Translation result.
“Winning keyword? ‘Winning mentality’.”
Coach Kim Dae-ho, better known as C-Mac, guided Dplus KIA to a 2-1 victory over T1 in the first round of the 2026 LCK regular season at the LoL Park LCK Arena in Jongno, Seoul, on the 17th. The upset pushed Dplus KIA to 3-3 on the season after taking down a perennial powerhouse.
After the match, Kim told reporters, “If I had to pick one key to the win, it would be a winning mentality.” He admitted the phrase had felt like a cliché at first and that the team almost folded in the middle of the third game. “But when I listened to the players’ calls, I could tell a lot from their cadence and tone. They still believed they hadn’t lost. It made me think — and even feel a little embarrassed. Watching them capitalize on the opponent’s mistakes and grind out the victory left me in awe,” he said, praising his squad.
On the third set specifically, Kim explained, “Our bot lane ran into trouble. Once Pyke got going, we couldn’t match his tempo. Every time he tried something, he pulled it off. He hit a tipping point, and I thought we were finished — there didn’t seem to be a way back.” He smiled and added, “Still, the players held up. I learned a lot.”
“Lucid” Choi Yong-hyeok laughed and admitted, “I don’t remember much — I was that focused.” He said the team talked through what each player could do and worked to find their individual roles. “Career” Oh Hyung-seok pointed to trust as the foundation of the winning mentality: “We trusted one another. We played with the mindset that if each of us did our job, we’d eventually win. As everyone’s form improved, that trust grew,” he said.
Kim tempered the praise with caution: “By current standards, we can be counted among the strong teams, but we have to maintain this level — three in a row — before we can truly claim that. We need to see more.” He added, “This is about raising our baseline. If we go back, practice hard, analyze, and stay solid, we’ll get a clearer picture of where Dplus KIA stands.”
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