League of Legends news » Old Friends, New Foes

Handshakes can be hard -- particularly when you have two former World Championship-winning teammates on stage who haven’t seen each other in years.

It becomes slightly more convoluted when one goes for the handshake and the other goes for the hug. What’s left is a Seindfield-esque standoff in the middle of the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in front of thousands of cheering fans. Not something to write home about, but SK Telecom T1’s jungler and two-time World Champion, Bengi, was happy to laugh it off.

“So Impact was trying to actually hug me. But I accidentally left some distance between us. So I’m pretty sure that Impact actually muttered something under his breath. I’m not sure what he said though, but I’m pretty sure he said something,” Bengi finished with a laugh.

Well, we’ll have to follow up with Impact about that one, but according to Bengi, there’s no bad blood between the two. SKT’s victory against Cloud9 at the 2016 World Championship marks an interesting chapter in the history for three of the players. It’s the first time in years that Faker, Bengi, and Impact have taken the stage together, despite being on opposite sides of the Rift. It also happens to be in the country that launched the odyssey of SKT in the first place. After all, North America was where they first lifted the Summoner’s Cup above their heads, three years ago.

A lot has changed over the years. Despite staying on SKT and winning another World Championship, Bengi’s career has been on a downswing. He’s bounced between the bench and the starting roster and many people were questioning whether or not he would actually play at this World Championship.

Impact, on the other hand, traveled halfway around the world to play in North America, a historically less successful league, but struggled to replicate his fortunes. Now, after his Playoffs performance, Impact is considered on the upswing. Quite the opposite to Bengi.

“He’s definitely matured, in my opinion,” says Bengi of Impact. “It’s probably the American water or the American food, but he definitely has matured. His appearances, his way of talking, the way he started speaking English.”

Whatever their relationship was -- now that they were facing each other across the Rift, none of that mattered. Impact was just another obstacle that SKT was going to have to overcome if they wanted to defend their World Championship title.

It had been a long time since Bengi played as SKT’s starting jungler, so it was a surprise to everyone when SKT announced Bengi would start over Blank in their opening game of Worlds 2016. Despite his time on the bench, Bengi put on a solid performance on Elise. He picked up a satisfying First Blood on Jensen, following up on a stun from Faker with a Flash Cocoon that sealed the Danish mid laner's fate and forced him to buy real estate underneath the turret. Within 10 minutes he was up in the top lane replicating the exact same move to pick up a kill on his former teammate, Impact.

Bengi made it look smooth for someone who has spent so much time on SKT’s bench. But, on the inside, he was nervous as hell. “I’ve been out of the roster quite often recently and it’s been awhile since I’ve been a starting member,” said Bengi. “Back in my hotel, I imagined myself on stage playing the game and I felt nervous. So before the game my heart starts pumping and I’m nervous and all that stuff. Though during the game it started to go really great and the nervousness went away.”

It’s hard to picture Bengi in his hotel room nervous about a match. After all, he’s a two time World Champion, and one of only two players to have ever achieved this feat. But if that tells you anything about Bengi, despite his accomplishments, is that he is still human -- he’s never been held in the same type of allstar light as many of his teammates. Faker, for example, may be the unkillable Demon King, but Bengi has been there by his side for the highs and lows. Bengi shrugged off his legacy, though.

“I’ve never really thought about leaving a legacy as a pro, but I definitely would like to have a lot of people to have a good memory of me as a player. We won our first tournament back in LA in 2013, and I know there is a lot of expectations for us to win this tournament. I’ll make sure to live up to it.”

As to how often Bengi would start at Worlds 2016, he kept his cards close to his chest. And this won’t be the last time SKT plays Cloud9 here in San Francisco. After their dominant victory, Bengi will no doubt be ready to clash with his old friend the next time they meet -- and maybe they’ll have their post-game handshake or hug planned out.