On the 20th (KST), day 4 of the 2020 LCK Summer split took place at LoL Park, Seoul. In the 2nd match of the day, T1 took down Hanwha Life Esports with a set score of 2-1 and marked their first victory of the Summer split. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok was able to smartly utilize his champion, Twisted Fate’s, ultimate, ‘Destiny’, to proactively move around in game 1, while he played more of a supportive role on Karma in game 2 and 3.

After the match, Faker joined the press room for a post-match interview and shared his thoughts about the match.

How does it feel to take the first victory of the split?

It was a hard fought win. We’ll make sure to win a lot more to do well this split as well.

Just as you said after the last match, you also mentioned that you made a lot of mistakes this match as well.

It’s true that we didn’t play to our expectations. We believe that we have a lot to learn from our previous two matches. If I am to pick out one mistake, it would be in our teamfighting.

HLE brought out a lot of rookies for this match against T1.

I’m not the type to really be affected by my opponents. I focused on my own play, and that stays true even if the opponents are rookies. Although we didn’t expect our opponent to start three rookies today, we’ve prepared for it.

Can you tell us what your goal for this split is?

Last split, we came in 2nd place in the regular season. We want to perform well right from the beginning to come in 1st place this split. However, there’s still room for improvement,

In game 1, the team put a lot of focus early in the top lane.

The top lane matchup was critical in game 1, so that’s why I put a lot of focus on the top lane. Canna played well in game 1, so I think I made the right decision.

Game 2 ended very abruptly with HLE rushing down the mid lane to win the game. 

We made too many mistakes. It all snowballed to lead to our loss.

Can you tell us what the team learned from MSC?

I believe that rather than our opponents outplaying us, our mistakes played a bigger role in our losses. I don’t think that the LPL and the LCK team’s playstyles are too different, so I predict that there won’t be any drastic changes.

As part owner of T1, can you tell us some good things about Kuri?

Our team is full of young blood, and they’re all bright. I’m very proud of it (laughter).

Your next opponent is Afreeca Freecs. Which lane do you believe will be the key lane of the series?

Bot lane will be the key lane of the series. In Afreeca’s recent series, they were very bot-centric and did very well. For us, our bot lane is very important as well.

Lastly, is there anything you’d like to say?

Just like the Spring split, we’ll aim for the championship trophy in the 2020 LCK Summer split as well. Although I hoped to greet our fans at LoL Park in the Summer, the fact that we can’t meet them really bums me out.

Looking for more LCK news and interviews? Look no further.