As Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu lifted the Summoner’s Cup at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship and was voted as the finals MVP, he was considered as one of the best junglers in the world. It seemed that Canyon would be the unequaled king of the jungle for a long time, but suddenly, he became a mid lane.

Canyon said that DWG KIA’s role changes were decided rather quickly. After they lost to kt Rolster, they started discussing the matter, and he ended up playing in the mid lane. Canyon did mention that there were possibilities of changing positions before that point as well. One of the reasons they swapped positions was that their scrims went well when Canyon played mid and Heo “ShowMaker” Su went down to bot lane.

In today’s match against Hanwha Life Esports, Canyon faced one of the best mid laners in the league, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon. “It was the first time I felt a big gap,” he said. “Up to now, it wasn’t that difficult during the laning phase, but Chovy was different. Even when I played champions that were said to be good against Yone such as Ryze or Sett, I was naturally falling behind.”

Canyon said that the attributes needed for laners and junglers were different. “Laners have to concentrate almost everything in laning but junglers need to focus on the macro while looking at the whole Rift,” said Canyon. “My laning is only from what I learned in top lane which I play during solo queue as my sub role. I lack tricks and details to face the veteran mid laners. ShowMaker has been teaching me many things, but it’s quite difficult to make it my own.”

The role he preferred to play was the jungle. “Mid lane is much harder than I thought, and I feel that I’m more help to the team when I’m in the jungle,” he said. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be playing in the mid lane, but the important thing is that I should be prepared for whatever role I’m given. I’ll always do my best to make the best plays in the given situation.”