After being ruthlessly cut by G2 following a Worlds Swiss stage exit, jungler Martin “Yike” Sundelin has stepped up to become a key part of a solid Karmine Corp roster. A good start to the 2025 season has seen them qualify for Winter playoffs with a joint-second regular season through a run that included a satisfying win over G2 in the first week. We spoke to Yike at the conclusion of the regular season.
Esports.net: You’ve joined Karmine Corp as a leader having previously been the most inexperienced of the previous G2 roster.
Was the potential of a more senior role something that helped you pick KC over other potential destinations?
Yike: Yeah, it was a new experience for me and I was kind of excited for it when I saw that. We have two very young players… and then also Canna who doesn’t speak fluent English. So most of the job is on me and Targa to do it. And I think we’re doing a good job.
I think the regular split was going pretty well for us. We did some some mistakes now in the last week, but I think it’s probably easy ones to fix. So I’m not really worried about that.
And yeah, I like the role I have right now in the team. I’m just looking forward to playing more.
Lee Jones: I saw you mention that partnership with Targamas in an interview with Dot recently. There’s a narrative around him that he doesn’t speak in-game following a VOD posted (and later deleted) by Excel when he was playing for them.
What are your thoughts on that perception of Targamas? How have you found playing alongside him?
Yike: I don’t really like that they put a narrative on him that he doesn’t speak, ’cause he does in scrims and on stage – he comes up with very good calls always. He’s not one of these supports that speaks a lot, like perma. He’s just one of the chill ones. It’s kind of similar to Miky, you know, the way he speaks.
So it’s not like he’s not speaking. He has very good calls and I think he’s probably the smartest one in our team micro-wise. So that’s why all of us trust him and listen to him a lot. It’s usually me taking care of early game stuff for normal objective planning and this stuff, but Targa is good with the normal macro.
Image credit: Riot Games
Lee Jones: You mentioned the rookies earlier, and Caliste is the most hyped LEC rookie for many, many years.
Just how good is he? How many more times has he surprised you like in the video of him explaining the 1v2 versus Rogue?
Yike: He’s one of the few players that really surprises me with the things he does. Like, for example, that Draven play – very, very insane by him. And I know Caliste can be a very, very good player. He’s very insane already. And I know he can become even more insane. So it’s very nice to see his growth and how it’s going to be throughout the whole year. So I’m excited to see how he’s going to go for him.
Lee Jones: You’ve left G2 at a time when their strength looks to have slipped and you’ve joined a very strong KC lineup with a good chance at snatching a title, but the timing looks a little bit unlucky as Fnatic has just put together a superteam.
What do you need to do to creep up to their level and have the chance to win the LEC?
I think in good days we can beat them, like the day we had yesterday was just us really throwing fights. But I think we can also just easily beat them as well.
But yeah, I think the biggest challenge for us, the thing to work on, is just the way we plan and just shotcall around what we wanna do on the map; the objectives we wanna play for, how I wanna play it. And yeah, that’s like the biggest thing.
Lee Jones: No player has ever left G2 and then won a title afterwards with a different team. It looks like you’re in a race with Miky to make it happen this year.
How big would it be to become the first to do so?
Yike: It would feel amazing. It’s my goal to just win every split obviously, but also just to beat G2 because yeah..
I want to prove that I’m still very good and that I can win without having the G2 players. Like everyone saying “winning with Caps”, this kind of narrative. So it would feel amazing to me to win.
Lee Jones: I wanted to ask about the G2 departure and the way that the rumours of you and Miky leaving dropped immediately after Worlds elimination. Mikyx told us that he had a feeling he was being cut and felt that some players had been treating him differently in the lead-up.
What was the experience like from your perspective?
Yike: For me, it was not really similar. I guess I never thought about the way people behaved towards me. But during Worlds when I opened Twitter one day and I saw all the speculations, all the rumours that I’m going to get replaced, that’s when obviously I got scared. And that was the hardest thing for me, for sure, because I opened it on the game day we played versus Weibo, I think. And I saw all of that.
For sure that hit me kind of hard. But yeah, after that my mindset was not thinking about anything outside of Worlds and I wanted to perform as good as possible. And, for example, that Weibo game, I think we played good, I think I played good. So I was still happy with how I performed even reading all the rumours.
But then I just… I think what I did was just tell myself that it’s gonna be fine. Like, no matter what happens, just do what you have to do, play your game. And I wanted to just make sure that I’m proud of myself at the end of the Worlds journey.