In match 1 of day 8, 2022 LCK Summer split, DRX defeated Hanwha Life Esports 2-1 and kept their win streak alive. DRX’s bot laner, Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu returned to LoL Park to play alongside his teammates in person this match, as he tested positive for COVID last week and played remotely.

The following is the interview with Deft.

Please share your thoughts on your victory tonight.

I’m thrilled that we’re still win streaking. However, I played a lot of very passive champions in this series, so personally, it feels like I didn’t have that much impact in the game, and that makes me pretty unhappy.

Since you talked about playing ‘passive champions’, can you share what the team talked about during the drafts?

We shaped our team compositions to have a lot of late-game scaling. However, we misplayed quite a bit in the early game of game 2. As for game 3, our opponents picked champions that focused almost solely on the laning phase, so the game wasn’t fun.

You’ve returned to the LCK Arena after playing remotely on week 1.

I think there are more fans present compared to the Spring split. Tonight felt like my first actual match in the Summer split.

Have you fully recovered from COVID? How do you feel?

I just have a bit of a cough. No other symptoms. It was tough for the first three days that I had COVID, but the symptoms got better afterwards.

Was playing remotely frustrating in any way?

During the games? No. However, I was isolated from my teammates during practice, so I think the quality of the practice wasn’t that high.

With DRX on a three-match win streak, the team’s now competing for the top spot in the standings. Do you believe that the race to the top will remain neck-to-neck until the end?

I think that our top side is currently playing very well, while our bot lane lost a lot of power. We’ll be good if we fix that.

What are your thoughts on support Amumu that HLE played in game 1 and 2?

I think the laning phase is strong when paired with Kalista, and against Tahm Kench. Whenever there’s a Kench support in the bot lane, his partner usually don’t take Cleanse. However, if Amumu can Flash-ult, then there’s the potential of bursting down the enemy ADC before Kench can use Devour to save his ADC. I think it’s good.

You’re known to be really good with Kalista. Can we also expect DRX to pick Kalista-Amumu?

I haven’t practiced Kalista recently, but I did practice with Amumu at one point. Depending on the enemy comp, I think it’s viable.

Overall, is there a team that particularly stands out in this split?

Just like everyone says, I think DWG KIA, T1, and Gen.G are the strongest. It’ll be important to see just how well we perform against these three teams.

Lastly, is there anything you’d like to say?

Personally, I think my performance tonight was a bit disappointing. I’ll make sure to not only win our next match, but to perform well as well.