DAMWON Gaming finished the Worlds 2019 play-in group stage as the only undefeated team, yet Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu believes that the team didn’t perform to the best of their abilities.
By the end of day four, DAMWON sat at the top of Group D with four wins, beating Royal Youth (2-3) and Flamengo Esports (1-4) to clinch top position and advance to the knockout stage.
Although they were able to destroy the enemy nexus in all four games, there were noticeably uncomfortable periods for the team. One particular trouble for DAMWON was the inconsistency of their bottom lane players.
As DAMWON move ahead to face Lowkey Esports in a best-of-five series on Monday, October 7, it’s likely that the Vietnamese team will look to pressure Sin “Nuclear” Jeong-hyeon and Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee in the bottom lane, considering Royal Youth were able to secure two kills on Nuclear inside the first six minutes on day two.
“We had a lot of accidents in the early game,” Canyon said to Ashley Kang from Korizon Esports. “We need more callouts in order to minimize those accidents.”
“It’s nice that we won with a 4-0, but I don’t think we performed too well. I’m happy, but we really should do better.”
Reports indicate that DAMWON has performed impressively during scrims, but this form has not translated to the desired performance in competition so far.
When asked what DAMWON need to do to carry the momentum from scrims onto the stage, Canyon replied, “I really wish I knew the answer to that too. I constantly think about what I need to do. If I had to pick something … Maybe I need to pretend as if I’m in the practice room? I may have to tell myself to play comfortably for practice.”
If DAMWON emerges as the successful team following the best-of-five series with Lowkey on Monday, it’s likely that the team could be on the path to facing FunPlus Phoenix, CTBC J Team, Team Liquid, or Invictus Gaming.
“I definitely want to meet IG,” Canyon said. “I do want to avoid FPX, though, because I personally think they’re really good.”
DAMWON and Lowkey Esports are the first two teams to battle in the best-of-five series on Monday, October 7.
