The Solo Leveling: ARISE Championship Korea Season 1 has concluded with great success. The winner, crowned as the first-ever National Level Hunter, was none other than the player GwangGwang. Despite the popular weapon Demonic Plum Flower Sword being banned, GwangGwang carved out a unique build to secure the victory. We had the opportunity to speak with him about his triumph.

Q: How do you feel about your victory?

GwangGwang: First of all, I want to thank my parents, and I'm also grateful to my guild members who participated with me. The tournament was much more popular than I expected, so I feel great about that. I'm especially thankful to our guild master, who helped a lot with fine-tuning my build.

Q: In the final round, all water attribute weapons were banned, yet the weapons you chose were quite impressive. Did you anticipate this?

GwangGwang: From the start of the tournament, I was planning to ban Demonic Plum Flower Sword, so I had been practicing with Vulcan's Rage as a replacement. After a lot of practice with Vulcan, I got pretty good at using it. I really wanted to finish with my ultimate, but since my calculations were based on Plum Flower, things were a bit off at the end, so that was a bit disappointing.

Q: Did you consider using any SR weapons?

GwangGwang: Not at all.

Q: The final match consisted of four boss battles. Which boss battle are you most satisfied with, and which one do you feel could have gone better?

GwangGwang: The boss battle that went well was with Kargalgan, though it wasn’t my best, I think it still went pretty well. The one I’m not too happy about is the Hobgoblin fight. My hands were all over the place, and I ended up making some mistakes. That’s a bit disappointing.

Q: What did you focus on while preparing your build for this tournament?

GwangGwang: I focused on minimizing retries as much as possible. In other words, I wanted to avoid pressing the ESC button while still being able to clear quickly.

Q: How accurately did you predict which weapons would be banned in the ban system? Also, did the ban system affect your actual gameplay?

GwangGwang: I didn’t think much about Plum Flower because I had already planned to ban it myself. Each boss has specific attributes, so I assumed at least one weapon would be banned for each attribute, and it seems my prediction was mostly correct. Regardless of the bans, I focused on choosing weapons that could buff Sung Jinwoo for the time attack.

The weapon bans had a significant impact on the gameplay. The fact that a weapon like Plum Flower could be banned had a big influence.

Q: Do you think the weapon ban system should remain in future tournaments?

GwangGwang: Personally, I think it would be good to keep the ban system.

Q: You used Vulcan even against a fire attribute boss and used upgrade with The Commander's Touch in a unique way. Could you elaborate on that?

GwangGwang: Upgrade weapon was pretty weak before the balance patch. It couldn’t handle mobs efficiently, but now it deals more damage and has a wider range, making it much more convenient for clearing mobs, which is why I started using it since the patch.

Q: Could you share the specs of your account?

GwangGwang: My Battle Class is around 38, I believe. As for my combat power, it's close to 900,000.

Q: This was the first Solo Leveling tournament, and you've become the inaugural champion. Do you have any feedback for future tournaments?

GwangGwang: I think the tournament itself was well organized. However, the seating for the audience was a bit too close together, and it seemed uncomfortable for people. That part was a bit disappointing.

Q: Are you satisfied with the time attack format for the tournament?

GwangGwang: Personally, I really enjoy time attack games. So when Solo Leveling: ARISE was released, I thought, "This is it. I’m going to focus solely on time attacks." I had a lot of fun, and that's probably what brought me this far.

Q: What draws you to time attack content?

GwangGwang: The better I perform, the more I can feel the satisfaction through the controls, and that’s where I find the fun.

Q: How do you develop your builds?

GwangGwang: Sometimes I refer to foreign videos or other resources, but I always start with my own approach. I test my own method first and then ask for feedback from my guild members.

Q: What motivated you to participate in the tournament?

GwangGwang: I didn’t initially plan on taking it so seriously. I used to share my time attack videos, and people around me encouraged me to enter the tournament. They told me, “You’ll win anyway,” and hearing that gave me the confidence to give it a shot.

Q: Are you a fan of the original content?

GwangGwang: Yes, I am. I started with the novel and have read it five times all the way through. I've also read the webtoon to the very end. I'm currently following the new Ragnarok series as well. It's especially meaningful to me because not only do I love the original novel and its protagonist, but now I've won a game where I can actually play as the main character I admire.

Q: The game follows the original story. Is there any content you're particularly looking forward to?

GwangGwang: I'm really looking forward to the Jeju Island content. I know it's not just me—many players are excited about the Jeju Island arc from Solo Leveling. I hope they execute it well.

Q: Is there anything you hope will improve in future tournaments?

GwangGwang: To be honest, I was quite surprised when they did a balance patch during the tournament. There were already discussions among players about whether Sonic Stream - Magnifying Slashes was overpowered, and since the tournament preliminaries were ongoing, I thought the patch would happen after the competition. In future tournaments, I hope they avoid making patches during the event.

Q: In the final Hobgoblin battle, you didn’t use Magnifying Slashes, which was considered a key skill. Why was that?

GwangGwang: I originally planned to use a Magnifying Slashes build, and in the Round of 16, where there were no bans, I was able to use it along with Demonic Plum Flower Sword. However, Magnifying Slashes doesn’t deal much damage without Plum Flower, so when Plum Flower was banned in the finals, I dropped it. Instead, I used Upgrade: The Commander's Touch, which is better for clearing mobs.

Q: How do you hope the game Solo Leveling: ARISE will improve in the future?

GwangGwang: The game is fine as it is, but I do wish there was better communication between the developers and the players. It’s okay if the devs don’t grant every player request, but I think better communication would go a long way.