DWG KIA fielded a roster that no one expected; two of their five players were playing off-role, and their starting ADC, Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun, was benched for their match against Afreeca Freecs, which took place on day 7 of the 2021 LCK Summer split. Despite the eccentric line-up, it was a good day for DWG KIA fans, as the team picked up a clean 2-0 victory against AF.

The head coach of DWG KIA, Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun, joined Inven Global to talk about the match, as well as the eccentric line-up.

Please tell us how you feel about the dominating win with the swapped roster.

It’s just one match, and while I do feel great about the win, we still have a long way to go.

The biggest question has to be the roster shuffle. First, when was the swap decided for the team? Was it something that was talked about after MSI ended? Or was it decided after the loss vs KT?

Our ultimate goal is to win Worlds, so while the decision to switch it up was decided after our match vs KT, the idea of utilizing everyone on the roster was always on the table.

During the LCK media day, you stated that the team will be shaky in the beginning. Was this roster shuffle the reason why?

There are multiple reasons why I thought the team would struggle in the beginning. The two biggest reasons why I said what I said then was because the players barely had time to rest after MSI, and they needed time to get used to playing at LoL Park.

Looking at the picks in the series, it looked like Canyon could’ve gone either mid or top [Sett-Viego in game 1, Sett-Ryze in game 2]. Was Canyon going to mid lane premeditated? Or was the swap between mid and top something that the team has contemplated?

That’s right. In terms of the lane swaps, depending on the matchup, Canyon could’ve gone either top or mid. We’re always exploring our best options of winning, so there are a lot of possibilities in the future.

Did the players face any difficulties during practice?

Our players are very gifted individually, so the practice itself was pretty easy.

ShowMaker was down quite a bit in CS during game 1 on Ezreal, but scaled well into the late game and played very well. How would you rate ShowMaker’s performance tonight?

Ezreal is a champion that’ll suffer in the early game, but despite this, he contributed more than I can ask for to his team and played very well. Despite playing off-role, I have nothing but praise for ShowMaker tonight.

While laners made the swap to the jungle in the LEC, Canyon made the swap to a solo lane tonight. How would you rate his performance playing in lane?

From his laning phase to side lane macro/rotations, he played phenomenally as well. His laning was especially superb.

In an earlier interview with ShowMaker, he stated that it hasn’t been long since Malrang actually started scrimming with the team. Can you tell me more about his practice routine?

We gave him the opportunity tonight because he’s always practicing very hard through solo queue and what not, and I think his efforts have paid off through the victory tonight. 

Was tonight’s roster shuffle more of an experimental thing? Or would you say that fans can expect more of this line up in the future?

Tonight’s roster isn’t something that’s fixed; as I said earlier, we’re exploring the best options to win, so in the future, you might see players in different lanes. LoL is a team game, so depending on how our practice goes, we’ll be fielding players in positions that’ll give us the best chance to win.

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

As I always say, no matter how tough things might seem, I always want to make our fans smile. Please continue to cheer for our players.