Hanwha Life Esports (Hanwha Life Insurance) mid laner Kim “Zekka” Geon-woo was determined to write an underdog drama 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 advanced 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 game, expressed his feelings, saying, “I thought I would like to meet DK at PO and win at least once, but I am happy to win 3-1.” He said, “I couldn’t help but be conscious of the opponent’s record against DK,” and added, “I was confident that we could win if we prepared well internally, no matter what others think.”
Hanwha Life Insurance, who placed 5th in the regular league, only won one win against teams ranked 4th or higher this season, including DK. In the pre-voting ahead of the DK match, all 13 experts predicted DK’s victory.
Kim Gun-woo said that he remembered the LoL World Championship (Worlds) last year while looking at the match prediction results. Last year, he participated 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 drama by overpowering 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 final 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 not saying it properly.” He told the team, ‘Become a large group. If you say you can’t do what you can’t do and go over it lightly, rather, trust will increase and your concentration will improve.’ Talking 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 it right. I thought it was important not to limit picks in the multi-premise system, so I paid attention to this as well.”
Hanwha Life Insurance showed off its destructive power in large-scale battles as before, but continued to take the initiative 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), which is second in the regular league. This is because T1, the 1st place in the regular league with a matchup option, pointed to 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 confrontations with Hanwha Life Insurance is tight with 3 wins and 3 losses. Accordingly, an analysis came out among those involved that T1 chose KT to minimize variables.
Kim Gun-woo said, “Since we use multiple picks, I think we can be tricky from the opposing team’s point of view.” He said, “I think there is a feeling that the game is going well because they say they do well against T1. I hope I can prepare well and beat Gen. G and go up to meet T1 again.”
Lastly, Kim Gun-woo said, “Gen. I think we need to prepare well from the preparation process so that there are no overlaps,” he said. “Today, many people thought we would not win. Please think the same way for the next match. (Like today) I will show you the same.”
Reporter Moon Dae-chan [email protected] View articles
