As many people expected, DAMWON Gaming confidently made it out of the Worlds Championship 2019 Play-Ins and secured a ticket to the main event's Group Stage. After going undefeated in the Best of 1's, DAMWON only lost one game in the Play-In Knockouts, against Lowkey Esports.

After DAMWON's victory, we sat down with the team's young midlaner: Heo "ShowMaker" Su. At the LEC studio in Berlin he told us how he rates his team compared to other teams, which opponents he would love to face and which champions he'd like to play in upcoming World Championship matches.

Congratulations on your victory! In the first match Lowkey Esports actually managed to stand up against you, and beat you. What went through your head when that happened?

In a Best of 5 the first game is really important. When we lost the first game, we thought it got pretty dangerous and we felt like we might actually lose the series. We needed to focus and get our stuff together.

Heading into the event, people thought DAMWON might be a world champion contender. Did overconfidence play a role?

If you watch our performance in the LCK and the Gauntlet, I do understand people could think that we could win Worlds. But with the Play-In performance we've shown, I feel like they would be overrating us now.

In the main event there are two groups you can be drawn into. Which one would you prefer?

I want to go to group D. I think Rookie is really good and I want to play against him.

What about Team Liquid, who is also in that group?

I think Team Liquid isn't that strong compared to IG. I don't think they'll be that hard to beat.

At Worlds, there are many famous midlaners—you just mentioned Rookie. You've played against the LCK ones, but who of the other regions do you want to face and prove yourself against?

If I just pick three, it would be Rookie, Caps and Doinb from the foreign regions.

People have been saying Europe may actually have a good chance to win Worlds this year. What do you think the region's strength is?

If you look at the difference between Europe and Korea, I feel Europe is a lot more free in the pick and ban phase. They pick less popular champions more often. In Korea the picks are much more fixed, so I think now the picks and bans are going to matter more. If you look in-game: Europe, when it has a small lead, accelerates and snowballs super fast. They'll towerdive, stuff like that. I think Europe is a really strong early game region.

For the group stage and potentially after, which champion that you currently haven't played with would you like to try out in the tournament?

I really want to play Katarina, but that's a bit unrealistic because she is so bad. Realistically, I would like to play Yasuo or Syndra.

Syndra is a pick that's been gaining popularity, in the midlane as well as in bot. What do you think about her, in the different roles?

I think Syndra as an AD Carry gives a really good start. You need to make plays with follow-ups there, and Syndra is great there. Also, traditional marksmen AD Carries don't play well against her. In midlane she levels fasters, and her Q [Dark Sphere] gets incredibly strong because of her passive. You also get the Blue Buff when you play Syndra midlane, that's also really big.

To wrap it up, do you have anything to say to the fans before heading into the Group Stage at the main event?

So far in the Play-In we haven't been performing that well in stomping the enemies. We'll try much harder in the Group Stage to prepare, and show a good performance.