Screams erupt at the historic Chicago Theatre in the heart of the windy city. Team Royal Never Give Up has taken game one in a series against two-time world champions SK Telecom T1. The fan elation, however, did not come from the balcony or main floor of the auditorium, rather, the inside of the press tent nearby which housed over a dozen Chinese media outlets and a handful of other reporters, photographers, and film crews.

Chinese fans and press cheered hard and hopeful for one of their two remaining Worlds teams, but it would not be enough to save RNG from the titans of Korea SK Telecom, and after a 3-1 series, the second day of Worlds 2016 Quarter Finals came to a close.

For SKT, their tournament run thus far has been largely successful. After going 5-1 in group stages, the team showed improvements on many of their flaws from the Summer season. One of the greatest areas of tension for the Korean powerhouse lies in the Jungle. SKT has fielded two junglers throughout the year, Kang “Blank” Sun-gu and Bae “Bengi” Seong-ung, who have both seen their ups and downs.

Often regarded as the weakest aspect of the Telecom roster, the two have been swapped in and out over the course of this year’s World Championships in an attempt to remedy some of the flaws that could potentially come with either player.

Last night, in the balcony surrounding the main lobby of the Chicago Theatre, I had the opportunity to speak with Blank after his win against RNG. When asked about his ability to deal with the common criticisms surrounding his play, Blank gave credit to his growth as a player, recalling, “There used to be a time when negative feedback on the internet would affect my play negatively but now I don't really care, I just laugh about it and move on-- it doesn't really affect my play at all.”

In the set against RNG, Blank made it clear that he has what it takes to excel on the world stage. After SKT failed to bounce back from an early deficit in game one Bengi was subbed out for his rookie counterpart who showed up huge for the team with a collective KDA of 9/2/28 over three games and on three separate champions: Zac, Olaf, and Elise.

Even with a strong performance in Quarter Finals, the remainder of Blank’s possible roads to the Summoner’s Cup are riddled with jungle talent. In Semi-Finals, SKT will be matched up against either Edward Gaming with jungler Ming “Clearlove” Kai, or fellow Korean squad Rox Tigers with the battle ward himself Yoon “Peanut” Wang-ho.

When asked who he’d rather face in the Semi-finals in New York, Blank responded, “if you asked me which team I wanted to meet I would have said Rox Tigers, but since you're asking about the jungler I would say Clearlove because I used to really like him before and he's a jungler that I want to meet at least once on this big stage.” As far as his desire to play Rox as a team over EDG Blank simply remarked, “I would say facing against a Korean team just makes me feel a little more comfortable”.

On the other side of the bracket, Korea’s third seed, Samsung Galaxy, was the first team to secure their spot in the semi-finals. A Rox victory tonight will set a new record of Korean Worlds dominance with three of the four semi-final teams being from the country. In regard to the implications this had on the skill gap between Korea and the remainder of the League of Legends world, Blank credited communication as a major issue, stating, “I don't think the gap is that huge, but the reason that [it’s there is that] foreign teams have Korean players on the roster,  [so] I believe the communication isn't really happening at an ideal level [...] also, things outside of the game are not ideal for those foreign teams.”

Blank and the rest of SK Telecom have booked their flights to New York and will be competing in the one and only Madison Square Garden for a place in the finals and a shot at their third Summoner’s Cup. With Chicago soon behind them, Blank left me with an enthusiastic remark towards the famous deep dish pizza found here in the Windy City: “It's the best pizza that I've ever had in my life.”