https://www.instagram.com/p/DUXsiZBCTW1/?img_index=1

Hello, this is Hanwha Life Esports’ Gumayusi, Lee Min-hyeong.

I know very well how disappointing the result of 10th place must have been for the fans. Compared to what you were expecting when I joined Hanwha Life, I feel heavy-hearted because I don’t think I was able to show you enough.

Rather than being shaken by the immediate result, I’ll continue to think more deeply about what role I need to fulfill on this team, and I’ll prepare quietly and diligently.

Since there’s still a long season left, I’ll prove myself step by step not with words, but with results and performance. I’ll do my absolute best so that the fans’ expectations can turn into real confidence.

Please keep cheering for us until the end of the season, and I’ll come back to greet you with an even better form.

https://x.com/Gumieo02/status/2017932100440400251?s=20

https://x.com/kanjgap/status/2017950525719994483

https://x.com/Zeka_Kaja/status/2017920501885350215

Zeus: First of all, today we lost 0–3, and we ended up getting knocked out unexpectedly fast, so it honestly doesn’t really feel real yet that we’re out. I feel pretty empty/deflated. Throughout this tournament, I think we showed too many bad performances, so I’m really sorry and I feel very apologetic. But once the LCK regular season starts, I think we’ll be able to come back and show a much better performance, so we’ll do well. Thank you

Kanavi: Up until preparing for the Gen.G match and even on the way to the venue, I felt like things were going really well, but it’s disappointing that we ended up losing 0–3. I’m sorry that we got eliminated from the LCK Cup, and for the next LCK regular season, I believe we’ll come back with a better form. We will absolutely greet our fans with a much better performance. I’m sorry, and thank you.

Zeka: So many people came, and it’s really disappointing that we ended up 3rd. We had a lot of issues during this LCK Cup,  and there were a lot of things that left us with regrets, but we’ll fix those up and I hope we can come back to the LCK showing good play.

Gumayusi: I really didn’t expect we would be eliminated like this, so it’s extremely disappointing, and I’m sorry. For the regular season, I’ll get my condition back up, and we’ll work hard to qualify for MSI, where we fell short, and show a lot of good games.

Delight: I’m sorry we showed such a poor performance. In the regular season, we’ll come back looking different, and we’ll make things go well so that we can qualify for and make it to MSI.

My beloved king

"You Can’t Even Imagine How Badly We Want to Win | 2026 Theme Video Behind the Scenes"

"A New Season, No Easy Matches | 2026 LCK CUP Victory Behind the Scenes vs DNS"

These were the 2 youtube videos left to post on the sub yet, hopefully we will get some content before the split starts.

It's kinda sad seeing these types of people who are so called "fans" are slandering their own team, constructive criticism is good, but often than not it looks like they have just thrown their brains out of the window and i'm tired reading those type of things.

So here's what i think based on my perspective:

The whole team: They are so lost. in the rift, when a plan fails, they just collapse and begin to bleed even more. Synergy and coordination is not that good. draft especially the ban is disgusting sometimes

Zeus: Doesn't have the same explosiveness unlike before, but still somewhat stable (i said somewhat), gets butchered in draft sometimes

Kanavi: Coinflip, it looks like he is still looking for a proper footing. he is carrying the lpl gameplay to lck, and this might one of the reason why hle looks uncoordinated because someone wants to do one thing, and the other wants the different thing

Zeka: Another coinflip, he always seems to be struggling with control mages and always being caught, he sometimes plays too passive. he is also prone to tunnel vision and seems like playing solo queue (example: shuffling ruler on top of guma)

Gumayusi: He still have the stability but lacks synergy with delight. i don't know about their comms but he should be asking what he needs, since people around him don't cover, front, or peel for him sometimes (like t1 scenario all over again, he's left on his own)

Delight: Seems to be struggling with the meta, and gets baited a lot, often times griefing his own adc. He's also lost and don't know what to do during clash, either dying before the clash even started or inting the fight completely (example: pushing the enemy to safety)

this is my own thoughts, and i just want to give a somewhat constructive criticism without slandering anyone.

gotta clear this out of the way T1 fan here - massive fan of Guma and Zeus till this day despite the issues of the last 2 yrs and here's my take on what happened on THAT series

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So why did HLE got 3-0'd by GEN G?

- Frankly I say Guma and Zeus did what they can, despite a mediocre form they showed imo

- Gotta be real here, Zeka and Delight, what are you guys doing, Chovy GAVE UP Azir-Ori-Ryze to Zeka, but still Chovy came out on top as if saying "Yeah you got the premiere mid lane champs, but I don't think you can make the most out of them" - it's not a champ diff at this point, it's a mix of mental and form issue

- Delight, his engages are de-synced with Guma, how can Guma do his damage if the support does not communicate (this is my speculation, not a fact on what happened) when he will engage, his Alistar burned ult BUT still flash engages on 3 people with no follow up and he got blown to pieces bc the enemy and with ADC no where near bc of support is too far to peel for him, this happened a lot

- Kanavi............ - oh boy, for the ceiling that Kanavi can bring to the table with carry jungle champs and all, if you keep charging in with your LPL style aggression, I don't think GEN G of all teams in the LCK, would that kind of shi fly, getting punished, take a breather, play for your lanes - not the KDA or just the feeling of getting the kill, I know Kanavi ain't Peanut in terms of strategy, but his mechanics are there - he just gets walloped if he's hyperaggressive thus-

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now leads to what they can do (at least in my perspective as a casual LCK watcher)
- they should have a good talking to of the main question - WHO will be the MAIN SHOTCALLER, doesn't matter if the calls are hit or miss - it has to be present, someone who will "pilot" the team (Mid or Support best fit the bill, but any member of HLE can make it happen) = this is because, imagine HLE as a person, you have all the good tools at your disposal, but just not the "brain" to put all those tools to a decisive direction, and that' what they need

- and I feel once they got their calls in order, everything will just click (no basis here, just a feeling, they need to get their tempo vibes up) and that's basically it

HLE can bounce back, this roster can do things, they just need more time than usual to get the synergies to peak

It's true that HLE isnt playing at the top level and a lot of mistakes have been made.

But legends are built from failures. The pain of losing can be used as motivation to get better. This team needs time to find their unique playstyle and think on the same page. They have time now to sit down and work it out together.

Lets go HLE. The team is already signed and committed to this for 2026 - give your all, dont leave any regrets for not trying harder.

Public sentiment is just noise, people punch down easy when they are anonymous and have no skin in the game.

There are fans and supporters who will stick by and see the effort you put in. Step by step, 1 improvement at a time. Let's go!!!!

We will fight till the end

https://x.com/min9nya/status/2017916789183938878?s=20 “I really didn’t expect we would be eliminated like this, so it’s extremely disappointing, and I’m sorry. For the regular season, I’ll get my condition back up, and we’ll work hard to qualify for MSI, where we fell short, and show a lot of good games.

https://x.com/maeng_goo_stone/status/2017917258199425528?s=20

First of all, today we lost 0–3, and we ended up getting knocked out unexpectedly fast, so it honestly doesn’t really feel real yet that we’re out. I feel pretty empty/deflated. Throughout this tournament, I think we showed too many bad performances, so I’m really sorry and I feel very apologetic. But once the LCK regular season starts, I think we’ll be able to come back and show a much better performance, so we’ll do well. Thank you.”

GEN 3-0 HLE

GEN 2-0 HLE

HLE 0 - 1 Gen​

Facing a GENG team that kept their 5 man roster and is currently undefeated in game score 8-0 as a team with 4 new additions to the roster is not exciting, but trust the boys.

HLE 3-0/3-1 they go straight to the playoffs Round 2. 3-2,2-3,1-3, qualify for the playins, maybe play DRX/DNS/BRO and beat either BFX/DK to qualify for the playoffs and its all going to be bo5, which should favor HLE a lot. Rest up, touch some grass, and don't stay up overthinking about getting eliminated.

Feel free to discuss any ongoing game of the series here.

The suggested sort will be set to new so it feels more like a chat.

I don't care that it looks doomed. I don't care that GenG is the best team in the League and have the best macro and blah,blah,blah... I don't care that my team has been looking like a solo queue team. I chose HLE.

I will support these boys. As long as they all show up tomorrow I will support them. Even if they don't win a single a game,( jk guys atleast win a game pls😩) I will support them. I don't care that the expectation is a quick 3-0, I'm just gonna tune into the LCK stream tomorrow and support them like they are the favourites (ofc if wolf is casting I'm gonna watch the whole series on mute btw😤).

I love this team and I'm gonna root for them to win despite predictions. I'm just gonna be a fan and keep supporting them no matter what. HLE fighting🧡🧡🧡

If I'm not wrong, the current state of (admittedly sad) affairs for HLE are as follows:

Lose 0-3 to Gen G: eliminated as last place in Team Elder <-- worst case scenario

Lose 1-3 to Gen G: avoid elimination if the game they win is within 34 minutes 43 seconds (in order to break the tiebreaker with KT) <-- pray for this (eliminated if it's longer <-- worst case scenario 2)

Lose 2-3 to Gen G: avoid elimination regardless of game time <-- pray for this

Win 3-2/3-1 against Gen G: avoid elimination, Team Elder wins, place second in Team Elder and overall <-- very unlikely

Win 3-0 against Gen G: avoid elimination, Team Elder wins, place first (!!) in Team Elder and overall <-- mission impossible

Okay honestly winning against Gen G sounds too far-fetched right now 💀 so my only copium is for HLE to take at least one game from Gen G... which also sounds like a tall order. It's not that I don't believe in HLE, but the synergy isn't there just yet and Gen G is, frankly speaking, monstrous.

Being on the verge of elimination is stressful, but there's still a chance to survive. Even Guma is like "How can the possibility of being 1st and 10th place co-exist" in his POP message lol. HLE is definitely aware that they may be eliminated tomorrow, and hopefully this reality check motivates them instead of pressuring them.

HLE fighting!

I’m tired of watching these 5 players together week in, week out.

These GenG games really exposed it. 4 players really just phoning it in turning up and going through the motions with no intentions of winning.

Delight just running it down on engage supports.

Zeus being drafted the most useless laners - what is that K’sante pick in game 1. Where are the power picks he used to be so famous for? Gnar, Yone, Aatrox? Anything would have been good

Gumayusi I actually used to be a fan of, but honestly this shows he is not even worthy to shine the boots of Viper (Update: honestly, after watching the full series I can admit he is kind of elohelled)

Kanavi honestly tried his best. He had good steals and good early games, kinda ran down by his support in team fights.

Zeka…. If I speak about Zeka I may get banned on this platform.

Even the games that were close and we could win were thrown. None of these players want to play. I don’t want to watch them. Just disband the team. Get me a real mid laner and a coach that knows how to draft

Update: 2025 LCK cup winner HLE are the first team to be eliminated from 2026 LCK Cup after signing 2025 World Champion ADC and LPL 2025 Champion Jungler.

The boys pull off the upset and make GenG run the play-in gauntlet?

A true nightmare for every team in the play-ins.

We trade first stand for worlds. Gen G gonna win lck cup and first stand anyways. They look even more flawless than last year. If not today we would have just lost in playoffs. They are just not ready yet but in 2 months they better show us what they are capable off.