On the 14th at CHZZK LoL PARK in Jongno, the opening match of the “2026 LCK Cup” Group Battle saw KT Rolster defeat DN SOOPers 2–1, giving the Elder Group its first win. In the post-match interview, KT Rolster’s Bdd (Gwak Bo-seong) shared his thoughts on the victory, saying, “I thought today was going to be a tough one, so I’m relieved we managed to win.”

Below is the full interview with Bdd (Gwak Bo-seong).

With the opening-match win, you delivered the Elder Group its first victory. How do you feel?

I thought today’s match was going to be difficult, so I’m glad we were able to win in the end.

I’m curious about the meaning behind the celebration you did after the match.

During Worlds, Interpreter Ji-seon suggested that celebration to me. It looks like Agumon, so I wanted to keep using it—and I’m starting from today.

In Game 1, you pulled out “jungle Malphite” as your first pick. Did you think the pick moved up in priority after the patch?

It was something we had prepared in advance. These days, the bottom lane is really important, and we felt Malphite is strong in those fights. I also thought it was a good pick for locking in a lead when you’re ahead, so we took it early.

In the final Game 3, the opponent’s Ambessa must have been tricky to deal with. How were you trying to secure the win?

We kept having fairly big accidents here and there, and I think that made things a bit worse for us in terms of composition. But I kept telling the team that if we grouped up and fought well, we could still win. As for my Zoe play, it’s a bit unfortunate—I died up top in the middle of the game, and that part is disappointing.

Starting today, the newly introduced Coach Voice was something you used actively. How was it?

I thought it would be useless, but while playing, it felt like it helped a lot more than I expected. Normally in practice, Coach Museong would just say things like, “Guys, let’s go,” but today the coaches talked a bit more actively, and it helped us a lot. If we keep getting that kind of input as consistently as we did today, I think it’ll be helpful.

This season, Aiming, Pollu, and Ghost joined the team. Now that you’ve started building synergy with a new bottom duo, how does it feel?

First of all, they’re all players I know really well. That said, I don’t think we’re in an amazing place right now—if anything, it feels like we’re not even 5% of the way there yet. So if we keep pushing and pulling that level up, I think they’ll be able to play much, much better.

You’ve played together with Ghost before—what is “support Ghost” like?

I’ve always thought Yong-jun has a really good ability to see the game in a bigger picture sense. Now that he’s playing support, that strength stands out even more, and I think he’s doing really well.

After playing your first match, what’s your sense of how this season is going to go?

For now, things feel a bit uncertain, but the further we go toward the end, the better our performance will be.

Your next opponent is Gen.G, a rematch of last year’s Worlds semifinals. Any words heading into that match?

More than focusing on winning the match right away, we’ll put our effort into raising our level of play.

This article was translated from the original that appeared on INVEN.