Everyone playing League of Legends has a star they look up to. For many, it’s world champions and famous personalities like Faker, Bjergsen, Uzi, Rekkles. For Vincent “Violet” Wong, that inspiring LoL idol is Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu — and now, late on October 6, the two will finally come face to face.
“He’s the reason that I’m playing League,” Violet admits.
The Peace AD carry spoke to Snowball Esports about the path lying ahead of Oceania’s champions and newest representatives, but it always looped back around to one thing — the Play-In showdown with Deft.
“I’ve been a [Deft] fan for a long, long time,” the Hong Kong-born bot laner revealed. “I’ve been watching him for ages, even when I wasn’t really playing League of Legends. He’s a big reason why I wanted to go further in the scene at all really. There’s nothing more I want than to play him on-stage, on the Worlds stage.”
Violet’s wish, as it turns out, has been granted. Riot — or more specifically, G2 jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski — shuffled Peace into a star-studded Play In group alongside Hanwha Life, as well as LNG Esports, Infinity, and Red Canids.
The team’s Play-In fixtures are as follows:
- LNG Esports — 12am Wednesday, Oct. 6
- Hanwha Life Esports — 10pm Wednesday, Oct. 6
- Infinity — 12am Thursday, Oct. 7
- Red Canids — 11pm Thursday Oct. 7
As far as draws go, it’s certainly doable for Oceania. Finishing third or fourth punches the team’s ticket to best-of-fives, and a victory there sends Peace into the cross-group battles for a spot in the main stage.
“Our goal is, of course, to make it out,” the Peace bot laner said.
“There’s a lot of luck that goes into it all, and LPL teams and LCK teams make it difficult, if you meet them [which Peace will], but that doesn’t mean we’re not aiming for history on the Worlds stage. We want to make history by making the group stage proper.
“It’s achievable, definitely. We had some Split 2 issues, sure, but they were mainly based around roster swaps, shuffles for the players. Deep down, we always knew we weren’t a fifth-placed team in Oceania. We did play poorly, so we got fifth, but I’m glad we could turn around and show that’s not us. We can do that again here too.
“It’s pretty upsetting that some of us are getting left out, we got here as a team, but I do think we have it in us to do great things together. The players we have are incredible.”
The Peace team has already arrived in Reykjavík, Iceland, and are preparing for the challenges ahead. They’re confident, eager, and ready to take on the full might of China and Korea in their Play-In group.
Before that, however, they have to face EUW servers.
“I’m actually looking forward to playing in Europe,” Violet laughed. “I’ve never played on servers besides Oceania before. To play against the best players in the world in those queue games, that’s what I’m enjoying most now. I’ve come to Worlds to do the best for myself, grow and learn. That’s what I’m aiming to do.
“To soak up all this gameplay from the best players, on the server, in games on-stage, that’s an incredible chance. It can only make us better, and we’ll improve as we go.”
