On day 34 of the 2022 LCK Summer split, Gen.G defeated T1 2-0 in the second match of the day. Not only was Gen.G’s match victory over T1 their first time this season, they even managed to do it with a pentakill scored by their bot laner, Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk.
Prior to this match, Gen.G’s mid laner, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, pledged that he’d sing at a karaoke room that’s in T1’s headquarters. After his victory tonight, he joined the LCK press room to talk about his victory, his pledge, and more
How do you feel to finally beat T1, and to do so in a clean 2-0 fashion?
The win/loss record against T1 was abysmal; I’m glad that we won tonight at a very important time.
Tonight’s victory was the first time you beat T1 this season.
As the current rendition of Gen.G, we lost to T1 quite a bit. Because they beat us quite often, I did get intimidated in the past, but I had this feeling that we were going to win tonight. We came back from when we were behind to win game 1, and Ruler even got a pentakill in game 2, so it feels more meaningful.
Why did you feel you were going to win tonight?
I thought we didn’t have a particular reason on why we’d lose. Our recent performance has been stellar so far, so I played with the mindset that we were going to win tonight.
How was Gen.G able to come back from such a deficit in game 1?
Doran’s Akali did die quite a bit, but he died after gaining quite a bit of an advantage from minion waves, so the damage was minimal, and the gap didn’t increase.
T1 played a very fast tempo game tonight. How did the team respond?
A key characteristic of playing Twisted Fate + Nocturne is to focus on one side of the map. When that happens, champions allocated in other lanes can gain a lot of advantages, and if you can maintain that state for a long time, you can gain a lot of advantages in levels and in gold. Doran did end up dying, but since TF + Nocturne slowly falls off towards the late game, we felt that the game was winnable.
What was the turning point for game 1?
Things went very smoothly for us when we were securing our fourth dragon. That’s when we felt the game was winnable.
What did you think about Doran’s dance after the victory?
It was hilarious. I didn’t think he’d actually do it.
T1’s bot laner, Gumayusi, said that he’d also dance if T1 wins. What were your thoughts when you heard about it?
I didn’t think too much about it. As for my own pledge, I have no plans to carry it out right away. I’ll do it when the right opportunity presents itself.
You personally have a negative win rate against Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. Did it affect your gameplay at all?
League of Legends is a 5 vs 5 team game. The reason behind my bad win rate against Faker is because I lost a lot to the team he’s part of. Because Faker’s such a great player, I might get overshadowed by his talent. That’s why I have to play even more meticulously, even if it meant I didn’t individually stand out. I focused on how my team would win.
It’s hard to shake off the feeling of defeat, because it’s absolutely frustrating to lose. However, I think how you use those emotions in your next match is more important. For me, I think that the feeling of defeat just fueled my drive to win.
Gen.G’s most likely to finish 1st place in the regular split. How do you feel about your remaining matches?
A lot of people did say that we’ll finish first place if we beat T1. That’s when you’re most susceptible to complacency. I’ll make sure to stay focused until the end to win.
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