeah, I feel like the more we play, the better we’re going to get. I already feel like our ceiling is quite high. Individually, everyone is very good. It’s just about us getting on the same page, which should improve with time. So yeah, I feel like we have a very good shot. Another thing is that I don’t think the other teams are very strong, so that makes it easier for us to win, I would say.

Do you feel like you're saving GrabbZ’s career and doing charity work, especially after his two-year break and everything that happened in 2022?

Mikyx: Yeah, I mean, I’m glad to be working with GrabbZ again. I think I’ve missed having a coach like him. He’s very open-minded, does whatever he needs to do, and doesn’t have an ego about it. He’ll just do whatever is necessary for the team, which I really appreciate. And yeah, I mean, I hope I can return the favor by winning him a split. He’s gone from 10th place to 1st place, back to 10th, and now he’s back to 1st again.

What do you think Fnatic still needs to work on to become an undisputed top team, especially given the criticism of inconsistency?

Mikyx: I think the biggest thing I noticed, at least from our first two games, is that there was a lot of clutter in comms. Everyone just needed to get their voice out, and people were talking over each other, so it was quite messy. Everyone wanted to do their own thing.

I feel like when we start planning further ahead and everyone is on the same page, that’s when things will be way easier, clearer, and cleaner. Right now, it just felt random. We’d see a kill and think, “Oh, let’s go kill this guy!” And while we might get the kill, it made the game more chaotic and volatile. Instead of just playing for objectives or deciding in advance what we want to play for, we were just kind of reacting.

If someone runs it down, sure, you kill them, but the objective should still be the focus. At least in the first two games, we were just playing for kills, and in the second game, Hylissang made it really easy for us to get kills, so it was hard to focus on objectives.

But today against Heretics, we did a better job of playing for objectives. If they ran into us and wanted to die, we just killed them. I think today was a decent improvement. It still wasn’t the strongest opponent, so we can’t take too much from it, but I’m looking forward to playing against stronger teams. I want to see how we do, if we get too hyped or excited. But things should be good.

Have you been able to introduce anime culture to Fnatic?

Mikyx: Nah, not quite. I mean, Razork doesn’t watch it at all. For some reason, he says that if he started watching something, he’d end up buying all the merch—because that’s what he did with Arcane. He just started buying merch for it, so he says it would be the same with anime. It doesn’t really make sense to me, but, like, sure.

I guess Marek started watching Solo Leveling because we told him to, so that’s good. I haven’t watched season 2 yet; I’ll wait for him to catch up. Upset and Oscar have been watching as well, so that’s good. But I haven’t actually watched anything with them; everyone just kind of does their own thing.

I have two questions from Bruna, the person behind the 'Mikyx Daily' Twitter account. How do you feel about having such a dedicated fan base that continues to support you even after leaving G2?

Mikyx: I think it's quite nice and wholesome to have so many fans being supportive for so many years. Especially when you're losing, it kind of feels like the world is against you. So when you have fans who always support you or send some nice words your way, it always feels better. It helps you not give up, especially when you're losing.

Why did you choose the dinosaur emoji for your fan base?

Mikyx: Why did I choose the dino emoji? Well, I like dinosaurs—that's the first thing. When I was a kid, I watched all the Jurassic Park movies, and I would watch them on repeat. So, yeah, I really like dinosaurs. That’s the first reason. The second thing is that everyone who has these emojis usually picks normal animals, and some of them overlap. I wanted to choose one that no one else would use. No one else would pick the dinosaur, so that’s why I like it."