On May 10, day one of the Mid Season Invitational 2022 kicked off at Busan Esports Arena.  LJL representatives DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) defeated the Latin American representatives Team AZE., while DFM plays VCS’ Phong Vu Buffalo on day two, and will look to secure their second victory of the tournament.

The support player for DFM, Lee “Harp” Ji-yoong, joined Inven Global for a post-match interview.

Thoughts on the victory?

Tonight’s match was my first international match. I’m very satisfied with the victory. 

This is your first international event, and it’s in Busan! How do you feel about playing from your home country?

To play my first international event on a team feels a bit weird. There were a lot of people watching from the stands as well, so I was very nervous.

Your former laner partner, 5kid, was on the other side of the Summoner’s Rift tonight. How did you prepare for tonight’s match?

He was my former lane partner, so obviously I had good knowledge about him as a partner. I think he’s a really good player, so I had to be very thorough in-game.

Can you go into detail in what 5kid’s strengths are as a player?

I think he’s a player that rarely underperforms. When he carries, he becomes a hypercarry for his team. He also has a very good mentality, and doesn’t tilt. However, because I knew his champion pool and what his playstyle is like, I believe we were able to strategize properly tonight.

After speaking with multiple experts and analysts around the scene, a lot of them said that Ezreal should be on top of the bot lane meta. However, we’ve yet to see him picked or banned in MSI so far. What are your thoughts on Ezreal?

Ezreal’s been performing pretty well in scrims, and I think as long as the player that’s playing him is really good, he’s a champion with infinite capabilities. 

Bard’s been buffed on patch 12.8. Thoughts on Bard? How has the support meta changed from the Spring split?

I personally love Bard as a champion, and after the buffs, he can be picked in pro play. As for the MSI bot lane meta, I think Lucian/Nami’s a really strong bot lane right now, so a lot of enchanter champions are strong because of it.

Tell me about what it’s been like working with the rest of the DFM players.

Evi’s a leader. I think his biggest strength is that he can really bring together the team. Yutapon has a great personality, and because of it, he elevates my gameplay because he brings a lot of positivity and freedom to my gameplay. Steal’s someone I rely on a lot because he’s very amicable and is very good at Japanese. As for Yaharong, he’s fresh out of the LCK, and after the first couple of scrims with our roster, I knew he was going to be the top mid laner in the LJL.

How do you reflect on your play tonight? Where do you think went right and wrong for you?

In terms of gameplay, I’m very satisfied with how one-sided we made the bot lane matchup. In our draft, I accidentally picked Ornn for Evi because I couldn’t find the champion we were going to play due to nerves. However, Evi told me it was okay, which really reflected his leadership.

Lastly, what is your goal at MSI this year?

My initial goal is to get to the Rumble stages. I feel that if we’re lucky, we can make it to the knockout stages. If we’re very lucky, I think we can even make it to the finals and even win the whole tournament. I believe that in order to leave a good impression on the fans, I have to perform well on the international stage, so my ultimate goal is to perform well.

*All images via LoL Esports Flickr