On Feb 3rd, day 16 of the 2021 LCK Spring split took place, with T1 facing off against NS RedForce in the first match of the day. T1 took the series 2-1 against NS RedForce, consequently ending their losing streak, and with their victory, they now look to shift their momentum for the future.

After the match, the support player for T1, Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, joined Inven Global for a 1 on 1 interview.

Thoughts on the victory against NS?

We were on a losing streak, and our recent performances have been poor. I’m glad that we’re able to shift the momentum today with our victory.

Due to the team’s slump, has there been a change in direction that’s been ordered by the coaching staff?

While there hasn’t been anything specific that our coaches told us to do, we reorganized our champion tier lists and helped us find our direction in our mid-late game.

Choi “Zeus finally debuted in the LCK today. Including yourself, did the team give him any advice before the start of the match?

I heard our mid laner, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok say something to Zeus after game 1, but I didn’t hear what he said. Before the match, and during practice yesterday, we all told him not to feel pressured and just do his thing.

Let’s talk about game 2. What went wrong, and what feedback did you receive after game 2?

Overall, our team wasn’t composed during game 2. The coaches told me that my engage on the enemy in the mid lane, which was something that I shouldn’t have done, was poorly executed, so we went over what I could’ve done better. 

There’s a weird pattern with T1’s matches, where the team always drops a set in game 2. What do you think the cause is behind such a pattern?

To be honest, I’m not quite sure what the actual reason for that is. From my memory, all our game 1 victories have been clean, so maybe it’s us losing focus. However, that’s all part of the skill gap between us and our opponents, so we definitely need to fix such a pattern for the future.

With engage-heavy supports dominating the current meta in the LCK, I’m curious to know how you view the current support meta, and your thoughts on enchanter supports as well. 

I feel that the reason why engage-heavy support champions dominate the current meta is because of how much easier they are to play compared to utility-mage supports. 

In the West, there’s a debate of how overtuned the item combination of Moonstone Renewer and Staff of Flowing Water is. Do you feel that these items are able to take over the meta?

They are good items, but apart from Seraphine, other utility-mage supports suffer very hard before they complete them, so I'm not sure if the champions that build 'Moonstaff' will take over the meta.

Both Gumayusi and Teddy started for the team today. Can you tell us the reason behind the two players swapping in and out?

Blue side draft and red side draft are different from one another. Teddy was more confident on marksman champions that are strong on the red side, while Gumayusi was confident on champions strong on the blue side. 

As the support player that is playing with both of them, what are some of their unique strengths that they have as players, and how are they different from one another?

At first, they had many traits that were different from one another, but as we continued to practice, our coaches helped both players adjust in the direction that they felt was right. That’s why I now feel that they have similar traits and helped fix each other’s mistakes, because we’ve all been working together in the same direction.

The mid laner for the team, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, played his 600th game today. You’re still in the early stages of your career, so do you think there will ever come a day when you beat his record? What is your goal in the LCK?

Last year, I thought that players that simply played well seemed very admirable. Nowadays, players like Faker and Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu, who are consistently good over a long period of time seem more admirable, so I hope to become a great player like them, and one day beat their records.

Your next match is against Fredit BRION. What do you think the key matchup will be?

I truly believe that there aren’t any teams in the LCK that are performing poorly, so I think that we’ll need to be meticulous in our overall gameplay. 

Lastly, a word to your fans.

I know that a lot of my fans are worried about me because of my poor recent performance, but I know that I’m practicing really hard for all of our matches, so I’ll make sure to put on an improved performance with each match.