The attention of the League of Legends (LoL) community on September 11 was focused on the friendly match between the Vietnamese team LoL and the Korean LoL team. This match was part of Korea’s friendly matches leading up to the ASIAD. For Vietnamese fans, this was a rare opportunity to witness the best stars from the VCS compete against the elite from LCK.
Of course, with the Korean LoL team always seen as the top contender for the gold medal at this year’s ASIAD, for most Vietnamese fans, the friendly match was merely a practice session for both teams, and the actual result wasn’t too important. In fact, many opinions suggest that as long as the Vietnamese players perform their best and maintain a relaxed mindset, that would be more than enough. After all, everyone understands that the skill gap between the two teams is vast and difficult to bridge.
The outcome was as expected for Vietnamese LoL fans as the representative team from the land of kimchi completely dominated Levi and his teammates. However, many fans from the VCS were overjoyed to witness the impressive performance of player Kati – one of the two Mid Laners of the Vietnamese team and a key player of GAM Esports. This is because, facing the formidable stars from Korea, in front of thousands of fans at LoL Park, Kati performed very well. In fact, during the first game when he played Mid Lane, the upper lane of the Vietnamese team even seemed to outperform the Korean stars.
More importantly, Kati’s mentality has visibly improved. According to many observations, GAM’s persistent underperformance, even losing to wildcard teams at MSI 2023, largely stemmed from the psychological state of the players, especially Kati. Therefore, Kati’s ability to alleviate the pressures of international competition in front of a full auditorium could be a promising sign for GAM on their journey to the upcoming Worlds 2023. At the same time, Kati will be well-prepared for both ASIAD and the largest international tournament in the LoL scene.
Therefore, although the friendly match ended in a loss, VCS fans remain extremely satisfied. Especially, the expected stars showed that they can indeed perform very well, even against the elite of the LoL scene.