On the 7th (KST), the final round of the LCK Regional Qualifiers between DAMWON Gaming and Kingzone DragonX was held. Each team traded heavy blows, but DAMWON made history by being the first team to promote into LCK and go to Worlds in the same year. Taking the victory 3-2 over Kingzone, DAMWON punched their ticket to the 2019 LoL World Championships as LCK’s 3rd seed. After their performance tonight, the whole DAMWON squad was interviewed after the game.

You’ve promoted into the LCK and made it to Worlds in the same year. How do you feel?

Micro: I feel really happy. I’m really grateful for the amazing performance that my players put tonight.

Despite the disappointing performance during playoffs, DAMWON looked very different tonight. Fans say that the mental game for the team is much better. How did you prepare for tonight?

Micro: I think what we were lacking was experience. Instead of our usual pre-game routine, we told ourselves that if we don’t win tonight, let’s jump off a bridge together (laughter). Other than that, we didn’t specifically prepare mentally.

Nuguri, you're known to be the victim of many first bloods, but tonight, you didn’t get first blooded, and you safely played out your laning phase. What changed for you?

Nuguri: I think that instead of playing like how I usually do, I played a bit more passively because it’s such an important match and was a bit nervous. I wasn’t satisfied up to game 4, but I just said ‘screw it’ and played like how I usually play in game 5 and well… it worked out.

ShowMaker, you’ve never used Yasuo during the regular season. What made you decide to use Yasuo tonight?

ShowMaker: I was always using Akali and Corki because they were broken, but the enemy found out about them and banned them, so I decided to play Yasuo, a champion that I’m comfortable with.

Tonight, you played as and against the Yasuo-Gragas combo. Did you feel more comfortable playing as or against the combo?

Canyon: I was confident either way. 

Except for letting the enemy pick Kai’sa once, you’ve put on a solid performance with Kai’sa in all 4 games. Did you feel that Kai’sa was the perfect fit in your team compositions?

Nuclear: My team likes to play aggressive, and because I was confident with Kai’sa, I could play aggresively, and make certain plays myself.

You’ve put on a great performance as Alistar in the first few games, so can you tell us a bit of the communication that was going on in game 1?

BeryL: We’ve managed our side lanes well, and because Renekton had a flank, we agreed to dive them.

After the loss in game 2, you took a decisive victory in game 3, but suffered a painful loss in game 4. As the captain of this team, how did you and the team prepare for game 5?

Nuclear: Despite the massive gold lead for most of the game, we lost. I should’ve taken care of my teammates’ mentality, but it looked like they were taking care of their mentalities well on their own, so I just took care of my own (laughter).

What was going through your mind when you got a double kill 1 vs 2?

Nuguri: My team was gaining an advantage on the bottom half of the map, and while I was overextended, I had already chunked a good portion of Camille’s HP, so it somehow worked out very well. I was lucky.

So did you not predict that you’ll kill them both?

Nuguri: I thought that if I played well, I’d at least take out Camille, but I didn’t expect to take both of them out, especially with my flash being down.

Did you hear the players scream in joy?

Micro: It was also loud in the waiting room because we were screaming as well.

Is there anything you’d like to say to the players?

Micro: Despite the lack of experience, I was very proud of them that they even made it here. I want to thank them for putting on an incredible performance tonight.

Now that you’ve all qualified for the 2019 LoL World Championship, is there anything you’d like to say?

BeryL: Our first international event was Rift Rivals, but we didn’t really think of it as an international tournament because it was held in Korea. We’re now headed into the biggest LoL tournament of the year, so as a team representing Korea, we’ll do our best.

Do you have a specific goal for Worlds?

Nuclear: While my goal is to win the whole tournament, when I was on H2K, I lost the regional qualifiers to Fnatic. I want to get revenge and beat Fnatic at Worlds.

Is there a certain player that you want to meet at Worlds?

ShowMaker: While IG has yet to earn their ticket to Worlds, if they do make it, I want to square off against Rookie. 

How many solo kills are you going to get against him?

ShowMaker: I just hope I won’t get solo killed by him.

Canyon, is there anything you’d like to say?

Canyon: I’ll practice my smites, and will use it well when fighting for objectives.

Nuguri, can you say something to all the qualified teams that’s waiting for DAMWON at Worlds?

Nuguri: We’ve made it to the biggest stage of them all, and despite our lack of experience, I believe that we can use that to confidently play out our game. All of you should watch out and be on your toes. 

And lastly, Micro, can you say something to DAMWON fans?

Micro: Despite only promoting into LCK earlier this year, so many fans cheer for us, and I’m always grateful for that. If the other LCK teams are unable to take the championship trophy, we’ll make sure that we take it for ourselves.