In LoL Esports, international events have been historically dominated by 2 regions while the rest of the world often struggles to break through. Still, each tournament underdog teams try to shock the scene and — as we've seen in previous Mid Season Invitationals — sometimes they succeed.
At the 2026 MSI,
, the LCP second seed, arrive as clear underdogs, looking to test their aggressive style against the best teams in the world.
In an interview with
Sheep Esports,
, support for DCG, talks about the team’s mindset going into their first MSI together. He explains that they want to focus on their own play and show an aggressive style, leaving outside fans' expectations.
This is your team first MSI together. What excites you the most about competing on this stage and what do you hope deep cross gaming can show to the international audience?
Liu “ShiauC” Chia-Hao: “I think what we want to do is really to showcase our own style, our play style on the stage and try to prove something, to show something to the audience.
How would you then describe DCG’s style?
ShiauC: We'll try best to be even more aggressive than other teams.
A lot of fans and analysts see DCG as one of the underdogs in the play-in stage and overall in the tournament. Is that something that you guys embrace or do you feel people are underestimating your team, especially because you just said to me that you want to play very aggressively?
ShiauC: Because this is our first international journey, so I think it's quite normal. People kind of underestimate us, but we don't really care about that because what we need to do is only to focus in our own style and try best to have a good play.
Is there any kind of exercise that you do with your team to prepare mentally about expectations from others? For example, mental exercises or other games outside of League of Legends that help you strengthen your bond?
ShiauC: I think instead of having some other games to play, maybe we'll have more discussion with all the teammates, especially talking about what other teams are strengths and what they can do and to try to make good use of the other team's strengths and travel best to improve our own place.
And speaking of other teams, your opening match is against KC, a team that a lot of people expect to advance alongside T1 to the main stage. What are your thoughts heading into that matchup?
ShiauC: So for me, I don't really care about the other people's expectation for the teams, so we just would like to focusing on our own play, our own styles.
Then what about your own expectations for yourself? You're the only player on the current DCG roster with previous international experience. Has that influenced your expectation and maybe how you prepared the team for MSI?
ShiauC: So as the elder brother of the team, I try to tell my teammates to not be nervous on the stage and just enjoy the game, enjoy the tournament. And we want to make some breakthroughs. We want to at least try to take one opponent down.
Knowing your own team and knowing your role in the team and looking back at your previous international experiences, what is one thing that you learned from other past international tournaments that you think will help your team reach a long run in this MSI?
ShiauC: So the biggest thing I've learned is just to enjoy the stage, enjoy the games. We should not be afraid of trying anything inside the game, try to grab any single opportunity inside the game.
Very briefly, every international event tends to create new storylines and new narratives about new players. Despite the final result, however it might be, what would you like fans to remember about DCG after this MSI?
ShiauC: I want the fans to remember that we are not the last, we are not the worst team.”
