A single setback won’t be enough to halt Karmine Corp's ambitions in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) playoffs. After falling to G2 Esports in the upper bracket finals, the French organization must now overcome their recent struggles and prepare for their upcoming match against either Movistar KOI or Fnatic. In an exclusive interview, the team’s jungler, Martin "Yike" Sundelin, reflects on the loss to the European champions, discusses his resolve in the lower bracket, and shares his goal of becoming the best team in Europe.

What is your gut reaction to the loss against G2 and what do you think went wrong?

Martin "Yike" Sundelin: "It was our first time playing a best-of-five with Fearless on stage. We had practiced it a bit in scrims, but I think G2 was more prepared. They played well and had strong strategies. Some games were harder than others, and overall, we need to improve. We were humbled. We've been performing well recently, but today, they were simply better. Now, we just have to step up and make sure we're ready if we face them again in the finals.

How would you describe your feelings after the match, especially since it was against your former team?

Yike: I'm definitely a bit sad. It’s a tough way to lose, especially since I feel like we could have done more in the games we lost—that’s the frustrating part. But I don’t really think of G2 as my old team when I face them; to me, they’re just another team we need to beat. That was my mindset coming into today. They played better than us, and we just have to learn from this and improve.

Despite the rough start in the first game, KC showed a completely different face in game 2, dominating G2. Do you think that performance reflects your peak level, and on a better day, could you have won the series?

Yike: For sure, on a better day, we could beat these guys. In game two, aside from the first dragon, we were just playing better—we outplayed them hard in team fights, and that’s how we usually are as a team. But in the other games, we didn’t reach that point, or they were already too far ahead. We need to think more about how we approach everything moving forward.

The Diana Yasuo combo looked promising on paper, but it never really came together in-game. Do you feel like you had a wrong meta-read in some games, or was it more about execution?

Yike: That draft was winnable, but we played it badly. Vladi (Vladimiros Kourtidis) and I died mid, then we died bot as well, so we already gave up three or four kills early. Our comp needed more time to scale, and with a champ like mine, we couldn't afford those mistakes—especially since Renekton was strong against our comp. We had to play it cleaner. If we had, I think we could have won, because even when we were really behind, we still managed to take some good team fights.

Did G2 play up to your expectations today, especially with their creative picks like Anivia in Game 4? Were there any surprises?

Yike: No, nothing really surprised me. The only thing we didn't expect was Anivia, but I knew it was going to be Caps playing it, especially since he had played it against Ryze at MSI before. Other than that, we pretty much knew what they wanted to do, and we had a good read on everything.

Do you feel like KC didn’t get to show everything you prepared because the series only went to four games and some were one-sided? Can we expect more from you guys in the lower bracket?

Yike: Yeah, we can show a lot more. That’s an advantage for us when we play against whoever’s next because I think we’re much better than what we showed in the games we lost. We just have to make sure we perform better moving forward.

What are the next steps for you to prepare for the lower bracket match on Saturday?

Yike: The first thing is to keep practicing a lot and have more talks about how we want to approach things—especially Fearless Draft, because it can get a bit messy, like in the last game. We need to be in good shape, where everyone knows what we’re doing. It wasn’t our best day, but we can definitely do better. The main focus now is to try harder in practice, work much harder. We lost to G2 on a bad day for us, but I believe we can still beat them, and I’m confident we’ll win when we face them again.

You’ll be facing the winner of Movistar KOI versus Fnatic. Do you have any expectations for which team you’ll be facing, and what are your thoughts ahead of the matchup? Are you confident you can take on either team?

Yike: We can take on both teams, definitely. For us, it doesn’t really matter who we face. On paper, Fnatic should be the stronger team, but they’ve had some rough games recently, so it’s hard to gauge how strong they really are. However, they should definitely be better than KOI. It’ll be interesting to see how things play out. We have time to watch their best-of-five and analyze their drafts and playstyle, so we have that advantage. No matter who we face, I’m confident we’ll win.

Is there a desire to get revenge or a win against Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle, your former teammate?

Yike: Yeah, definitely. Fnatic beat us pretty badly in the group stage, so I definitely want to get revenge on Mikyx. I’d love to play against Fnatic again.

If you had to point to one thing that you’ll be working on to fix before your next match, what would it be?

Yike: I need to put more thought into the drafts so I can help more. Everyone needs to take their time to understand the drafts, and when certain champions are out, I have to figure out what’s strong and what’s weak. The same goes for everyone on the team, but we’re all going to work on that because Fearless is what makes the difference.

I already know what you're going to answer, but I have to ask—Is the confidence still there? Are you guys still looking to win the split and make it to First Stand?

Yike: We’re making it to First Stand. The confidence is definitely still there. Even in the games in which we got stomped, we were still laughing and trying to make the best out of it. So, I don’t mind what happened today. We’re still going to be the best team in Europe, and we’ll prove it next week.

Do you have any last words for the Blue Wall?

Yike: I want to say thank you guys for always supporting us. I’m sorry for the loss against G2, but we’re going to do better. We can get our revenge against G2 in the finals when we get there. So, thank you for your support. We’ll do better than today.

Hopefully, I’ll talk to you when you’re at First Stand in Korea then!

Yike: I hope so too. That’s the goal. We’re going to do it!"