Rasmus "Caps" Winther's rookie EU LCS split probably wasn't what he imagined when he signed on with Fnatic. In a campaign that he describes as a "roller coaster," his team fought hard to find their stride and overcome their issues, managing to make the playoffs but ultimately falling to G2 Esports.

Caps spoke with theScore esports about his experience in spring 2017, playing with the roster's veterans and his mindset in the semifinal.

As a whole, how would you describe your rookie split with Fnatic?

I was lucky being picked up by Fnatic, because they are not only the most popular team in EU, but also an experienced team with a really solid structure.

Do you feel that some of the community expectations for you this split were fair?

I am not completely sure what the expectations for me were coming into the split, but I want us to be the very best and therefore I have very high expectations for myself. Not necessarily how I perform, but also my growth.

What was the most important thing you learned?

I think setting up a schedule is probably the most important thing I learned, because it keeps my life healthy in a longer period, but I also took a lot from the G2 series about how to transition from game to game in a longer series.

What was the most difficult part?

I am a really competitive person, so losing always feels bad, other than that I would say overcoming the issues we had during the split. It is never fun to underperform and be forced to make changes.

Your roster had some veterans of the competitive scene in Rekkles and sOAZ. What was it like playing with these guys, and how did they impact your experience this split?

Personally I did not know what to expect coming into the split, but the fact that everyone else felt comfortable definitely made me less stressed about moving to a foreign country and [playing] in front of viewers.

Outside of the game, how did Fnatic support your rookie split? I saw the organization added a mental coach in January.

As I mentioned earlier I really liked it here, I never lacked anything or felt like something was not right, which meant that I could focus on improving and getting used to being a pro player. This was because of our mental coach but also our manager and coach-manager.

How did the team dynamic change once Broxah came up from FNC Academy? As the “new guys,” did you talk about how to handle your first LCS split? What was that relationship like?

It was fun to play with someone that was newer than myself, because it made me feel experienced, but it was kinda unfortunate timing for him to join, because we were having some issues at the time, luckily towards the end of the split we managed to overcome the issues and for next split we should look even stronger.

Can you describe your mindset during the EU LCS semifinal series? You seemed pretty comfortable on Aurelion Sol.

In Week 10 against Misfits as well as our games against H2K, I had a feeling we would win and it really helped me calm down, but when I woke up on the day of our semifinal I did not have that feeling, and even after our very one-sided Game 1 I had a bad feeling about the series.

I personally was not able to bring what I should have brought, and therefore looking at the series gives me a bad feeling. Hopefully that will not be our last playoffs and coming into summer playoffs we have a debt to repay with G2.

Anything else to add?

As a final note I would like to tell everyone cheering for me that I am really sorry I have not been active on social media and I did not stream, but this split has been a roller coaster ride and I am still a bit dizzy. For the next split I will try to be a lot more active and maybe even stream. I also want to say thank you, reading all your comments give me a smile on my lips.

Josh "Gauntlet" Bury is a news editor for theScore esports. You can find him on Twitter.