On May 27 Royal Never Give Up took down Evil Geniuses without a sweat to advance to the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational grand final. After a 3-0 win, RNG are now ready to face the winner of T1 and G2 Esports, who play Saturday. After the match, Evil Geniuses joined the media for a press conference.

(To Impact) This was a long MSI journey. How was the tournament for you in general?

Impact: It’s a bummer that it didn’t end well for us. We should have been able to show a better performance, but we didn’t. Still, I don’t think it was too bad, since the beginning of our regular season wasn’t very good. Overall, it’s not bad.

(To Impact) You picked Ornn and played alright until mid-late game, but still lost. What did you lack?

Impact: I picked Ornn because of the team composition. I personally don’t think Ornn was that good of a pick. I thought maybe Rumble could have been better. We weren’t able to control the map and vision because we couldn’t cut off Gangplank in the sidelanes. That was big. In the mid-late game, we were able to capture the opponent’s mistakes — I think they should have won games 2 and 3 more easily.

(To jojopyun) How was it playing against Xiaohu?

jojopyun: Against Xiaohu, I played a matchup that I wasn’t that familiar with. He played the matchup really well, and he played with his team really well. I’m impressed with how he played today.

(To Impact) You have many achievements in Korea and in NA as well. Many fans are still waiting for you. Do you want to finish your career someday back in Korea?

Impact: The situation doesn’t allow me to play in Korea right now. There still are really good players, and it is actually fun competing against them, but since I played in NA for 7 years, and I still want to play there, I don’t want to do that.

(To Turtle) What player put the most pressure on EG today??

Turtle: It was Xiaohu. He played the matchup well, and he gave good influence to the other lanes from his lane priority.

(To jojopyun) You’ve had a great rookie season. What was your biggest takeaway from this MSI?

jojopyun: The biggest takeaway… I mean honestly, it’s everything. I can’t pick just one thing I’m taking away the most. I know it’s a basic answer, but that’s how I think.

(To jojopyun & Danny) This is your first international tournament. What was the most memorable moment? Were there any personal goals, and were they fulfilled?

jojopyun: Beating T1 was the most memorable.

(To Vulcan and Inspired) You played with two rookies. How do you feel about their performance?

Vulcan: In my opinion as a rookie, they would have felt a lot of pressure, but they did really well. I’m surprised and thankful that they did so. I’m looking forward to their summer split.

Inspired: I have the same thought. Compared to my performance at my first Worlds, I think they are doing extremely well.

(To Danny) It was your first international stage. What did you think about your performance?

Danny: It was so-so. My group stage, it was fine, the rumble stage was okay, in the knockout stage, I played decently well, but RNG was too good. I think that’s about all I could say.

(To Danny) Throughout the tournament, we saw you scale progressively from group to rumble and onward. Going into your first international stage, was it similar to when you first started in the LCS?

Danny: I think the experience from when I first started and going on an international stage was kind of similar because there was this similar learning curve and I had to adapt to a new environment.

(To Vulcan) Your thought about the current EG roster? You’ve played in other teams in international tournaments. Do you think it’s the best roster you’ve been on?

Vulcan: Merci beaucoup. I think this year’s EG is the closest to other regions. I played in Cloud9 last year. It’s comparable. Maybe we were less consistent last year in an international tournament. Yes, I believe this is the strongest roster I’ve been on.

(To jojopyun and Impact). Who do you predict to win MSI? RNG, G2, or T1?

jojopyun: I mean RNG played pretty insane this series. I’ll need to see tomorrow’s series too, but… Every team has its strengths and weaknesses… I would say RNG probably. They played insane today, so just because of that.

Impact: T1.

(To jojopyun) It was a delight seeing you smile on stage, genuinely enjoying playing. What would you say was the biggest mental obstacle for your first time on the international stage, and where are you looking to improve for the future?

jojopyun: Biggest mental obstacle… I’m looking to improve on the most was kind of how Xiaohu showed me today, I’ll be looking back at today’s match and that’s probably what I’m going to prioritize after today. There is no really big mental obstacle for me this MSI. I think the biggest mental obstacle for me was hotel food, the hotel food was so bad, I asked Impact to order me Korean food.