Legacy. Dynasty. Caps. In an somewhat-expected — but still unprecedented — mid-season move, Rasmus "Caps" Winther, iconic League of Legends midlaner for G2 Esports, has re-signed with the legendary European organization, set to extend his stay through 2027.

After six years with G2, the Danish midlaner stands as the LEC’s undisputed GOAT, with 14 regional league titles — 12 of them earned while donning the colors of the samurai — with an MSI trophy to top it all off. In an exclusive interview, G2 LoL General Manager Romain Bigeard opened up about the circumstances surrounding the deal and its timing, the thought of a world without Caps, and the organization’s long-term vision.

Rasmus "Caps" Winther has just extended his contract with G2 until 2027, meaning he could spend nearly a decade with the team. Is the idea that he stays with G2 until he retires — like Lee "Faker" Sang-Hyeok is for T1 today?

Romain Bigeard: The real plan is that he never actually finishes his career. Caps is someone who really lives in the moment, year after year. He plays above all out of passion, with an unconditional love for the game. If you talk to him about retirement, he’ll laugh. He doesn’t even think about next year — what obsesses him is the current patch, how to win as many titles as possible this year, or what the meta will be at Worlds. That’s his mindset today.

We learned that Caps didn’t extend his contract in November because you hadn’t reached an agreement at that time, and that he eventually accepted a pay cut to re-sign. Was there ever a moment when you were really worried he might not re-sign, or even leave during the off-season?

Romain: This has been a conversation going on for six months. We both took our time to really refine what each side was expecting. I was very transparent with him: there are pros and cons to signing now, just as there are to waiting until the end of the year. The advantage of waiting until the end of the year to sign is that you’ll have all the offers on the table and be able to choose the one you like best. That’s the simplistic view of the transfer market. The reality is that the market doesn’t wait until the end of the year.

Even before the year started, we were already seeing discussions on Twitter and Reddit about what he was going to do. Imagine what it would have been like in April, May, June — each month increasing the pressure on his decision and impacting the team. Imagine our run at Worlds 2025 if Caps hadn’t decided yet, and the seven other teams in Europe were in full transfer mode, sending him offers while we’re in China, deep into scrims. We had to avoid what we experienced last year, where off-season speculations started before our season even ended.

We had done everything to wait until after Worlds, but the speculations put enormous pressure on the group. Reddit and Twitter had already picked our next jungler when we hadn’t made any decisions ourselves. So, if he really wanted to give the roster a chance, he needed to make a decision quickly, one way or the other, and it had to be official. If he had chosen to leave, of course, G2 would have still made him an offer at the end of the year. And it would have been very competitive. But that would have meant starting immediately to work on finding a potential replacement, a scenario that would have impacted the team in one way or another.

Choosing at the end of the year also allows you to put pressure on salary by comparing different offers. Although money isn’t Caps’ primary motivation, we sat down and thought it through together. "OK, let’s imagine. Where could you go? Which teams could afford to pay you?" That’s a legitimate question. G2 is in good financial health today, especially for an esports organization. Thanks to an excellent business department, we’re able to offer one of the best deals on the market, probably top 1 or top 2 in terms of compensation. Caps will be the highest-paid player in Europe in 2025, and he’ll still be in 2026.

But what matters most to him is the players he’ll be playing with. His ultimate dream is for all 50 LEC players to become free agents at the end of each year so that players can recreate a dream team to win Worlds. The reality of the market, though, is that if you open the Global Contract Database, you’ll see that all the best players are locked in. You can’t recruit the four players you prefer if they’re all tied to other teams, especially if a team has just invested heavily to recruit you with great fanfare. And in the middle of the esports winter, buying and selling contracts has become extremely rare — teams no longer have the financial capacity for multi-million dollar signings.

If you want to play with the best players, the simplest thing is to bring them to you. By re-signing quickly with G2, Caps secures his position and allows us to continue our work of creating the best team possible around him. It may not be as "glamorous" as waiting for the best offers as a free agent in a market that is actually locked, but it’s the most strategic choice if his goal is to win Worlds. He stays with one of the best organizations, with experienced staff and teammates at the highest level possible. And at the end of the year, if it doesn’t work out, he can always say, "It was a disaster. Let’s change everything, start from scratch." That already happened in 2021. But in the meantime, this is clearly the most logical decision to keep the best team possible around him right now.

Can we say that, in a way, re-signing Caps means that G2 is really going to build around him for the next two years? Does he become the heart of the project, the one who holds the reins?

Romain: Caps has been one of the pillars of the team since 2019. He’s naturally at the heart of G2’s League of Legends project. He doesn’t hold the reins; he is very specialized in his talent and trusts his environment to help him achieve his dream. Our roster decisions are never unilateral; we obviously discuss a lot before making a decision. Caps has never been the type to directly express if he wants to continue playing with a specific player or not. He’s always very cautious about that. That being said, he’s always open to changes and original ideas.

The main goal is to win Worlds. Our role, as an organization, is to really understand his expectations and needs. We’re entering our fourth year together, and so far, things are going well. We’re still far from perfection — and that’s very exciting. Right now, it’s clear that Caps is the best midlaner in Europe: the most decorated and the one with the most experience. We share his dream of winning Worlds, and for that, we need solid foundations. Having Caps as a pillar for the next two years allows us to work in the best possible conditions.

If it hadn’t worked out, can you imagine G2 with a different midlaner than Caps today?

Romain: Yes, we would have had to consider that option. It would have been a mistake on our part not to evaluate the question. The main focus was to re-sign him — the options we could have put in place to replace him didn’t excite me nearly as much. I’m very happy to be in the reality where he trusts his staff to help him achieve his dream.

Would it have been better to bet on a rookie, like KC's Vladimiros "Vladi" Kourtidis?

Romain: I think it would have been better to bet on a rookie, yes. Established midlaners are a bit more complicated: either they’ve already shown their ceiling, or they’re tied down by existing contracts. So, it would have meant looking for a young talent in Europe. We would also have had to consider recruiting a rookie from another region. These are choices that require completely different logistics and approaches. Vladi’s performances this year are a pleasure to watch — finally, a bit of challenge for Caps! A healthy competition that’s going to do us a lot of good.

If you didn’t have budget restrictions, do you think G2 would have considered recruiting other players, perhaps more expensive than the current roster?

Romain: No. We pay our players very well. I have a good sense of salaries across the entire ecosystem, and I can tell you that Caps is currently the highest-paid player — and that will remain true next year, unless there’s a huge surprise in the off-season. I don’t think other teams can offer better than what we offer our players. There have been a few administrative hurdles, but financially, we’ve had no issues.