24 minutes and 34 seconds. That’s the time that it took for DAMWON Gaming to close out their very first game in the group stages of the 2020 LoL World Championships against JD Gaming. No one expected such a landslide victory, as DWG and JDG both are favorites to win the tournament.

From a level 1 teamfight to DWG’s bot laner, Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun getting three early kills on Jhin, DWG was able to get a 10K gold lead by the 22 minute mark, which led to the destruction of JDG’s Nexus by 24:34. In a conversation with Inven Global, DWG’s jungler, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu, shared that the team knew they won when Ghost got the three kills early, and also shared how the team has upgraded from their 2019 version of themselves.

DWG closed out their first match at Worlds against JDG, a team that many consider to win the tournament in under 25 minutes. Did you expect a landslide victory against JDG?

I didn’t think the game would be this easy. We got a huge lead early, and since we’re a team that snowballs the game well, the game ended pretty quickly.

Did you expect the lvl 1 invade from JDG? What did the team talk about in that scenario? Did the team expect the lvl 1 invade?

When facing Lillia, we’re always on the lookout for lvl 1 invades, and we predicted that we’d win the 5 vs 5, so we told each other to fight, and we won.

When did the team predict that the game was hugely in DWG’s favor?

We knew that we were winning when Jhin got three kills in the early skirmish, and at that point, we knew we’d win the game as long as we didn’t make any huge mistakes. 

How did you feel when the two-week quarantine ended? How did you feel when you met them after spending time by yourself after two weeks?

We came to Shanghai a bit early, so we got out of quarantine a week ago. Since Nuguri came a week later, the fact that he wasn’t there with us after we got out made us feel a bit lonely without him. (How is he by the way?) Nuguri’s fully recovered, and he’s doing very well.

DId the play-in stages matches affect the process of the team setting up its internal champion tier list at all?

I think our own champion tier list was mostly made based on data from our scrims. We did watch the matches, and we did reference them, but nothing more than that.

Lillia’s turning out to be a trap card at Worlds. What are your thoughts on her, alongside the up and coming picks in the jungle, like Evelynn and Hecarim?

Lillia is a champion that needs to snowball and get a good lead early, but it’s quite difficult to pull that off, so that’s why her winrate is a bit low. For Evelynn and Hecarim, I think it’s a bit hard to draft them blind, but if you’re confident on the champions, I think they’re fine. 

From what I hear, DWG’s scrims have been going very well. Although this is a rumor, I heard that DWG beat G2 three times in under 15 minutes. How much of ‘scrim’ DWG have you shown on stage tonight against JDG?

(Laughter) Although that last bit is a bit overexaggerated, scrims have been going well. I’d say that our performance tonight was at about 70-80% of our scrim level. If I look back at my own mistakes, there were times when I got caught out when I shouldn’t have, and my positioning & Summoner Spell usage was quite poor. 

How would you compare 2019 DWG to 2020 DWG?

Last year, our win patterns were quite linear and simple, but this year, the fact that we can play around any lane is one of our biggest strengths.

In your last interview with us, you stated that you needed to work on the various things you needed to do in the mid-late game for the team to win. In your preparation for Worlds, what are some of the things you did to improve on such a weakness?

I don’t think I’ve perfectly fixed it. My level of focus in that stage of the game is something I’m still working on, and continuously communicating with my team on what we need to do as a unit is the most critical thing.

Also, in that interview, you told us the strengths of the other top junglers in the tournament, in the likes of Kanavi, SofM, and Karsa. In your opinion, what is your biggest strength as a player?

(Laughter) I think my biggest strength lies in snowballing the game as swiftly as possible when we’re ahead.  

DWG’s next opponents are Rogue. They utilized unique strategies to completely dismantle PSG Talon, so what are some of the things that you need to be wary about against Rogue?

I think that we need to keep a very close eye on how Rogue’s bot lane moves around the map. Also, their use of their abilities and Summoner spells seem very collected, so as long as we are wary of that and their potential early cheese strategies, we should be able to take them down.

Last year, you fell to G2 Esports in the quarterfinals. Would you like to send them a message of revenge?

We’re still in the group stages, so it’ll be awhile until we meet them, but when we do, we’ll definitely take them down.

Lastly, many fans are expecting the LCK to do well at this year’s Worlds, and have high hopes for DWG to win the tournament. Please share your words of resolution about bringing the championship trophy back home after two years.

All the LCK teams are working incredibly hard, and always contemplating how to win, so please continue to support us.