On day 3 of the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational, the defending world champions, DWG KIA, took on the LJL representatives, DetonatioN FocusMe. While many predicted a landslide victory for DWG KIA, DFM had priority throughout most of the game, and was on the verge of creating what's arguably the biggest upset in LoL Esports history. However, even with their backs against the wall, DWG KIA stayed focused until the very end. One late game teamfight was what flipped the tides for DWG KIA, and took the nailbiting victory against the LJL representatives.

After the match, Inven Global's special interviewer for MSI, Olleh, spoke with the jungler of DWG KIA, Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu.

You guys had a rough early game against DFM today. Can you tell us what happened?

Gangplank usually has early priority against Urgot, but because Gangplank burned his flash at level 1, the game became very hard.

I think the key point of the match was your black shield at the final teamfight. Did you hover your mouse based on predicting what would happen? Or was it a reaction thing?

I expected Urgot to ult, and used Black Shield reactively.

How do you evaluate DFM as a team?

It’s hard to say, because of what happened at level 1, but I think they’re much better than I thought.

Did you see Evi give you the thumbs up emote?

Oh, I definitely did [laughter].

When one lane falls behind early, the whole team tends to fall apart from that one lane’s deficit. However, this doesn’t seem to be the game for DWG KIA. How does the team communicate in these scenarios?

There are so many scenarios that can pan out in a game, so we stay calm and try to help each other in that regard. Even if one lane falls behind, the other four players try to fill the gap.

I think the biggest upset of the tournament has to be DFM beating Cloud9 yesterday. How did you and the team react to that match?

DFM was better than we expected, so we were very surprised by their performance.

IWDominate questioned Blaber’s decision to flash to secure the scuttle crab. What are your thoughts about his decision?

If you’re a jungler, you definitely have flashed for scuttle crab before. I don’t think it was necessarily bad, because that’s how you learn.

Taking the victory against all three teams in the group so far, who do you think will make it out of groups and into the Rumble stage alongside you guys?

While DFM is playing very well, hmm… It’s between Cloud9 and them… [thinks for 10 seconds] I still think Cloud9 is going to make it into the Rumble stage.

Are there any junglers/teams in this tournament that caught your eye?

Wei from RNG has been destroying his opponents, so he’s the player that has my attention.

There’s been a huge gap between the playoffs patch and the MSI patch. There was a huge change in the jungle champion tier list, with Morgana and Rumble rising up to the top of that list. Can you tell us more about those champions?

After the patches, clearing the jungle with your abilities became very important. In that regard, Morgana and Rumble became very fast at clearing.

Diana is also a champion that many people are expecting to be picked, but isn’t. Why is this the case? What are your thoughts on Diana? 

I think she’s very good, so I think she’ll be picked sooner or later.

Lee Sin is being picked as a solo laner in this meta. From a jungler’s perspective, do you think he's being utilized to the fullest?

I haven’t watched solo laners play Lee Sin in detail, but sometimes, they make plays I don’t understand, such as using his W to go into the enemy.

Any tips for the players that play Lee Sin in a solo lane?

After you land your Q, use the second part as late as possible to have reduced cooldown. Then you’ll have the skill off cooldown to use it again pretty fast.

A lot of pros/streamers/anyone with cross-server experience has attested to the sentiment that each region has their own meta. Ghost also said that players on EUW are obsessed with dragons, so how has your experience on the EUW server been different from the KR server?

On the KR server, once the game goes one way, everyone plays the team game well, so it’s hard to come back from it. There’s less of that on the EUW servers, so there are more opportunities to come back from a deficit. I think that’s why they’re so obsessed with dragon stacks; for insurance.

I heard that you were the first player attending MSI to hit 1,000 LP on the EUW ladder. Do you have any interesting solo queue stories to share?

I talked about this in another interview, but Perkz’s room is right next to mine, so he always has his door open when he plays. Whenever he dies, he always yells, “Don’t kill me!”.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, is predicting DWG KIA to win the tournament. Does this fact pressure you at all? How do you deal with the pressure of having all eyes on you?

I really don’t think that this tournament is free. Rather than focusing on what others are thinking/saying, we’re all just focused on what we need to do, so we don’t feel pressured at all.

DWG KIA has two days off until the next set of matches. Even though the team remains undefeated, what’s the direction that the team is taking for practice?

We’ll have to be more wary of early game accidents, especially level 1 invades.