T1 Canna: “The thing that pressured me most… it was my first official match in a long time”
Last Updated on: 11th October 2021, 07:31 pm
T1 announced their return to the League of Legends World Championship in grand style by dispatching the LJL’s Detonation FocusMe in a sub-20 minute affair which opened Group C play. Unlike previous years where the Korean team was flushed with experience, this year’s iteration featured three debutants in their starting lineup against DFM which included top laner Kim “Canna” Chang-dong.
Playing as Graves for the first time in his career in League’s biggest stage, Canna held his own against Evi for virtually the entire game to finish with a 3/1/9 KDA. In addition to T1 rampaging throughout the map with the Yuumi-Talon tandem headed by Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, Canna contributed to the team’s resounding success in their first match of Worlds.
Following the match against DFM, Canna spoke to the press in a scrum interview to discuss his debut showing, the pressure that comes along with it, and the current preference of Yuumi in the Worlds meta.
T1 Canna on draft vs DFM
Congrats on the win, Canna. Why do you think Yuumi has a bigger priority in today’s matches?
Canna: In my opinion, I think Yuumi has first priority because it has a very high potential for late game. Recently, a lot of enchanter mage supports have been buffed and the junglers are very mobile so they synergize well with Yuumi.
I’d like to know if Yuumi playing alongside Talon was something that the team planned beforehand because you and the pair eventually carried the game?
T1 Canna: When we were practicing Yuumi, we did a lot of research on [which champion] it synergizes well with and Talon just happened to be available at the time so that’s why we picked him. But we have a lot more compositions that would work well with Yuumi also.
T1 Canna’s Worlds debut
One thing that comes into consideration for you in this tournament is the vast difference you have in length of career compared to your opponents. You’re facing Flandre, Ssumday, and Evi once more after this match, all people who’ve been playing competitively for more than a handful of years. Do you feel tremendous pressure as a Worlds debutant to perform at your best against these individuals?
T1 Canna: I don’t feel too much pressure from going head-to-head with the experienced top laners. The thing that pressured me most today was the fact that it was my first official match in a long time but I was able to get over it once the game started going well and it seemed like we were going to win.
About your Worlds experience, are you still pondering the competition even though there’s no public and you have to respect safety rules?
T1 Canna: If you go for a long time without having an official match, you start to get worn out and kind of bored about the practice situation. But since I started my match today, I felt the passion brimming in me again and I’m looking to [show] what I have for the remainder of the event.
