TSW Pun on MSI elimination: "The biggest gap isn't in individual skill"

Despite an earlier victory against , the pride of Việt Nam has now been eliminated from the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational following a 0-3 defeat to . A valiant effort was not enough for to overcome the North American representatives, ending their run in Daejeon just short of the top four. The team will now have to put the result behind them and prepare for the upcoming Esports World Cup in Paris, where they are set to face Sentinels, Gen.G, and Karmine Corp starting July 15.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, Team Secret Whales' toplaner reflected on his team's elimination and the progress they made throughout the tournament. He also discussed the rise of Vietnamese League of Legends, the current state of the LCP, and shared a message with the fans.

Nguyễn "Pun" Đăng Khoa: “I feel both happy and sad. We’re happy because we beat TES, but we’ll also obviously have regrets about being eliminated, as we were thinking we could beat LYON.

This is our third international event together, and I feel like the most important thing is that we are still improving every day with each match. If we want to have better results next time, we need to work on our fundamentals and fix the mistakes we were making in our losses.

Pun: The main thing I need to work on is my champion pool. My team and I need to work on making sure we can play the best meta champions and adapt to more standard picks.

Pun: Yes, I believe we really surprised Top Esports, for example. In my case, I was also really confident playing those champions—my Sett and Volibear—so it was even better.

Pun: To me, it represents a source of pressure, but also a lot of pride. When we play at tournaments like MSI, not only are we carrying the hopes of Việt Nam, but also the entire LCP region.

Pun: That’s the goal. I believe we have what it takes to catch up with the LCK and LPL, but we’re not quite there yet. We have to work harder.

Pun: There are a lot of aspects. The biggest gap isn't in individual skill. It's our preparation before matches. The LCK and LPL do that much better than us. Mechanics are important, but our macro and communication also need to improve, so everything becomes smoother.

Pun: I think WarHorse and Trần "Ciel" Tiến Thịnh are helping us a lot, but we just need to communicate more and pay attention to every little detail, so everything becomes smoother.

Pun: I want to say thank you to all those who supported us throughout the tournament. We’ll try our best to do better in the next one. Hopefully we can get more wins at EWC and learn more from other international teams as well.”