On the 15th, Clutch Gaming was defeated by SKT and failed to capture their first win in day 4 of the group stages in the 2019 LoL World Championship. With this loss, Clutch Gaming now heads into round 2 of groups with a 0-3 record, but as the underdogs of their group, they looked hopeful to create upsets in the next round.  

Bang, Inven Global’s very own special correspondent, had a chance to sit down (literally!) with the top laner for Clutch Gaming, Heo ‘Huni’ Seung-hoon backstage to talk about the team’s tenure so far in groups, and what they hope to accomplish next round.

Can you please introduce yourself?

This is Huni, the top laner for Clutch Gaming.

You’ve now played against all of your former teams. Although the results were not in your favor, how did you feel playing against them?

In my previous interviews, I’ve said that if we beat SKT, we’ll be 1st in our group, and it turned out to be true. They’re the strongest.

There was another very one-sided game, with G2 taking down Cloud 9. Your match vs SKT was very similar, so coming into this game, how did you predict the match will be?

It went exactly as how I pictured it (laughter). As a weaker team, we knew we had to prepare something unique. We tried to look and exploit their weaknesses, but it was hard to be methodical to prepare for the match. Although our strategy didn’t work against them, it just feels very unfortunate overall. However, we still have one more match, so we have to recollect ourselves and prepare for it. Even if we lose the rematch, we don’t want to go down without a fight.

Fans may not know this, but you’ve put on a good performance starting from the Summer split, all the way up till now. It also seems that the hard work your team has shined, so in that regard, are there things you’d like to say to your teammates and fans?

As you may or may not know, our team was in 9th place during the Spring split, so I’m very proud of coming all the way here. We’ve worked really hard, and although the recent results weren’t in our favor, we’ve only completed half of our groups matches. Who knows? Maybe we’ll go 3-3.

Before your match vs. SKT, you’ve expressed on social media that you’re excited to play against Khan. How did it feel to play against him?

He’s still very good. Although we got outdrafted, it was what it was. We’ve focused our draft in a different way, and since our early game didn’t go as planned, things just kind of fell apart from there. We’ll definitely have to recollect ourselves and play against them in the next match.

You’ve played against his Aatrox as Vladimir, and said that he was good. What part of the matchup proved to be hard? Perhaps in trade timings? His use of abilities? Or maybe he’s just very good in the laning phase?

He was very sharp.

What part of him proved to be sharp? Was it his Q + E combo that was sharp? Perhaps his mechanics?

To be honest, there was a clear jungle difference in the early game.

So are you saying that his in-game communication with his jungler was sharp?

I’m just joking. I got solo killed when I least expected it, so that was unfortunate. Also, my teleport bot lane went incredibly wrong, so while I should’ve told myself that I could win and focus, I think that’s when my mental exploded. In terms of his use of abilities, he was perfect, so this time, I accept my defeat.

During one of your LCS interviews, you’ve mentioned that if you got to play against SKT at Worlds, you really want to make coach KkOma angry. Do you think you’ve kept your word? Or will you make him really angry in the next match?

I think he’d get really mad if he watched the game from my POV (laughter). But I do have another shot. It’s not over yet! I can’t give up now! Since teams play against all 3 of the other teams in one day, if we can somehow hold our ground that day, I really want to show what we’ve got, even if we lose. Our goal is to take 2 wins that day.

There were matches where games really were winnable. Which team do you hope to take down?

Our game vs Fnatic was really close, especially in the early game, so I’d have to say Fnatic. Our match vs RNG was really unfortunate as well, so I think we have a good shot against those two teams. SKT took an overwhelming victory, so I think the loss will affect us greater, but if we beat Fnatic and RNG, you never know how things will be.