On October 10, in the Switzerland round of the 2024 World Championship held at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin, Germany, HLE finally defeated FLY after a grueling three-game battle to achieve the third victory of the Switzerland round. As a result, HLE defeated FLY 2-1 and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals of this year's World Finals. After the game, HLE head coach Dan Dy was interviewed by Korean media National Daily, sharing his feelings about the game and his next preparations.
DanDy said after the game that while he was happy with the team's advance, he wasn't entirely happy with the overall performance of the game. "It's very happy to be able to go on to the quarter-finals, the semi-finals and even higher," he said. But we still haven't been able to fully deliver a performance that satisfies the fans. Next, we will prepare for the quarterfinals more seriously and show the true HLE style. ”
Speaking about the challenges in the game, DanDy pointed out that FLY's squad selection has brought a lot of difficulties. Although it was expected that the opponent might choose some unconventional heroes, the rhythm was still unexpectedly disrupted during the match. He explained, "We expected the opponent to choose some unpredictable heroes, so we tried to choose a more stable teamfight lineup during the BP phase. But Bwipo's Urgart and Inspired's Nunu did catch us off guard, especially since the players rarely faced Nunu, so there were some mistakes in skill. ”
Despite HLE's series victory, Dandy admits that it wasn't easy, especially against a roster that had never been seen before. In order to prepare for a more diverse lineup, HLE spent a lot of time practicing on her previous rest days. DanDy revealed: "We tried a lot of other teams' BP and lineup combinations, and paid extra attention to food and rest to help the players settle into local life as quickly as possible. ”
Looking back at the previous loss against GEN, DanDy admitted that the team had re-evaluated the prioritization of heroes and made adjustments to the BP strategy. "After losing the game, we realised we needed to change our strategy and tried all the possibilities," he said. While winning is certainly a better outcome, defeat has taught us valuable lessons. ”
Commenting on the uniqueness of Worlds, DanDy highlighted the different interpretations of editions by teams around the world, and the collisions and changes that bring about are the most special. "That's the beauty of Worlds, where each team is competing based on their own understanding of the version, and lately I can feel that the version trend is a bit off the LCK," he said. Although there is not much difference between the LCK and the current version, we need to adjust our lineup according to the opponent's situation. ”
Ten years ago, DanDy lifted the World Championship trophy as a jungler for SSW. Looking back on that time, he believes that the key to winning the game was the mutual trust of the team. He said: "At that time, we not only had an advantage in terms of strength, but more importantly, the trust between the players was very strong. Even in the tightest moments, we were mentally stronger than our opponents, and that's why we won the title in the end. ”
He also recalled hearing the cheers of the fans at the LCK Summer Finals, and although he can't feel the support directly at the tournament today, he said, "I know that the fans from afar are still supporting us late at night, and we will definitely repay their expectations with results." HLE will next travel to Paris, France to prepare for the upcoming knockout stage.
In addition, DanDy stressed that despite the limited rest time, the team must arrange their training and adjustment time appropriately to adapt to the new training environment. As the No. 1 seed in the LCK region, HLE was considered the favorite by many viewers, but their match in the Switzerland round was not as clean as expected.