In ‘League of Legends (LoL),’ everyone wants to be the main character. That’s true even if you’re a pro gamer. They, too, want to decide victory or defeat with their own hands. In that respect, Hanwha Life Esports’ ‘Kingen’ Seong-hoon Hwang’s change in playing style is worth paying attention to.스포츠토토
On the 29th, he played Renekton twice in the second round of the 2023 LoL Champions Korea (LCK) summer regular league against DRX. Each had 3 kills, 2 deaths and 8 assists, and 1 kill, 2 deaths and 4 assists. This is a pitiful number for a top laner’s KDA on the winning team. And here’s a look at his play style.
“I changed the way I play Renekton this year. Originally, I tended to focus on one-on-one fights with opposing top laners. But now, if we take the lead in the line, we are playing to give the team a stronger reason for their selection rather than making it difficult for the opponent. I was influenced by Kim “Ki-in” Ki-in. If you watch him play Renekton, he makes a lot of plays for the team. That has a lot of influence on KT’s good performance.”
Hwang Seong-hoon, who is recording 11 victories this summer, is not very flashy in his Renekton play. Even before DRX he didn’t appear in the highlights a few times after the match. However, if you look closely, he has plenty of reasons to record a 100% win rate. He chooses only the actions that the opponent will find most annoying. It interferes with the opponent’s optimal teamfight position, and keeps snooping around the jungle like a hungry person opening a refrigerator at dawn.
He concluded that Hanwha Life Insurance’s carry role is sufficient with a mid laner and distance dealer.
“There are two main styles of play for top laners. The first is holding a line to create a CS difference with the opponent’s top. The second is to quickly push the line and hide in the opponent’s jungle or place a ward. Since our team has a high mid-range and AD dealer weight class, once we find the opponent’s jungler, the return is really big. So I chose the latter.”
“I didn’t change my playing style because there was a specific turning point. I learned that the results are better when I play like that. Originally, I thought that if I widened the difference in CS with the opponent’s top laner, the difference in influence would also widen. But at some point, I thought it was more important to care about the team than the opponent. It changed in the process of communicating honestly with team members and getting to know each other.”
Of course, as he is also a professional gamer, as a top laner, and especially as a former MVP of the ‘LoL World Championship (Worlds)’ final, he is greedy for carrying. But he never forgets the basic fact that the team’s victory is more important than his ego.
“I am also greedy for indicators. If you pay attention to making a difference in CS with your opponent by cutting out the trade-offs, the metric will improve. There was a time when I was a top laner obsessed with numbers like that. But at some point I realized that individual gains are not team gains. Top has to play for the team to win.”
In a sensational basketball animation earlier this year, a player with the same play style as Hwang Seong-hun was described as a ‘muddy halibut’. Flounder of Hanwha Life Insurance revealed its will to win the game against Genji and Dplus Kia next week.
He said, “These days, it is a meta where a team with a high understanding of combinations wins,” and “I believe that Genji and Diple Kia can win if they accurately understand the team’s combination concept.” At the same time, he added, “It will be important to keep team promises rather than expecting individual super plays.”