KCB Yukino on EU vs NA: “People are more professional in EU.” – LEC Versus Week 2 Interview

It’s time to go back to the drawing board for Karmine Corp Blue. Following a strong showing in the first week, the team went 0-3 in the second week, ending it with a tough loss against direct rivals SK Gaming. At the end of the match, we sat down with KCB jungler Johnny Hoang ‘Yukino‘ Dang to understand what went wrong, what he thinks of KCB’s level of play, and his personal experience comparing EU to NA.

Davide: That was quite a rough series.

Can you share how you feel about the match and what went wrong?

Yukino: I mean, I definitely feel disappointed about the loss. I feel like going into the series, we had kind of a clear plan on how we wanted to play. I just feel like we didn’t really execute on the plan.

Early game was kind of chaotic, but we wanted to have early game as stable as possible. But some things went wrong, terribly wrong. I died level 4 and then the game kind of exploded. Early game, we played right into their hands, it felt like. So, [it’s] definitely disappointing the way we lost because we kind of knew how they wanted to play. They wanted to play really explosively. And we said if you played stable, we would win. So there are definitely problems that need to be fixed because we know how we want to play the game, but it’s not happening.

Other than that, I’m pretty disappointed with going 0-3 this week. Yesterday we played against MKOI. It was kind of rough out there, but today I really, really wanted to win. If there was a series that I was anticipating, it was this one, so it was kind of sad that we lost. We kind of got destroyed the same way we did with MKOI.

Davide: I was talking to Tao last week, and he mainly said last week that some of the issues stemmed from mid-game execution and then communication.

How have you guys been getting around and trying to fix all of the stuff that you just said as well?

Yukino: Last week, we were really happy for [the] early games, so yeah, the focus was definitely mid game. I kind of brought out the problem was kind of communication because I feel like we’re not talking enough about the game, or we’re talking stuff too late. I feel like whenever foreseeing plays, we’re not really talking about, okay, on this wave, I want to do this, or like ‘it’s their turn’.

We don’t really have good communication structure right now. We have really good hands, but we don’t really have structure for communicating. So definitely our mid game was lacking because of that, because there were some ways where we’re not playing. We don’t know what to do, but I think we’ve gotten a lot better with it.

Maybe we didn’t really show it yesterday and today, but we definitely got better at it. It’s just disappointing that we couldn’t show what we improved on this week.

Elle est dure, celle-ci… Week-end compliqué pour KCB, trop d’erreurs et on n’a pas réussi à se relever.
Mais ce n’est pas la fin pour les playoffs alors allez apporter votre soutien à nos joueurs, ils auront besoin de vous pour la semaine prochaine !! #KCBWIN pic.twitter.com/JTwry2k9la

— Karmine Corp (@KarmineCorp) January 26, 2026

Do you think that has to do with the fact that it’s a new lineup and with new members, you need to figure out everything?

Yukino: I mean, definitely everything new makes it harder, right? But I think with the time we have, like, it’s hard to fix everything because there are so many problems… That part is really hard. I definitely think it plays a factor, but I think it’s fine.

Davide: You’ve been with KCB since March last year. It’s basically almost a year in Europe.

Where are the differences between NA and EU?

Yukino: Well, the teams I’ve been on in the past, I can’t really speak about every team… Just like when I was in the Challengers league for NA, people were pretty unprofessional, I would say.

So I definitely feel like people are more professional in EU. It definitely helped grow as a player. When I was trying to grow as a player in NA, [it] was really hard because there weren’t really many resources. When I needed help, when I didn’t understand stuff, there weren’t many resources in NA Academy. That part was really hard.

I think it’s hard to develop as a rookie in NACL because there are not many resources. But in ERLs, there’s so much resources out there, so that definitely plays a big factor. I think developing talent is a lot easier here.

What do you think about solo queue?

Yukino: EU solo queue is definitely way better. Like in NA solo queue, there’s a bunch of one-tricks and some people have really good mechanics, but most of them kind of turn their brains off. But in EU, I feel like everybody is trying. So even though it’s really toxic in EU, everyone is trying, so I enjoyed the environment here a lot better.

Davide: I wanted to ask you about the meta. There were a couple of big changes coming into the new season, but it feels like the jungle meta has somewhat stayed the same, especially when it comes to the champion picks. You’ve been playing mainly AD bruisers: Jarvan, Pantheon, Xin, Zhao, and Wukong.

What’s your take on the meta, especially from the perspective of a jungler?

Yukino: I think Riot intended to make jungling less op. Faelights make it really hard to gank and I think playing around faelights is really broken. The picks stay the same, but the way you play jungle is kind of different because it’s a lot harder to gank laners, especially the bot and top faelights, [which] makes it really annoying. They just see you if you do scuttle crab if they have the faelights, so that’s pretty broken.

Because I play really aggressively, it’s definitely been harder for me to find angles, so I have to adapt. I think it’s more farm-oriented, like playing for invades, playing for just control and river, I think it’s definitely op. Even though the picks stay the same [in the] jungle, I think the way you have to play jungle is really different.

If you had to name one name only in the LEC, who do you think stood out to you in the first two weeks?

Yukino: To be honest, not really any junglers impressed me. I feel like when I played versus Yike in week 1, I could tell that they were very scared, even though we lost the game. But in the early game, we kind of had the power; they were really nervous. I mean, I think Yike is really good, [it’s] just the game I played against him was the first game of the split here. I can tell that he was really nervous, and there’s not really any junglers that kind of stood out to me so far.

Davide: You’re going to face G2, Team Heretics, and Fnatic next week, if I’m not mistaken.

What do you think of each team and which team do you think you have the biggest chances of getting a victory?

Yukino: I mean, it’s hard to say when we just went 0-3, right? I would say the most confident I am is definitely team Heretics, but I think we also have a chance on Fnatic if we roll a good day.

I mean, Team Heretics lost to Los Ratones and we beat Los Ratones, so I think we have the mental edge over Team Heretics because they just lost to an ERL team and they look kind of boom out of it. We’ll definitely have the mental edge over them in that series.

But [for] the G2 series, they are supposed to be their favorites. If they don’t stomp us, I’ll be really surprised. I’m just looking forward to it because they’re supposed to be the best team in LEC, so even if we lose, we’ll definitely learn a lot out of it.

Davide: Obviously, the team’s goal is to get as much value as possible from these matches and potentially even aim for playoffs if that’s within reach.

But what’s one goal that you set for yourself for this season?

Yukino: Well, my goal is playoffs, so I was really disappointed that we didn’t win today, especially in the fashion that we did. I definitely know there are a lot of fans that are just supporting us either way because it’s just cool that we’re here anyway.

I’m just happy to be here. But I mean, my goal is to make it to playoffs and show that I belong here. That’s my individual goal. So when we’re losing games like this and I’m going 0-7, [it] definitely feels really bad for me because I know that, I’m not showing what I can do. So, yeah, my goal is just I want to look good and goal of mine is to reach playoffs.

Any last message you want to say to the fans?

Yukino: I mean, I’m sorry for the performances we showed this week. We’ll do it with time. I’m just sorry for the performances we show next week, and next week will be better.