On day 4 of the 2021 LCK Summer split, Gen.G defeated Hanwha Life Esports and closed out their opening week with a 2-0 record in the standings. Despite looking shaky in game 1, the aggression that Gen.G showed in game 2 proved that they’re capable of playing any type of team composition.

The bot laner for Gen.G, Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, joined Inven Global for a post-match interview.

It’s been a while since you played at LoL Park. How do you feel about being back in front of a crowd?

Fans are finally back at LoL Park, and as time goes on, more will be allowed to watch, so I think that I’ll be a very happy gamer when playing our matches.

Are you still adjusting to playing at LoL Park after playing from your practice facilities for so long?

I’m still not used to it. The desk and the height of the monitor is different from that of our practice room, so I’m still feeling a bit uncomfortable.

What are some of the in-game problems that you faced due to the different environment?

In both of my matches, both in teamfighting and in lane, I’m struggling to get that detail in my movements.

With the recent buffs to both Kog’Maw and Lulu, many experts predicted that they would be much better in the meta, but they’re not picked as much as many predicted they would be. How do you rate Kog’Maw in the current meta?

I personally felt that Lulu-Kog was really strong; tonight, I wanted to prove that we can play these champions at any point in time.

What are your thoughts on the recent nerf to the rune, ‘Hail of Blades’ [it was nerfed from 8s-12s]? Do you feel that the nerfs are significant enough to change the bot lane meta?

I can definitely feel the nerfs in lane, but I don’t think they’re that significant. Champions like Kai’Sa and Tristana, who use Hail of Blades for lane pressure, will still be strong.

Due to the Divine Sunderer buffs, Ezreal shot up the meta. Is he a ‘perma-ban or perma-pick’ champion at the moment?

I think he’s very good. However, without Karma, Ezreal’s that much weaker in lane, so I think that he’s exploitable.

In comparison to the champion pools of other lanes, the marksman champion pool has been rather shallow. What do you think is the problem?

It’s been over a year since everyone played the same champions in pro play. However, I don’t think there’s a clear solution to this, because there’s only a few champions that can work in certain metas.

It seems that the teams prefer to play on blue side due to the various advantages that it provides. What are some factors in the current competitive meta that makes the blue side that much more advantageous?

I’m an ADC, so from my perspective, it doesn’t really matter if I play blue or red side. It’s not like I get priority picks in drafts; I don’t get first pick on the champion I want to play, nor do I get last pick for the counter matchup. While the ADC matchup doesn’t really impact the game too much, the matchups of other lanes do. While playing both sides has its advantages, I think it really comes down to getting the first pick in drafts.

Now that you’ve had a chance to play and watch all the teams play, do you agree with the sentiment that the gap between the LCK teams is smaller?

I personally think that the difference in scrims and matches are night and day. There are champions that you can play in scrims, but don’t get the chance to in matches, and because of the countless scenarios that exist within the game, I didn’t agree with the sentiment in the first place.

In that case, which team would you say will be the biggest threat to Gen.G?

I’d say T1. I think they’ll play very well this split.

Gen.G’s next match is against KT. How will the team be preparing for the match?

I’ll have to do a lot more champion research in both solo queue and in scrims.