SK Telecom T1 top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon said he renewed his focus toward overcoming his team’s recent losing streak.
SKT completed a regular season sweep of the “Telecom Wars” after defeating KT Rolster 2-1 in Thursday’s League Champions Korea match. After the match, Huni said in an interview with Fomos’ Park Sang-jin that aside from SKT’s losing streak, he had a difficult time being subbed in and out of games.
“Apart from the losing streak, there were many times when I played once and then got subbed out the next game after losing,” he said. “I felt some pressure thinking that I should play without making a mistake, but it didn’t work out, so it was tough for me mentally. I was only thinking to overcome it and be better though, because that’s what a professional gamer does.”
The KT match was no exception to Huni’s position, as he played Game 2 after a successful run as Cho’Gath during Game 1, only to be swapped for Park “Untara” Ui-jin in Game 3. Huni ended Game 2 with six deaths as Rumble and was easily the weakest lane on the team.
Huni said he had no excuse for his poor showing in Game 2, but also explained that there were a number of things that he couldn’t predict and praised KT for keeping him off guard.
“In Game 2, I didn’t expect the jungle Gragas to get the double leash from KT’s bottom lane, and I think that was a prepared strategy,” he said. “In the Jarvan IV vs. Rumble matchup, Jarvan can set up ganks effectively, and Rumble is quite susceptible to them. I think our opponents executed their strategy well, and I was a little unprepared, trying to save my ward charges in the process.”
SKT will finish the LCK in fourth place and head to the playoffs from the bottom of the bracket, facing either the Jin Air Green Wings or Afreeca Freecs in the first round. Although it’ll be a full tournament schedule for the team, Huni said it could actually be very good for the team.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with starting from the bottom of the playoffs because we’re currently lacking in many ways,” he said. “If we had made it straight to the finals and didn’t practice thoroughly because of it, another type of difficulty could have come forth by losing in the finals. I personally think it’ll be OK because we’re getting experience throughout the tournament, and we’ll have plenty of chances to fix our problems while practicing.”
Cover photo courtesy of Riot Games