Mid laner Hanwha Life Esports (Hanwha Life Insurance) Kim “Zekka” Geon-woo was determined to write an underdog play again.
In the first round of the ‘2023 LoL Champions Korea (LCK)’ Spring Split Playoffs (PO) held at LoL Park in Jongno, Seoul on the afternoon of the 24th, Hanwha Life defeated Dplus Kia (DK) with a set score of 3 to 1 and on to the second round. . This is a reversal written by Hanwha Life, who failed to win a single set in two regular league matches against DK.
Kim Gun-woo, who met with Cookie News after the match, expressed his feelings, saying, “I thought I’d like to meet DK in PO and win at least once, but I’m happy to win 3- 1.” He said, “I couldn’t help but be aware of the opponent’s record against DK,” and added, “I was confident that we could win if we prepared well internally, regardless of what others thought.”
Hanwha Life Insurance, who placed 5th in the regular league, had just one win against teams ranked 4th or higher this season, including DK. In the pre-poll before the DK game, all 13 experts predicted a DK win.
Kim Gun-woo said he remembers last year’s LoL World Championship (Worlds) when looking at the match prediction results. Last year, he took part in Worlds as a member of DRX and won the championship. At the time, DRX was classified as a thorough underdog, such as starting the tournament from the qualifiers in the 4th order in the LCK, but they wrote a miraculous play defeating strong teams at home and abroad one after another . Kim Geon-woo laughed, saying, “I thought I was going to win again after thinking about last year, so I think I was able to focus more on the game.”
Hanwha Life Insurance won the last game of the regular season, Live Sandbox, with a set score of 2 to 1, but the performance was not very satisfactory. When asked about the background of the rapid increase in performance in a short period of time, Kim Geon-woo said, “Since we all have good personalities, there were many things that caused dissatisfaction in the game either by turning around or don’t say it. right.” He told the team, ‘Become a big group. If you say you can’t do what you can’t do and go over it lightly, instead, trust will increase and your concentration will improve.’ Speaking openly seems to have helped improve my performance.”
“I thought it could be dangerous if the players didn’t all think the same, so I worked hard to get things right. I thought it was important not to limit choices in the multi-site system, so I addressed this as well.”
Hanwha Life Insurance showed its devastating power in large-scale battles as before, but continued to dominate from the beginning of the game to the end. Kim Kun-woo said, “Unlike usual, the call between players was good even in unfavorable situations. Others think that Hanwha Life Insurance does not play well, but I am satisfied that I have broken that prejudice.”
On the 26th, Hanwha Life will play the second round of PO against Gen.G eSports (Gen.G), who are second in the regular league. This is because T1, the 1st place in the regular league with a matchup option, pointed to the 3rd place KT Rolster. T1 finished the regular season with 17 wins and 1 loss this season, and 1 loss came against Hanwha Life Insurance. The set score from the two clashes with Hanwha Life Insurance is tight with 3 wins and 3 losses. Accordingly, analysis brought out among those involved that T1 chose KT to reduce variables.
Kim Gun-woo said, “Since we use multiple options, I think we can be difficult from the other team’s point of view.” He said, “I think there’s a feeling that the game is going well because they say they’re doing well against T1. I hope I can prepare well and beat Gen. G and go up to meet T1 again.”
Finally, Kim Gun-woo said, “Gen. I think we need to prepare well from the preparation process so that there is no overlap,” he said. “Today, many people thought we would not win. Think the same way for the next game. (Like today) I will show you the same. ”
Reporter Moon Dae-chan mdc0504@kukinews.com View articles
