HLE Viper: “I’m looking forward to playing against KC Caliste”

I sat down with HLE Viper ahead of the start of First Stand, the first international competition of the season. From his thoughts on the meta to his rivals, interviewing Viper was a pleasure and a dream come true.

For those who are not familiar, I have considered him as the best ADC in the modern era of League of Legends, always playing close to peak potential regardless of teammates or meta. With little luck in previous competitions, it was the perfect occasion to hear from him.

HLE Viper – First Stand 2025 Interview

Below is the interview with HLE Viper, translated from Korean by the lovely Jeesun.

Hi Viper, thank you for joining us. Before we dive into the questions, I want to ask how are you doing?

Viper: I was able to have some good rest after the final, but today I had to wake up a little bit early so I’m a little under the weather but everything’s fine.

Before we dive into the tournament side of things, I wanted to quickly touch upon on the LCK Cup. HLE fought its way by taking down all the top LCK teams, what do you think were the determining factors that allowed you to rise to victory?

Viper: It wasn’t an easy run for us honestly but I think it was the first playoff T1 game where we had to go all the way to game 5 and then we won the last game. I feel like it was a good vaccine for us and since then we’ve been playing against the top teams in the LCK but we were able to get good momentum and overcome the hard matchups and I think that was the one.

How do you think the synergy with your teammates evolved since the start of the year? We had Zeus coming in as the new player. 

Viper: We wanted to do our best, making sure we would gel with the new player, but I was also at the same time a little doubtful because we didn’t get to play a lot of games together, so I was wondering throughout the regular split, the group battle, whether we would be able to light the spark within us and this chemistry but we ended up putting so much energy and were able to concentrate so as time went by and we made it to the playoffs, we kind of learned what we had to do to make the best plays for each other, and adjust with each other. So we were able to get the ball rolling and get the momentum.

Speaking about the First Stand

Going into the tournament, what kind of iteration of HLE are we expecting to see at First Stand? Is there anything you have been working specifically on for this competition?

Viper: I don’t want to spoil all the tea here, but I wanna make sure everyone remembers us as the best teamfighting team because that’s the core not of just this tournament but also at an international level. I feel like the one who’s dominant in teamfights will be able to connect that into a win as well so I was really focusing on the teamfights and skirmish.

Speaking of the teams that are coming to this tournament, is there anyone you are really looking forward to facing? 

Viper: The team I’m watching the most is obviously Top Esports because I believe among all the qualified teams at First Stand, I think LPL is the strongest region, but the one I’m looking forward to play against the most is Karmine Corp Caliste.

He’s really young so I wanna see how the youngsters play these days. I’m very mature now and I want to see how they play out the game and see what difference they might have and I want to feel that in person.

I’m really glad you were talking about Caliste because I had a question about him. He has been the most discussed rising talent in Europe, and he made his way through the ERLs, the second-tier league in EMEA. As someone who also made it to the LCK through Challengers, is there anything you would like to tell him as a veteran? 

Viper: I don’t really have any advice or stuff to pass on so I don’t know if I can be good at it. I feel like back in the days of the second division league, it was very different. The atmosphere was very different and I think the perspective was also different, so which league you’re playing doesn’t really matter much, I think your performance and the confidence in yourself are the two factors that matter the most. And because you’re so young, you will have many opportunities in the future, but also you’re going to go through a lot of stuff so don’t let this stuff get to you and keep up the good work.

Let’s talk a bit about the game. There has been lots of talk about the recent lane-swap mechanic brought in Patch 25.05. It hasn’t been long, but what are your initial thoughts after testing it out, and do you think it will have an impact in the bottom lane and you as a player?

Viper: I will be able to share more stories after the tournament but my first initial thought was this is way more dynamic and dramatic than I expected because I’m really positive about the patches around the first objective fights and what not but I think it’s literally telling you to not do lane swaps anymore so it has a huge impact to the bottom lane and top lane. Especially for the bottom lane, in my perspective, I think having a priority during the laning phase is really important, so the 2v2 priority will be really important so the drafts will focus around the laning phase.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you if you’re willing to share a message to the fans – it can be in Korean, Chinese, or English, so it’s up to you! 

Viper: I will do it in Korean since we are in LoL Park. This is the first international competition of the year, and we qualified for it by winning the LCK Cup so I’m pretty sure a lot of LCK fans are looking towards our performance so I will make sure to meet their expectations so I wanna kind of prove that the LCK is the strongest teamfighting region in the world and appreciate for the support!

At the end, I also took the time to ask some rapid fire questions to Viper regarding ADCs. Follow our socials to find out who he picked!