JD Gaming finished the first half of the Worlds 2022 Group Stage with a perfect 3-0 record in Group B. Star jungler Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok has played two games on Viego, one of his best champions, and one on Graves.
Despite the perfect record, their games against DWG KIA, and most recently against G2 Esports on day four, were challenging. The LPL first seed lost fights around objectives, and even got aced by G2 in the mid game without surmounting any sizeable gold leads.
Nonetheless, their team fighting prowess backed by late game scaling pushed them over the finish line. In a press conference after their win against G2 Esports, Kanavi revealed the jungler he’s most looking forward to playing, and sized up the competition in their group.
The one team fight that could have completely changed the outcome was when JDG picked a fight against G2 Esports in the top side jungle.
24-minutes in, JDG were less than 3,000 gold ahead with two dragons, and it was still anyone’s game because Baron hadn’t been taken and neither team was near Soul Point.
They contested territory despite not having enough vision. Even though they caught out G2 with Final Chapter, a counter Encore from Victor “Flakked” Lirola Tortosa combined with Smoke Screen from Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski’s Graves was extremely punishing.
Taking out three, G2 secured a free Baron then cleaned up JDG’s bot lane duo after they overstayed to down mid lane’s base turret.
“After the skirmish at the enemy red buff, we started to know how to win team fights,” Kanavi reflected. “Sivir is really strong, so we need to peel for her and we’ll win the team fight.”
Even against DWG KIA, Kanavi was caught off-guard by their bot lane Varus pick, and did not expect the AD carry to burst him down at level three, which “impressed” him very much.
Sitting on top of the table, JD Gaming join the ranks of Rogue and Royal Never Give Up, the only two other teams that remain perfect in Group C and Group D.
In response to which jungler he wishes to face the most should they make it out of groups, Kanavi named Gen.G’s Han “Peanut” Wang-ho. Gen.G are currently sitting on a 2-1 match record in Group D.
“Every jungler in this tournament is excellent. They have very high mechanical skills. Personally, I really want to face Peanut because he’s the 2022 LCK Summer champion,” he said.
Gen.G is also the team that Kanavi’s former Griffin teammates Son “Lehends” Si-woo, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, and Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon are on, so going up against them will likely stir up old rivalries.
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