Guangdong Freecs’ Lee “Dudu” Dong-ju emphasizes the importance of “shamelessness.
Guangdong defeated DRX 2-0 in the first match of the team’s 2023 LoL Champions Korea (LCK) Summer Season regular season at the LCK Arena in Jongno-gu, Seoul on Monday. With a 1-0 record (+2), the team begins the first week tied for first place with D-Plus Gia.
Lee Dong-ju gave his team the first set win with a hard carry on Xante. He turned the tide of the game by relentlessly picking off the opposing dealer in unfavorable one-hit situations. Thanks to this, Guangdong was able to secure the point despite a few critical mistakes.
“I was actually a little angry with my teammates right after we won the first set,” Lee admitted in the post-match press conference. “It’s okay to make mistakes,” he said, noting that his teammates were demoralized by their mistakes, which led to a drop in performance. But it was disappointing that we got caught up in our mistakes and couldn’t focus throughout the game.”
Lee even called out to his teammates to “stay focused” after the Nexus destruction in Game 1. Why did he express his disappointment to his teammates on such a big day, when he had the chance to decide the game’s outcome?
In a separate meeting with the Kookmin Ilbo after the official interview, Lee Dong-joo explained further. “I saw my teammates talking less after their mistakes, or playing passively because they lost confidence. In similar scenes, they were conscious of their previous mistakes,” he said, “and I saw that they remained demoralized even after the game.”
“A professional gamer should be confident even when making mistakes. If you make a mistake, it’s better to tell your teammates bluntly, ‘I made a mistake, I need you to do the rest.’ In this game, ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t help at all,” he adds.
“If you make a mistake, you shouldn’t feel sorry for yourself, you should just make up for it in the next hantana or operation,” he said. He also emphasized that “you don’t have to keep the bad set in mind,” citing the second-set performance of Yoon “Jun” Se-joon, who made a critical error in the first set.
“He threw a tantrum at his teammates at the end of the first set, but the second set was a different game altogether, and he immediately put his headset back on like a different person,” said Lee, adding, “I’m sure Sejun was feeling the effects of his first set mistake. I’m sure he was still feeling the effects of his first set mistake, but he shook it off and played a great match 안전놀이터.”