On Mar. 21st, DWG KIA took a 2-0 victory against DRX on day 41 of the 2021 LCK Spring split. It was recently revealed that the mid laner for DWG KIA, Heo “ShowMaker” Su, was suffering from a wrist injury. However, his performance on Zilean tonight made it seem as if nothing was wrong, greatly aiding in the team’s victory in both games.

After the match, Inven Global was able to chat with the head coach for DWG KIA, Kim “kkOma'' Jeong-gyun. He provided a short update on the mid laner’s health issues, how he rates the team’s performance this split, as well as his the team he hopes to face if DWG KIA makes it to MSI.

Thoughts on the victory tonight?

Things went the way that we planned tonight, so I’m very satisfied with the team’s performance tonight. 

Due to the dominance that DWG KIA showed this split, the team’s loss to Gen.G earlier came as a surprise to many fans. What did the team talk about after, and what was the direction that the team took for tonight’s series?

There are a lot of reasons why we lost against Gen.G. We analysed all the reasons why we lost, discussed the things that we need to improve on, and fixed them for tonight’s match. We locked in 1st place in the standings, so the loss served to be valuable data that we could work with.

Zilean was picked twice in this series tonight. For game 1, was the Zilean pick a counterpick to Seraphine? Can you give us background information on the Zilean pick?

All of our players have a very wide champion pool, so we have a lot of tools to work with during practice. The Zilean pick was more about how he fit into our team composition, as well as his functionality against the enemy team composition. 

Do you believe Zilean is a pick that’s overlooked (sleeper OP) in the meta right now? Or is it a situational pick that acts as a booster to Hecarim?

(Laughter) We still have a lot of matches left this split, so I don’t think I’ll be able to reveal anything about it. The reason why the pick looked clean tonight was because all our players played their part well, so I want to give all the credit to them.

The news of ShowMaker’s injury made many fans around the world worry. How’s he doing now? Can you give us an update on his injury? 

Right now, because of the injury, ShowMaker’s condition is not at his 100%. We’re planning to get a thorough diagnosis this week, so we’ll have more information on his injury afterwards. When we do, our front will be able to provide an update to the situation.

Despite not being in his best, he performed phenomenally in tonight’s series. How do you rate his performance tonight?

(Laughter) He did play incredibly well tonight, so despite not being at 100%, I’m going to give him a perfect score. Everyone else played very well tonight, thus generating a lot of synergy.

As this split is your first split with the team, how do you reflect upon the team’s performance? Has the team’s performance exceeded your expectations from before the start of the split?

If we make it to the finals and win the split, I can confidently say that the team played very well. However, it’s not over just yet, so I can’t say that I’m quite satisfied just yet. We still have matches to play, so we can’t get complacent.

As the 2020 World Champions, they’ve had a hectic schedule with little time to rest, so I’m always grateful for their hard work..

With the playoffs bracket almost locked in, which team do you believe will pose to be the biggest threat in the playoffs? 

Hmm… We’re near the very end of the regular split, so I’ll need a little more time in figuring out which team that will be. 

Many experts around the world are predicting that DWG KIA will be the LCK representatives for this year’s MSI. Although this next question may be looking too far into the future, is there a team that you’d personally like to face at MSI?

(Laughter) I agree that it’s too far into the future to tell, but I’d be ecstatic if our team makes it to MSI. If we do make it, it’d definitely have to be G2.

So, it’s the revenge match from the 2019 Worlds semi-finals?

(Laughter) It's not a revenge match, per se, but G2 is the team that I lost to in my last international match, so it'll be fun to face them again.

DWG KIA’s last game of the regular split is against KT. 

The playoffs are right after, so continuously searching for the things that work is the right mindset to have.

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

I’d like to thank all our fans for their support. Wins and losses are a natural part of competition, but our end goal is to be smiling at the end, so we’ll continue to work hard for those smiles. The players and the coaching staff are working very hard to win, and I’d like to take this time to thank our management for their support as well.