Peanut has been at the top of the League of Legends mountain for almost a decade, and the newly crowned LCK Cup champion had another impressive performance against the LPL’s Top Esports today.
Peanut put his opposition to the sword, leaving no doubts that Hanwha Life is the team to beat at First Stand. Following his series against Top, Peanut talked with Dot Esports about the rise of TL umTi and the impact Fearless Draft has had on LoL esports.
UmTi’s career trajectory follows a very different line to Peanut’s. For most of his career, umTi has featured on teams competing lower in the standings in the LCK. Even when moving to the LCS (now LTA), and finding success under Team Liquid, umTi has been plagued with criticism, highlighted this year by his performances for most of the LTA Split One. That being said, one of the best junglers of all time has a ton of praise for the TL player.
“I’m not actually surprised that he’s doing so well because I always thought that he had a huge potential,” said the multi-time LCK champion. While it’s much harder to judge players based on the overall level of the teams they were playing on, Peanut said umTi was a player he always believed in: “I’ve always had faith, you know, he will one day step up to better performances.”
After a hot end to the LTA split and another great performance pushing Team Liquid over Karmine Corp, umTi is now on a collisions course with Peanut—and the LCK star is looking forward to their upcoming clash. “Let’s have the best one we can have,” he said.
This year has also been a year of adaption for many players, with Riot implementing Fearless Draft for the first time globally. It appeared in the LPL in 2024, but not to the scale that we are witnessing now, with First Stand being the first international event of the year to implement the new system. “From a professional player’s perspective, it does add a lot of difficulties when it comes to prepping. You know, it is definitely a little more difficult because we haven’t spent a whole lot of time on this Fearless mode,” Peanut said.
Despite the LPL having more time on Fearless Draft, Hanwha Life took care of business. Peanut told Dot that he was adjusting to the new draft system well, even though he thinks it’s more difficult than “normal” drafts. And although Peanut saw some of the disadvantages of Fearless Draft from a player’s perspective, he can see the bigger picture, with the fans being at the heart of the decision to have the mode.
“I heard that the viewers and the fans are loving their fearless mode,” he said. “So in the end, international events, or LoL esports events as a whole, it’s all about making the fans enjoy the event and have the best experience possible. So considering all the positive feedback, I think it will be also nice to just continue the Fearless mode because they love it so much.”
That being said, MSI and Worlds 2025 are expected to be without the system the fans are beginning to love, with the formats not listing Fearless Draft. If Riot wants to keep some goodwill with LoL esports fans who clearly enjoy this system, First Stand will likely need to be the catalyst for the change.
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Published: Mar 10, 2025 11:29 am