DSG Castle: "Our goal is not just win some games right now, our goal is to be able to compete for an international spot"

is still searching for their first win in the 2026 LCS Spring Split regular season. Even after showing some good moments in their early game, it seems the team lacks the consistency to carry out their plan to close the late game and so the focus inside the roster has shifted toward having stronger basics, said their top lane.

In an interview with Sheep Esports, Cho “Castle” Hyeon-seong reflects on the differences between competitive environments, from the higher game volume of LCK CL to the more fragmented schedule in NA, as well as his current mindset amid Disguised’s winless start. Castle also shared more on the team’s focus on fundamentals and his efforts to build a stable in-game environment for his teammates.

Cho “Castle” Hyeon-seong: “Honestly, the EWC matches doesn't really feel like a stage match at least for me, because we just play and we don't even stream our cams. But it's still working as a stage match, but it really feel the same as much as we do on stage. So I we're kind treating that as a more focused stream. So I don't really feel any differences between the EWC things.

Castle: Honestly, we have next week and the week after that, we have TL. I don't think we're kinda out of [the split], we're still into the best team in the LCS. Honestly, we don't really care who our opponents are right now, we care more about how we play and how our things go. Honestly, for us, they're just good practice partners on stage. It doesn't really matter who they are.

Castle: I think before to talk about the styles, I think we are not really good enough on the basic things yet. So I think before being like the style, or something like that, we need to like stack our like basic things first. But I think... When we play like engage comp, we are pretty good at it. So I think that can be our style too. But also I think we are just taking like proper steps to be just better. So our goal is not just win like some games right now, our goal is to be able to compete for an international spot. So I think we're kind of stacking our magics now. After we have like the have basic things [down], then you can kind of consider some kind of style I guess.

Castle: For me I'm watching my form in scrimms and the stage match a lot. Even in solo queue things, I'm watching it back. How can I play better? How's this match up? Something like this. So I watch it back. Just the common things to be better. Like as a team, after scrimm we talk a lot together and I try to talk like some like uncomfortable things too. So also like we are kind of have like, what to call it? curriculum? I'm not sure that's the right word. Like basically we are trying to like take the basic steps like step by step, like we have a goal for every week.

Castle: I think like when I was rookie I kind of didn't know how to deal with my teammates and I kind of didn't know how to control my emotions. But now I have a lot of, not a lot of experience of Tier one, but as a pro gamer, I have a lot of experience of stage match and the scrimming together. So I think I'm trying to help them and just try to make a good environment, like team environment and other things. Like, is it possible to be positive every time? I that helps to look to improve more. And like, obviously taking time to improve. So I think I'm kind of trying to make the room for them to improve a lot, that's how I change right now.

Castle: I'm honestly not sure. I feel like there's differences of the rookies. I think it depends on the person. Last split, basically, Cho "Rahel" Min-seong only had half of a year in the Tier 1 there. But like, I think it depends on person and like their personality. I don't think they're like, well, you can say as a group, like American rookies and Korean rookies, think it's like everything is like, depends on their person, like their personality. I think I feel like, can talk about like Christian "KryRa" Rahaian and Sajed "sajed" Ziade is more than, I think they're pretty open to like having the feedbacks. I don't really feel like they're like fully rookie like I think in-game they know the games pretty well, more than I expected. I think they're pretty good but I can feel sometimes like on stage they just don't know where to go, the first time in the studio.

Castle: I think honestly, just like, like as a player, I was not really winning with my team. So I think that was the problem; that's the reason why I didn't really go on the stage and interview that much. But I think once I had the interview, like two weeks ago, they kind of recognized, “Oh, like Castle can do like something like that,” I guess. But I'm pretty enjoying right now. So I'm kind of… not improved, like, thought myself to talk more English, I guess.

Castle: I think obviously I don't think we have a rivalry with any team other than Sentinels right now. That's the story. Sentinels took three players last year from DSG. We are still having rookies, and we play with each other a lot. We played only 13 matches with Sentinels, something like that. That's obviously a rivalry for us, but I don't really feel any other team has a rivalry with us right now. Well, I think having a story is really good to make the audience come watch the LCS matches.

Castle: I think obviously I'm calling out again. I feel like playing into them is also like kind of fun things for us too. So like, I think like this year when I play into them, I have the most fun. So I think just fun thing and like having a rivarly, like play into them. Like also I have like four previous teammates in there, so I know that and it's just fun for me.

Castle: I think they improved a lot from last time. They won the LCS last time and like they went to First Stand. I think they're right now totally different team, but none of us... But none of the LCS teams are unbeatable. So think we can obviously win, if we play well.”