LCK’s #4 seed Hanwha Life Esports faced off against PCS’ #1 seed PSG Talon on day 2 of the 2021 LoL World Championship. Despite the momentum that HLE gained from beating Fnatic in the previous day, they were shut out by PSG and got their first loss of the tournament.

After the match, the mid laner for HLE, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, joined Inven Global to talk about the match, the secret behind his jaw-dropping ability to get high CS numbers, and sent a thank you message to the ‘Church of Chovy’.

While it looked like the team had an early lead, it looked like one teamfight completely changed the flow of the game. Can you tell us what went wrong for the team in that game?

Them getting the first Rift Herald was huge, but I feel like the biggest thing was not having enough CC in our team composition. We also definitely made mistakes in-game, where we overextended while having no teleports. 

This is your third appearance on the Worlds stage. They say that the third time’s the charm, so did your mindset change at all heading into this year’s Worlds?

No. I don’t think that my mindset has changed this year. As it is every year, my main focus is to go as far as I can in the tournament. 

As far as mid laners are concerned, you’re considered one of, if not the best in the world. I’m curious which player you learn from.

I don’t have a specific player that I focus on learning his playstyle. I watch every mid laner in the LCK and the LPL that’s here at Worlds right now, and try to get only the positives from their gameplay.

One aspect of your gameplay that makes you highly regarded by many others is your ability to get +10 CS per minute. What’s the secret behind such incredible numbers?

The goal’s very simple: I get every single CS in lane and deny the enemy their CS. However, the process is very tough, so it’s on the fans to figure it out. In the end, good players will get better.

In a Youtube video that you filmed with LCK for Worlds, one of your lines was, “I’m going to win. Peace.” Who was that message for?

It was definitely to Tarzan. However, I lost, so everything’s screwed [laughter].

Did you happen to chat with your old teammate and catch up?

I couldn’t. Neither of us has time, and there’s nothing really to talk about. Plus, we’re not that close. 

The battle between the mid lane talent pool of the LCK and the LPL is always something that the community likes talking about. Mid laners from both regions have made it publicly known that their respective region is better; how would you compare the two talent pools?

While I don’t like to make comparisons, if we’re talking about the laning phase, then LCK players are a lot more detailed.

I feel like every team in Group C will look at the group and say it’s “winnable”. How would you rank the teams in your group?

While I do agree with your sentiment about Group C, I feel that it’s because none of those teams are pushovers. That’s why they’re all threatening and it’s so hard to rank them. Since we lost tonight, I think we’ll get out of groups in second place. However, if we fall behind, then it’s definitely possible that we finish third.

HLE’s next match is against RNG on day 3. What are some of the things that the team will need to do to improve for the rest of the tournament?

We lost tonight’s match due to not having enough CC in our team composition, so I think that a mid lane champion with more CC would've fixed our team composition. We’ll need to reorganize our internal tierlist on champions, team composition, and playstyle if we want to get further into the tournament.

The last time we chatted, you were happy to see a lot of foreign fans band together under ‘The Church of Chovy’. Is there anything you’d like to say to them?

It feels really good that such a meme was born from myself playing well. I want to thank everyone for really putting their focus on me. I’ll continue to do better.