Many held doubts over SK Telecom T1 coming into the world championship. The two-time World Champions let their domestic dominance in League Champions Korea falter for the first time this past summer. Even their last international showing at the Mid-Seasonal Invitational was marred by troubling performances in groups.

But at the 2016 world championships, SKT made a statement by dominating the North American third seed, Cloud9. Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong, on his classic Elise, dictated the pace of the game with a gank in mid lane, and then kept William “Meteos” Hartman down with counter ganks. Through the use of a translator, Colin “CD Mangaka” Nimer had the chance to speak with Bengi about SKT’s return to worlds, and the matchup against ROX Tigers.

Colin Nimer: I’m here with Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong from SKT who just made a glorious return to competitive play after not playing for some months. Western fans joked that you’ve come out of hibernation. We haven’t seen you in a long time, and Kang “Blank” Sun-gu has been playing more. There’s been a lot of criticism towards SKT’s junglers. But, you came out and played very well today. How does it feel to come back and play as well as you did and as strong as SKT was at worlds?

Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong: After a year of my lackluster performance, I wanted to prove myself to others that I’m still a top-form jungler. In terms of being able to play today, I was a little nervous, but also excited since this was my first international competition game I’ve been at in a while. I wanted to play my best because I got this opportunity that wasn’t given to me previously.

CN: When it came to this game against Cloud9, C9 had this interesting draft. When Elise was open they decided to first pick Lee-Sin over that, and after you guys first picked Syndra, they decided to play Cassiopeia into that. What did you think about this draft phase from C9? Was it a reason they lost so hard?

BSW: The composition we were going into the drafting phase was for a team fighting meta. That was the initial idea. I don’t think any of the lanes were really bad matchups. If it comes to the teamfight phase, we could win with our composition. I think we took the upper hand with the draft.

CN: When we look at what’s coming into this World Championships, in Season 3 and Season 5, SKT was the favorites to win. But this year, it doesn’t feel like the case. This summer was the first time SKT lost in the playoffs since 2014, and now ROX Tigers won it and look like the favorites. Even Faker said the Tigers look like the favorites. How does not being the favorites affect your mentality?

BSW: I think those kinds of things about the ROX Tigers looking better and SKT looking worse don’t impact my mentality, or how I practice or play. I feel that in 2015, everyone was hot off the heels of our summer win, like “oh my gosh, SKT’s so strong, they’re going to win the World Championship because they look so strong,” but in 2016, that wasn’t the case. We didn’t make it to the finals. We got third. So people looked and said “they don’t look as strong, but ROX Tigers does.” I think a lot of attention has moved to the Tigers because SKT wasn’t as strong as it was before.

CN: If you were to face the ROX Tigers in the bracket stage, quarterfinals, semifinals, or finals, do you think you would beat them?

BSW: Right now, SKT can definitely beat the ROX Tigers. But, because of the long schedule, I think that the team that has the better physical condition and practice will be the one to take it.

(Image courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr)