BLG Viper on his team’s recent condition: "I don’t think we’re in the best form"

BLG arrive at Worlds with two lost finals behind them and plenty of doubts to answer. Their ADC isn’t pretending otherwise. DPM Esports sat down with Park “Viper” Do-hyeon before the tournament to talk about a year spent reinventing his role, a meta that takes him back to his 2021 title with EDG, and the momentum swings that have cost BLG before.

You’ve had to adapt to so many different playstyles this year. Would you say this has been the year where you had to reinvent yourself the most, and the most challenging because of it?

Partly because of that, yes — adapting to different styles definitely isn’t easy. Compared to 2021, say, I had a very specific role I had to play, so I only had to focus on one side. Right now there are so many different aspects, and that allowed me to have a deeper, longer vision of the game. It was a very good experience. At the same time, I think my strength is that I can adapt to that really well, and that’s something I can do compared to others. So I believe it’s a good thing for me.

The Worlds meta seems to be shifting back toward traditional ADCs and hypercarries, but also utility picks — and Aphelios got buffed. Does it remind you of 2021, when you won Worlds with EDG? And what’s the biggest difference between Viper in 2021 and Viper today?

With Fearless draft, I think there will still be a lot of different comps pulled off in a best-of series. There are going to be a lot of traditional bot lane comps, yes. I’m also looking at the support side — I think the mainstream will be enchanter supports and tank supports, the champions that are very familiar to league players and were supposed to go to the support role. But in a best-of series there’s still a possibility of seeing mage bots again. As for Viper in 2021 and right now, the biggest change is the mindset. I’ve been able to become more relaxed — it’s more of a personal change.

After the way last split ended, how would you describe the team’s form and confidence heading into Worlds? And what were the biggest adjustments you needed to make after that loss?

To be completely honest, I don’t think we’re at the best condition or form. There’s still a lot we can improve on, especially compared to the teams considered favourites for Worlds — we still have a long way to go. But I also believe we can become better at any point in the tournament. We recently experienced back-to-back losses in finals, and that allowed us to realise what kind of situations make us perform or not perform, and what makes us feel really uncomfortable. Now that we acknowledge those things, how we deal with them and find solutions will come down to our Worlds journey. Since the start of the year we’ve taken part in most of the internationals, and through that experience we were able to grow a lot. So we’re going to focus on our remaining schedule and we’ll be able to achieve a good result.

What always struck me with BLG is how the team sometimes gets too caught up in emotions. Is that something you need to prevent from happening again, and is it something the team actively needs to work on for a tournament as long as Worlds?

I 100% agree, and we’re all aware of it. Compared to other teams, we definitely get a lot more influence from momentum, and that factor is a double-edged sword at internationals. We have a very vivid, obvious weakness — but at the same time a very vivid, strong strength. If we manage to get on the momentum and play with it, we can dominate games and have great performances, so it’s something opponents have to watch out for too. In the end it puts us in a pretty balanced situation. But Worlds is a very long-paced tournament, so it’s really important for us to find our own pace and keep it going. To prevent what happened last year, I have to focus on my role and my responsibility and do my best.

Viper’s top 10 ADCs of Worlds 2026

We asked Viper to rank the ADCs at this World Championship. Here’s how he saw it: