Golden Guardians Huhi maintains positive outlook against BLG at MSI 2023

After another best-of-three (Bo3) match at the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI 2023), esports.gg sat down with Golden Guardians player Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun to ask about his thoughts on the Golden Guardians being underestimated, the choice of London for MSI 2023, and why he hovered Teemo.

Esports.gg: With the Golden Guardians back on the international stage, is there pressure on you to ensure the team does well?

Huhi: I think being a representative of a region at an international tournament means there is always pressure because I don’t want my region to be viewed as a joke or anything like that. But even with this pressure, we are focused on enjoying the tournament, having fun, and learning as much as possible.

Esports.gg: As one of the most experienced players here, do you feel pressure to ensure you play at a consistently high standard? And how does this affect you if you do make mistakes?

Huhi: For sure I can be thrown off when I make a mistake. When I'm playing badly on stage, it can throw me off. As I'm the team captain for us, it’s important that even when we are down and losing that we keep morale up. Such as, in game two where we came back from a huge deficit. Anything is possible on stage and I never want to give up when we are on stage. My team is always supportive, especially Gori.

Esports.gg: As the Golden Guardians were highly doubted this year both within the League Championship Series (LCS) and the international community, how does it feel to have reached the international stage once more and defy the haters?

Huhi: It always feels good to prove the haters wrong, to defy them, especially for me in my career. I was fighting a lot of haters to prove them wrong. Haters are always there, so I use it as a motivation.

Esports.gg: It has to be asked, the Teemo hover – any particular reason? Was it because you could see the Teemo hats in the crowd?

Huhi: I was just having fun [...] I just hover champs to see who cheers, and change them around and see who cheers. Just playing around with the crowd.

Esports.gg: What was going through your head when you pushed it to a three-game match against BLG? It was the first game three we have seen this MSI with the change in format.

Huhi: I was pretty happy because we kept it interesting by pushing it to game three. I just wish we could’ve shown a more competitive game three because we did have a good chance of winning the series.

Esports.gg: What were your thoughts after that series? The Golden Guardians showed us some incredible plays.

Huhi: When it all ended, the first thing on my mind was game three. I had some regrets because of the bot lane and how we made a lot of mistakes.

Esports.gg: You’ve played on the Golden Guardians before. What is it about this team that makes you come back to them?

Huhi: For me, GG stood out the most because of — firstly the roster — Stixxay, Gori, and River. I’d never been on a team with two Koreans, so it’s pretty fun playing with two Koreans. Also, I knew the organization, how they function, how they manage stuff, etc. A comfortable environment that I knew wasn’t toxic and would support the players a lot.

Esports.gg: You’ve played in Korea as well as North America (NA). Is there something about NA that makes you want to stay there rather than moving over to other regions?

Huhi: I think NA gave me a lot of opportunities through the LCS, and I got a new life, new friends, a new home, a new family, and two dogs. For me, it just makes sense to stay there now. It’s home.

Esports.gg: What does it mean to you to be a professional pro player?

Huhi: Being a pro player means a lot to me because it gave me a new lifestyle, new friends, new family. I'm grateful I can do what I love.

Esports.gg: Did the Bo3 format in this year’s MSI help improve your play? For example, were you able to try more things and get a better grasp of the game?

Huhi: I really like the Bo3 addition because last time I came to MSI, we played Bo1 and the top four made it out of groups, similar to Worlds. But playing a Bo3 or Bo5 is way more fun. You can have more diversity in your draft and strategy.

Esports.gg: What’s your favorite thing about MSI being hosted in London this year?

Huhi: My favorite thing about London is so far the number of parks and lots of people walking around. As you know, normally, gamers don’t go out or have sun. But we have been walking around as a team around the parks. I really enjoyed the safe green environment that the parks here bring.

Esports.gg: We’ve been asking pro players what they’ve made of British food as a whole — how are you finding British food?

Huhi: There were a lot of comments about us coming to London — people saying London food is bad, but I really liked the full English breakfast. There were no beans, but I really loved it. Other than that, I love fish and chips and am enjoying trying the food.

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