On the 30th (KST), in the semifinals of the 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Summer Split, DRX squeezed past Gen.G 3-2. It wasn’t an easy win for DRX as the match went into a full five games and during the match, there was a long pause due to a content delivery network (CDN) issue. The players had to play on the live server in a different patch. Through the win, DRX secured a ticket to Worlds as well as heading to the finals. When DRX won, Ryu “Keria” Min-seok showed tears with his bot duo partner, Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu. He joined Inven for an interview after the match.

It was such a close match. How do you feel about the win?

I had a lot on my mind since I didn’t perform that well today. But I’m extremely happy that we won to head to the finals and go straight to Worlds.

As you said, you looked stiff compared to before. Were you in bad condition?

From the end of round 1 to early in round 2, my performance was shaky. It seemed to get better as the season came to an end, but plays that didn’t reach my standard came in scrims. I think that affected my performance today.

After winning game 1, you lost completely in games 2 and 3. What did you discuss after game 3?

In games 2 and 3, our bot duo was behind in both prowess and champion counters. We talked about gaining more priority in bot lane through the picks and bans.

The game was paused for a long time prior to game 4. How did you maintain your concentration?

I was really disappointed in my own performance during the first three games, so I thought a lot alone. I tried to keep my mentality up since we could lose because of me and stayed as focused as I can in the following games.

Games 4 and 5 were held on the live server in the 10.17 version. Were there any issues because of the change?

What I know is that Lux was nerfed a bit. I don’t think it affected the game much.

Chovy’s Ekko carried the team to victory in game 4.

I’ve seen Chovy carry that hard many times, so it’s not too surprising. I’m just grateful that he did.

Game 5 was the closest. Do you remember the last Baron fight that gave you the win?

When Gen.G took the Ocean dragon’s soul, I thought it would be really hard. But they started Baron first, and the fight was how we wanted it so we were able to win. We were saying that even if we were to give up Baron, we should fight to the end and positioned ourselves to fight. That was effective. After getting the Ace, we said let’s end it right away.

After you won, you were crying with Deft. It seemed like a very emotional moment.

Over the year, Deft had so many roles. It looked really tiring since I watched him from the side the whole time. I was sorry to him since my performance wasn’t that good. I was really happy that we won, but I was sorry as well. The tears were out of complex feelings.

What did cvMax say after the match?

He told us that we did well to the end despite that our recent practice wasn’t that good and that we were stressed from games 2 and 3. Actually, I wasn’t myself then. He said more stuff, but I don’t remember clearly. [Laughs]

You’ll be heading to Worlds 2020 on your debut year. How do you feel about that?

When Deft was thinking of whether staying or leaving before this year started, I made a promise with him to get to Worlds and win it. I’m really happy that we're one step closer to keeping that promise.

You’ll be facing DAMWON Gaming in the finals before Worlds. How are your resolutions for the finals?

Even if I didn’t play well today, we were able to take down one of the strongest teams, Gen.G. If I improve my performance, study, and practice about the bot lane more, we could get good results.

Any last comments?

It was hard to get scrims recently. I’m really thankful to the DRX academy players who helped us a LOT for practice. I’ll do my best to show good performances in the finals. COVID-19 is spreading again recently, so I hope at least esports fans stay put and enjoy indoor hobbies. I hope you send DRX a lot of cheering watching the finals next Saturday [Laughs].