Munchkin: “Lack of experience” of some players played a part in VCT Toronto elimination

Gen.G were the in-form team during the early stages of Masters Toronto, taking down top sides like Paper Rex and Fnatic. But their loss at the hands of new fan favourites Wolves Esports, followed by a defeat to G2, has resigned them to an early exit from the competition. After the 2-0 loss to G2, we spoke to Gen.G IGL Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom for an interview.

Hotspawn: First of all, commiserations on the loss today and exit from the tournament.

What do you think made the difference between Gen.G and G2 today?

Munchkin: I would say the difference between us and G2 today, and what separated the win from the loss, would be just how our defence looked on Icebox. And for me, it was just a very disappointing performance personally.

On Icebox, there was a point where Gen.G chose to save, allowing G2 to level at 11-11.

In hindsight, do you think it was a mistake to give up a round that late?

From what I remember, I think after saving our guns, we dropped them all in the next round. But you know, when you look at the results, it looks like it was a bad decision. But in that sense, that gave us the better possibility of winning the next round. It just made sense credit-wise, we were able to buy the next round as well.

On the English broadcast, they were talking about Gen.G being the team with the highest win percentage on pistol rounds.

Why is your team so good on pistols?

Overall, I would say because we have a very clear plan when it comes to what we want to do in the pistol round and how we want to win. So everybody kind of knows what to do — the things to do for each player are pretty much fixed. So we have a good understanding of how to win those rounds.

Plus, we have t3xture when it comes to pistol rounds. He’s really good with the Sheriff and the Ghost as well. So that kind of gives us a lot of advantage when it comes to the firepower and winning those pistols.

Rather infamously, all of the first seeds lost their opening matches in the playoffs, sparking a debate about the tournament format.

What do you make of the ‘first seed curse’?

Well, I actually really gave it a lot of thought when the debate came out. We all know that there’s pros and cons with the current format, but I think it’s a little bit controversial because, well, the controversy can be resolved if Riot took some time to actually talk to the teams and figure out what their stance is to make things a little bit better for both sides.

The Tejo nerfs before the tournament have led to him almost not being played at all — you guys and G2 have been the only teams to use him.

What are your thoughts on post-nerf Tejo?

With Tejo post-nerf, when you really, really study the agent and have a really good understanding of the agent, you can still run him. It’s not going to be easy for a team to consistently run this agent after the nerf. But within a short period of time, I think it’s an agent where you can kind of run as a curveball. I would say he’s worth trying out in tournaments like this, but not long-term.

Given your strong form earlier in the tournament, and generally good form through the year so far, it feels like Gen.G are extremely close to being able to win another big event.

How can you guys take it up that extra level to win a big title?

Well, this is my personal opinion, but I think we were very well prepped coming into Masters Toronto. We were well prepped to win the whole thing. Even when I look back at how we were in 2024 when we actually won a tournament, we were better prepped [now].

But I think what we were lacking was some of the players; they’re new to the global stage. This is their first time competing on a big stage like this, so there was that lack of experience. As you can see from the way we had a lead, we just needed a few more rounds to close out the whole game, but we let it slip and we let our opponents come back. So I think it was just a lack of experience that was missing for us.