With the European Masters 2022 Spring group stage starting Thursday, former League of Legends Champions Korea jungler Kang “Haru” Min-seung is preparing to fight for the title alongside the Northern League Of Legends Championship‘s X7 Esports. Haru and his team won the NLC final 3-0 against Bifrost and are set to face off against GamerLegion, Team Phantasma and Karmine Crop in Group B.
Ahead of the tournament, Upcomer reached out to Haru to learn about his time in the NLC, his views of the European Regional Leagues and his expectations for EU Masters.
Upcomer: You spent much of your career in South-Korea, a year in Latin America and now you’ve joined X7 Esports in Europe. What motivated your decision to come here?
Haru: To be honest, I have a lot of experience but I am not satisfied with my career. I wanted to come to Europe to prove I can still play at the highest level.
Do you like life and the food in Europe?
I like life in Europe. I was a little worried at first, but [Raymond “kaSing” Tsang] from my team really helped me adapt well — and I like the food here in Europe.
With the EU Masters main stage kicking off, are you confident you can get out of groups? Do you have an opinion on the other teams playing there?
Of course I am confident we can make it out of groups. I am really looking forward to playing against Karmine Corp in particular.
Considering fellow NLC team Bifrost managed to make it out of group over Spain, how strong do you think the NLC is compared to other ERLs?
I think Bifrost is a good team and NLC is not as weak as people think.
Last year the LFL’s Karmine Corp won EU Masters. Do you think the LFL is still favored this year?
I think everyone in the LFL is doing pretty well.
Which junglers in Europe do you want to face competitively and who do you think is really talented?
I think [Doğukan “113” Balcı] is very aggressive, but junglers like [Martin “Yike” Sundelin] and [Lukas “Lurox” Thoma] are good as well. I look forward to facing them.
Do you watch LEC? Which LEC junglers do you think are the best?
I watch LEC whenever I have time. I think [Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong] and [Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz] are good.
Do you think Korean junglers play differently? What do you think of the current jungle meta?
Every player has their own strengths and weakness, so it will be hard to talk about the differences.
What do you think of European Solo Queue? How does it compare to Korean solo Queue?
Well I think EU Solo Queue is fun, but people talk way too much in a bad way.
What are your personal goals this year?
I thought this year might be the last year, so I will do my best to go as far as I can.
Thank you so much for this interview. Are there any shout-outs you wanna give?
Please cheer for my team X7, and also Kasing is 돼지
While EU Masters start Thursday, X7 Esports’ first game will be Friday at 2 p.m. ET against Karmine Corp.
