On Jan 13, DWG KIA defeated KT Rolster 2-0 on day 2 of the 2022 LCK Spring split. Game 1 looked fairly stale until the Elder Dragon contest, where it only took one key Orianna ultimate from Heo “ShowMaker” Su to win the game.

After DK’s win, ShowMaker joined the press room at LoL Park for an interview. He first sat down to talk about the match, where he reflected on the mistakes that he and the team made in the series. “We made a lot of mistakes, and I think the one objective teamfight that I wish we played better was the Herald fight. I think we executed the other teamfights quite well.

ShowMaker also showed confidence in his new teammates. “The most important factor is to work hard. My teammates are working extremely hard. Tonight was our first match of the Spring split, so while we might not be perfect, I have no doubt that we’ll play well down the road.”

This year, due to the Asian Games and the opportunity of exemption from conscription in Korea, a lot of attention is on who will become the player representatives for Korea. As arguably the best mid laner in the LCK, ShowMaker remained humble in sharing his thoughts on the upcoming Asian Games as well. “My primary focus is on doing well as a team and winning Worlds. It’d be nice to go, but my mid lane competition are all formidable. No matter who ends up going, I think he'll do well.

ShowMaker especially had much praise for Gen.G’s Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon. “Chovy has a unique way of breaking down and figuring out the meta. He actually inspired me with my rune choices tonight.”

He continued to expand on the topic further. “There are times when the rune ‘Celerity’ is better than ‘Transcendence’. Both Orianna and Viktor have movement speed buffs in their kit, and in a mage vs mage matchup, it’s important to dodge skillshots, and when combined with the effects of the ‘Time Warp Tonic’ rune, it’s really good. This is what Chovy does, so I copied him. He’s very good right now.”

One of the biggest recent changes that came with patch 12.1 is the usage of the summoner spell, ‘Teleport’; it now limits the player from teleporting onto a ward/minion before 14 minutes. ShowMaker explained how the changes affected his gameplay. “The fact that we can’t Teleport to the bot lane before 14 minutes affects mid lakers greatly. I still have yet to play enough games to fully figure out which spell is the best; I may have taken Teleport today, but I might end up choosing a different spell next time.”

He continued, “There are also champions that rose in tier with this patch, and Twisted Fate is the biggest winner from it. He’s already permabanned so far in the LCK. I didn’t have that many chances to play TF last year, and because of these changes, it’s going to be the same this year as well. It’s a shame, because I really wanted other people to buy and use my Worlds skin [laughter].”