HLE Zeka: "I Want to Show Everyone I Can Lift the Trophy Again"

Four years ago, Zeka arrived in North America as an almost unknown and left as a world champion. He’s back on the same soil in a very different position: MSI winner, HLE’s star mid laner, and one of the favourites to lift the trophy. DPM Esports sat down with Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo before Worlds 2026 to talk about that DRX run, scrimming a young Jojopyun, the mage pool he’s built this year, and why expectations don’t scare him anymore.

You’re no stranger to Worlds in America. Taking you back to that incredible DRX run in 2022 — you came in as massive underdogs. Do you remember the moment you first realised you actually had a shot at winning the whole thing?

Honestly, until that game five on the day of the grand final, until we broke the nexus, we didn’t even expect to be champions. I think that’s what made it an even bigger achievement, and we were even happier to become champions that year. The overall feeling we had as a team was that we didn’t even consider ourselves candidates to win Worlds. It didn’t cross our minds until the very end.

Jojopyun told me you’re one of the two players he wants to face the most at Worlds, alongside Chovy. He mentioned EG scrimmed DRX a lot back in 2022 and that he learned a great deal from playing against you. Do you remember those scrims, and what do you make of him as a player?

I think he’s grown a lot since then, and if I do face him in a match, I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with him. Back when I was in DRX scrimming against EG, we didn’t have many scrim opponents, so we’d have repeat scrims against the same team. I just remember him being such a bold, aggressive player — which aligns really well with my own playstyle, so I’m sure that paid off that year.

This time you’re coming in as one of the favourites after winning MSI with HLE. How different is your mindset compared to 2022, when nobody expected you to win?

Obviously back then we weren’t favourites or candidates to become champions, and now I’m really happy to hear that a lot of people consider us that. In my experience, not having a lot of expectations on you actually makes it easier to play — it feels more comfortable. But where I stand today, I’m feeling really confident. I feel like I can do really well on stage this time. So I’m not going to say “don’t have expectations on me” — I’m confident enough to climb as far as I can.

You’ve always been known for your melee champions, but this year you’ve become excellent on control mages too. Do you feel you’ve become a much more complete player, and was that one of your main focuses in practice ahead of 2026?

I’d always had confidence that I could play various champions well, but I believed it didn’t really translate on stage. So one of my goals this year was to play whatever I really wanted to play and get better at it. Giving that a real attempt and putting more effort into it really paid off, and it’s gone really well so far. So at this Worlds I should be able to showcase more diverse picks and have a better performance overall.

Which style do you prefer today? Has it changed, or is it still melee champions — Akali, Yone, that kind of thing?

I feel like it’s the meta champions right now. Because I’ve been practising so many mage champions, it just came pretty naturally to me, and right now I feel more comfortable playing them. For example, I’m really comfortable with Viktor at the moment. So yes, I do prefer mage champions currently.

What are you looking to accomplish here, where it all started four years ago?

I did win Worlds four years ago, but I’m a much better player now — I play better right now. I hope I can actually showcase that. I’m feeling very confident, and I just want to show everyone that I can lift the trophy again.