LGD Gaming botlaner Ha “Kramer” Jong-hun on LGD’s adaptations so far: “We as a team adapted to play really consistently in the early game and just look towards the late game after that. Currently, we believe the team that wins the teamfights in the later phases will win the game.”
LGD Gaming (LGD) have been the focal point of much criticism lately. After coming in from Play-Ins where they should have comfortably cruised, many did not have sky high expectations for them in Group C.
After a strong showing against Gen.G and defeating Fnatic today, LGD sit at 1–1 and silenced their critics for Worlds 2020 for the moment. They now look forward to facing North American champions Team SoloMid (TSM) on Day 4.
LGD’s botlaner Kramer joins us today and walks us through his thoughts on their match against Fnatic, what he thinks about playing mages in the botlane, as well as LGD’s recent run of form.
Thank you for accepting this interview. Firstly congrats on the win! I’d like to start with the game against Fnatic. Fnatic had the early advantage but LGD managed to pull it back in the late game. How did you see this match and were you confident going into it?
Kramer: Because of Fnatic’s play on top lane, they were definitely getting ahead on the top side but based on the experiences we had in the Play-Ins Stage, we learnt that Ornn is very strong in the late game.
We also knew that our composition is a late game scaling one, so we were saying to one another “Let’s just take it into the late game” and aim to hit our respective power-spikes.
This group has a lot of iconic botlaners like Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk and Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, and you will face Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng soon. What are your thoughts on facing them and how has the experience been like for you so far?
Kramer: All these players have such long histories and are so iconic in their regions, and I’ve noticed from watching them that all of them have this common trait where they are incredibly consistent during the laning phase.
Since they are so good at it, we as a team adapted to play really consistently in the early game and just look towards the late game after that. Currently, we believe the team that wins the teamfights in the later phases will win the game.
Just to follow up a little on that: Today you picked Miss Fortune, currently in this Worlds patch she’s not the most popular champion but LGD seems to be able to make her work. What was the thought process behind picking her in this game specifically?
Kramer: I believe that every champion has a certain matchup that favours them and ones that puts them in rough spots. I tried using Miss Fortune to go up against Jhin a couple of times during practice and scrims. I managed to get good results from it, so therefore we decided to play her into Jhin.
I’d like to ask a little bit on matchups, because you faced botlaner Ilya “Gadget” Makavchuk from Unicorns of Love in the Play-Ins, who is famous for playing mages in the botlane. What are your thoughts on it? Are they weak in the current meta or is it more of a playstyle preference?
Kramer: Well, I’m a very open-minded player so if we obtain good results on mage champions in the bottom lane during scrims, then I’m pretty sure it’ll be viable for us during competitive games as well.
But overall, it’s really hard to practice a lot on mages botlane as opposed to marksmen because well…I’m pretty sure a lot of coaches will be against it.
And why would the coaches be against practicing mages in the botlane? I’m very curious on that part.
Kramer: (laugh) Well, basically not too many botlaners are extremely proficient at mages. Also, the mechanics required to play marksmen and mages are so different, so it’s hard to achieve a very high level of proficiency on those picks during scrims and practice.
Understood! Regarding scrims as you’ve mentioned, of course LGD has played a lot of stage games now from Play-ins and despite your loss to Gen.G, LGD have are looking better with every game.
Has playing more stage games from Play-ins helped LGD in gaining more practice and confidence going into Group Stages?
Kramer: I think that stage experience has been the most important. I mean, scrims are also important but when we lose to our opponents on stage, we get to learn specific things about their pick & bans, and also the games that we lost has shown us our problems very clearly. So as a team, we’ve learnt the most from losing games on stage.
From LGD’s recent scrims and preparations then, which regions are you keeping an eye on and which teams are looking like the strongest? Because currently in Day 2 of Worlds, the LCK teams remain undefeated.
Kramer: I believe DAMWON Gaming is the strongest team so far.
Here’s an interesting question for you then: What are LGD’s chances of exiting Group C as First Seed?
Kramer: I think…it’s 50/50. If we have learnt enough from our losses, then we definitely have a chance to do so.
LGD will face TSM on Day 4, who are currently 0–2. Tell us what you think about TSM and how does LGD matches up against them?
Kramer: The players from TSM are very good at finding angles and opening for teamfights. I shouldn’t pay too much attention to their current score, and we just have to do our best to prepare for them.
That’s all the time I have for today. Thank you!
Kramer: Thank you very much!
