On Mar. 6th, day 32 of the 2021 LCK Spring split took place. In the first match of the day, DWG KIA took down Afreeca Freecs and continued to stand strong in 1st place, with a 10-match win streak. Despite AF’s attempts to throw off DWG KIA with the surprise Nasus pick (picked after 980 days of absence in the LCK), it was not enough to topple the world champions.

The jungler for DWG KIA, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu, joined Inven Global for a post-victory interview.

Thoughts on the victory?

We’re very happy to be on the 10-match winstreak, but the details of our performances have been far from perfect. We’ll need to continue working hard and to fix a lot of the mistakes that we make.

Why did you decide to take the Predator rune on Lillia in game 1?

I watched SofM take it in solo queue, and thought it was good. With Predator, I feel that Lillia can find easier gank angles

You locked in Hecarim in game 2, a champion that you don’t really tend to use in competitive. Can you tell the background behind that pick, as well as the role that the champion served in your team composition?

I’ve watched a lot of Hecarim/Udyr being picked in foreign leagues, and I thought it was a great pick as well. Building Turbo Chemtank on Hecarim is something that's been popping up in solo queue lately as well. Compared to Udyr, Hecarim is just as fast in clearing the jungle and has more movespeed than Udyr. Even if Udyr invades my jungle, it doesn’t really hinder Hecarim’s growth. 

There was a moment in game 2 where it felt like you went in too deep in the enemy’s jungle, but was able to survive with a sliver of health. Was it all calculated?

No, I just got very greedy and overconfident. I was only able to survive because of how fed I was, and I have my team to thank for helping me survive.

With changes to the jungle in patch 11.4, many experts predicted that we’ll shift to a more aggressive jungle meta. Do you think the jungle has changed in such a direction? How do you predict the jungle will change?

So far, I don’t think so. While I understand Riot’s intentions, I feel that we’ll still see champions that can clear really fast, so I don’t think we’re going to see any meta shifts. 

Recently, it was announced that the Mid-Season Invitational will be taking place in Iceland. If DWG KIA does make it to MSI this year, is there a team/player that you’d like to face?

I’d love to face G2 at MSI. You can't afford to make any mistakes against them, and it's more fun to play against good teams. However, I don’t think we are ready for MSI just yet.

How far has the team come so far in achieving the ‘MSI-ready form’?  

I’d say we’re at about 70%. There are areas of improvement in all parts of our game, and those need to be fixed before we’re ready for MSI.

Your next opponents are Fredit BRION. Not only did they beat DWG KIA in round 1, they recently dominated the series against T1, and seem to be in the process of shifting their momentum. What are some key points of the upcoming match, and how will you prepare for it?

I honestly believe that Fredit BRION are a great team, especially in their teamfighting, so we can’t underestimate them. They also have a new mid laner, Lee “Yaharong” Chan-ju, so we’ll need to gather more data on how he plays as well.