Gen.G Doran at MSI: “There could have been better picks”

Gen.G top laner Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon spoke to the media after the Korean first seed crashed out of MSI 2023 at the hands of Bilibili Gaming. 

“I think the biggest issue that we were facing was our communication around team fights,” he said of the loss. The tournament has seen a focus on team fighting compositions, with JD Gaming and now Bilibili Gaming showing to be the strongest in this aspect.

“While we were playing the team fights, I think our teamwork was way below other teams, so I think we definitely have to work on it.”

“I personally think that JDG and BLG have very different styles, but one thing that they have in common is that they are really proactive and bold when it comes to opening team fights.”

You call it clean, we call it #GenGLoL 🐯👑 pic.twitter.com/LQWSrVC7aK

— Gen.G Esports (@GenG) May 17, 2023

“Every single player on the LPL lineups have perfect positioning for team fights. So as someone that was dealing with that, it was really tough to play against their style.”

On his own play, Doran thought that his “performance throughout MSI was not good,” adding that he “was never happy with a single game I played.”

Against BLG, he had the tough task of going up against Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin – thought by many to be the best top laner in the world at this moment in time. Doran acknowledged the “huge respect” that he shares for Bin after he “kept his own play style… playing a lot of carry-style champions” despite “most of the top laners” opting for tanks during the majority of the tournament.

Quizzed on what could have improved Gen.G’s fortunes, Doran took a swipe at his own coaching staff, albeit carefully, with the caveat that he was “not really certain about this answer” as he said “that there could have been better picks and better champions… it’s a bummer that we didn’t actually try many different strategies.”

He added that, although “every team was performing under the same conditions,” he pointed to the fact that the team “didn’t have enough time to prepare for the tournament” as another potential cause of their underachievement.