Nautilus Mid Emerges as a Surprising Contender at MSI 2023: G2’s Caps Sparks Interest Among Other Mid Laners
Players like Lee ‘Faker‘ Sang-hyeok, Yasin ‘Nisqy’ Dinçer, and Zeng ‘Yagao’ Qi are tinkering with the champion after Rasmus ‘Caps’ Winther chose Nautilus in G2’s first two games of MSI 2023. He might turn out to be the choice that defines MSI 2023. Even though MSI 2023 isn’t the international competition where the champion has been used in the mid-lane, Nautilus mid is undoubtedly an odd choice. The same Doinb choice helped FunPlus Phoenix win the Worlds title in 2019, which played a role in the team’s success.
Nearly four years later, at MSI 2023, the Caps played consecutive Nautilus mid-games to aid G2 in defeating LOUD 2-0. Other mid-laners competing in the tournament, like Faker, are already getting some practice on the champion in solo queue less than 24 hours after Caps displayed the pick on stage.
After the Caps used it at MSI 2023, the Pros tried the Nautilus mid
Those following Caps’ recent solo queue behavior will not be overly surprised by his choice of Nautilus mid. He reached rank one on EUW after being eliminated from the LEC Spring playoffs, with Nautilus being one of his most-played champions.
Then, with a strong performance in both matches, Caps bet on what was performing well in the solo queue against LOUD and picked it twice. Because of this, mid-laners who are also competing at MSI 2023, including Nisqy (MAD Lions), Yagao (Bilibili Gaming), and even Faker (T1), have been seen practicing it. The same applies to a few LCK mid-laners who missed the international tournament, like Yoo Su-hook of DRX and Heo Su of Dplus.
In a post-game interview, G2 support Mihael ‘Mikyx’ Mehle credited Doinb and said that the team chose to try it out following a relatively recent round of upgrades to the champion. He also revealed why they decided on Nautilus.
In addition to boasting a 92% champion win percentage on his G2 Joker solo queue account, Caps also demonstrated his preference for Nautilus through his itemization decisions. For its AoE magic resist reduction, Caps rushed Abyssal Mask in both games, while Martin ‘Yike’ Sundelin played AP carry junglers. In other words, a team that wishes to copy G2’s mid/jungle approach needs a juggler who can play AP carriers like Nidalee and Lillia and a mid-laner who can play Nautilus. It will be interesting to see whether other teams use G2’s tactic in tournament games.
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