SK Telecom T1 is back to Worlds, and they had a great start. In the opening match of 2019 LoL World Championship, SKT defeated Fnatic, the runner-up of the previous World Championship to register a win. With Kayle in bot lane and Tristana in mid, SKT took the ADC-less Fnatic to the late game. Although Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok got the MVP of the match, top laner Kim “Khan” Dong-ha’s performance on Akali was also quite impressive. Khan took a moment to talk to Inven Global after the match.

Congratulations on winning the first match of the Group Stage. How do you feel?

It’s the first match of all the groups and since our group is called the ‘group of death’, I was a bit nervous. I’m extremely satisfied that we started off with a win.

What did you focus on the most when preparing to play against Fnatic?

We didn’t prepare our games thinking about just Fnatic. There are many situations and prepared for many different scenarios against whichever team. We practiced so that we wouldn’t make any mistakes in those situations which was effective. I think we’ll be preparing that way in the future as well.

How do you think you’ll do in Group C?

As much as we set sail with a win, I think we’ll have a pleasant journey. We might lose once? (Laughs) I’m guessing 5-1. Of course, the best-case scenario would be 6 wins. That’s our goal.

Whether you go 5-1 or 6-0, you’ll be heading to the quarterfinals. Which other team from Group C do you think would survive?

It’s not that important for us which other team makes it through, but I’m hoping Clutch Gaming. I have a good relationship with LirA and Huni; we spoke that we should get through together. I’m cheering for Clutch Gaming.

I’m curious about the Kayle pick. Was it prepared specifically for the Garen-Yuumi bot lane?

During practice, we tried many different things. We spent time researching what would be good against Garen-Yuumi and also trying out Kayle in our composition. It was a result of all the time and effort we took during our preparation.

This was not your first time playing against Bwipo. You had met last year at MSI. How was it matching up with him again?

Today, the pick itself wasn’t that advantageous for me, but I think I was ahead of him in lane priority or other different factors, so I’m not too worried about meeting him again. Last year at MSI, I had a hard time playing against Bwipo in the Vladimir-Ornn matchup, but the second match, I did well on Gangplank against his Sion. Since our last matchup was in my favor, I felt no pressure going into today’s game. I don’t think it’ll be much different in the next match as well.

How did it feel playing in front of all the Fnatic home fans?

From the beginning, the cheering for Fnatic was wild. Being able to play in front of home fans would be an advantage, but I don’t think it was enough to close the prowess gap.

Lastly, a word to the fans?

We were assigned in the so-called ‘group of death’, but aside from that, I’d like to show the best performance we can show so that watching our game could be candy to their eyes. This is my secondary goal; my primary goal would be, of course, winning the championship. I’ll do my best so that we could reach that goal.