Image via Ubisoft/@kirill.vision
After a shock semi-final finish at the Six Sweden Major, DAMWON KIA has entered the Six Invitational as one of the unlikely favorites and APAC’s best hope at the tournament.
While the team qualified for the last two Major’s playoffs, both tournaments saw them exit to Brazilian opponents -- Team Liquid and FaZe Clan. Now as they’re set to face both Team oNe and MIBR during the SI 2022 groups, DWG is confident they can come out on top and best the Brazilian beast.
“I think that if we do as we prepared, is going to be fine” said the team’s coach of Gwonjae "HoundBird" Jang about their upcoming games as, with three months past since their last tier-one game, the team’s had the time to fine-tune their plays behind closed doors. This isn’t quite the case for their four opponents who all recently competed during their respective regional finals.
While fans and players have been bemoaning the lack of any region competition for the APAC side since the last Six Major, this may be a key advantage for DWG as any and all changes made they’ve been able to keep to themselves.
Primarily, while the team showed they were able to frag at the Mexico and Sweden Majors, ahead of SI 2022 DWG the team has been focusing on the micro-plays; “improving our reaction in the moment” and “communicating well and responding to the situation”. This was an area of improvement needed when looking at the two lost clutches against FaZe during the Sweden semi-finals that cost them a grand-final appearance.
Now with these improvements made, the team has been very forward about their aim to become the APAC’s very first global grand-finalist at this Invitational, something that definitely seems doable considering their prior successes.
DWG KIA will kick-off their title campaign later today against Team oNe at 1 pm CET on Stream A in what’s being billed as the match of the day.