On Aug 21, T1 faced off against DWG KIA in the round 2 match of the 2022 LCK Summer playoffs. With a 3-2 score, T1 defeated DWG KIA and punched tickets not only to the finals in Gangneung, South Korea, but also to this year’s LoL World Championship. T1 managed to take game 1 and 2, but DWG KIA fought back to take game 3 and 4. Slow and steady was the game plan for game 5 of the series, as T1 took things slowly and methodically to win the series.

The following is an interview with Choi “Polt” Seong-hun.

Thoughts on heading into the finals?

I’m thrilled to have made it to not only to the LCK finals, but also to Worlds. I want to take this time to sincerely thank the players for their hard work.

Tonight, both Burdol and Nuguri were swapped in and out during the series.

We didn’t have too much information on Burdol since he only played in round 1 of the playoffs, and since there was a chance that both players may play tonight, we prepared for every possible scenario. However, I feel that we had to be more meticulous in our preparation for tonight’s match.

What did you and the team talk about when the series got tied up 2-2?

After we took an easy game 1 & 2 victory, we told ourselves that we can win as long as we play like we practiced. However, DWG KIA prepared well, and the series went to game 5. While I did give feedback, we’ve built our fundamentals to prepare for scenarios like such, so that played more of a role in our game 5 victory.

Gen.G became a much stronger team compared to the Spring split.

I do believe they’ve become much stronger since the Spring split as well. I feel that us beating them in the Spring finals will work in our favor in beating them this time as well. Our players have improved, so I believe that we have the upper hand. I’m confident we’ll win the finals.

What do you think the score will be in the finals?

I hope we win 3-0, but a lot will depend on how the team is feeling on the day of the finals, and since Gen.G’s also a really good team, I think it’ll realistically be a 3-1 victory.

The team went through a lot of turbulence during this Summer split. From your perspective, what are some of the biggest hurdles that the team had to overcome?

We didn’t have that much time to prepare for the Summer split after our runner-up finish at MSI. That factor influenced our performance in the Summer split, and we ended up losing a couple of matches. We needed time, but the time we had just wasn’t enough to achieve what we wanted. A lot happened after that, and both the coaching staff and the players went through some tough times. However, I think our players rose above them quite well.

There isn’t much time to practice for the finals. What’s the mindset and the game plan heading into the finals?

There’s about a week until the finals, but realistically, there’s even less time for actual practice. However, due to our experience in playing in the finals, we’ve slowly built up knowledge and experience in what we need to do ahead of the finals. We’ll have no hiccups in preparing for the upcoming finals as well.

A lot of fans cheered us on when we won our match tonight. Please continue to support us until the end.