A quieter mindset, for once

When we met Gen.G’s Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon, he was already doing jumping jacks in the interview room. A warm-up routine is not exactly a surprise from someone known for discipline, but it did set the tone: Chovy is still precise, still workmanlike, and still very much doing the thing he has always done.

What has changed is how he thinks about it.

Ahead of First Stand 2026 in Brazil, Chovy said he no longer sees some grand internal drive as the thing keeping him going. The answer was, fittingly, as direct as the rest of him.

"I don’t have a specific motivation to keep me going. It’s just what I have to do, and I just do what I gotta do," Chovy told Dot Esports.

That blunt outlook, he explained, is tied to a mental reset he made after Worlds 2025.

Letting go of the pressure around Worlds

Chovy said Gen.G’s knockout-stage exit at Worlds last year forced him to look honestly at how much pressure he had been carrying. The team has remained a domestic force in the LCK and has also picked up major international success at MSI, but the Worlds title has continued to slip away. That, naturally, tends to make people think about it. Repeatedly. Against their will.

"Well, I look back at it, and I guess I was feeling a lot of pressure back then," he said.

Rather than trying to force his way through that pressure, Chovy chose a different route: he tried to remove the burden altogether.

"In order to not feel the pressure and the burden, I realized that I have to let down all the burdens and the obsession that I have, or some sort of fixation. I realized I have to get rid of those or clear them out," he said.

The result, according to Chovy, is a lighter way of playing. Instead of treating every game like a judgment on his legacy, he has tried to stay clear-headed and focus on the match in front of him.

"Recently, instead of feeling the pressure, I wanted to focus on clearing my mind and have a little bit of a lighter approach, and I think it worked well for me recently," he said.

Gen.G kept its full roster from last year, and the chemistry showed quickly as the team rolled through the LCK Cup 2026 to reach the first international event in Brazil.

At First Stand, Chovy also used the solo queue name "Gunz", a reference to one of his favorite games. As he put it, it is a game where "the weak cannot survive."

A mid laner who sees the map differently now

Chovy has spent years in the mid lane, including plenty of time matching up with and beating players such as Faker. That experience has given him a more measured view of what the role is supposed to do in modern League.

He said the current meta has shifted away from the old idea of mid lane as the main center of power.

"Recently, I think the current meta bot lane and jungle have more influence all over the map."

In his view, mid lane is now less about solo dominance and more about creating movement for the rest of the team.

"I would say mid lane is rather a position where you have to get priority in order to help out bot lane or jungle, and keep the snowball going, and lead your team to victory based on the snowballs that you create," he said.

So yes, mid lane still matters. It just matters in a more cooperative, less dramatic way, which is probably not the most convenient arrangement for people who enjoy treating one lane as the entire universe.

Fearless Draft makes flexibility matter more

Chovy also addressed Fearless Draft, the format that limits repeated champion picks across a series and forces teams to dig deeper into their champion pools.

He said that with more bans and fewer repeat options, teams have to think through more scenarios and players need broader champion pools.

"We have to think of a lot more different number of cases… players are required to have a deeper champion pool," he said.

That is not a problem for him. Chovy said the format suits his strengths because he believes he brings more strengths than weaknesses to the table.

"I can say that I have a lot more strength than weaknesses, so I think we can make the most out of it."

His confidence comes from years of building one of the deepest champion pools in pro play. In a format that rewards flexibility and preparation, that kind of breadth becomes more than just a nice bonus.

Chovy also thinks the broader changes in drafting and gameplay are affecting the competitive balance between regions.

"I’d say the [regional] gap is closing… it’s more about the team play and strategy than the laning phase."

Why the regional gap feels smaller

Chovy said recent patches have reduced how much teams can gain from lane advantages alone. In the past, laning gaps could create far more snowball opportunities. Now, those margins are smaller, and success depends more on coordination, rotations, and the overall structure of a team’s play.

"After a lot of patches that happened, there are not as many points that you can create from the laning phase. In the past, there were a lot more you can make out of the gap that happens in the laning phase, and nowadays it’s way less. It’s more about the team play and strategy than the laning phase," he said.

He added that teams from other regions have adapted well to that reality.

"I saw a lot of teams from other regions that take advantage of this point and utilise it really well in their team game," he said.

In other words, if lane dominance used to be the whole story, it is now just the opening chapter.

First Stand is its own event, not a Worlds prequel

Despite the long view that fans and analysts often take, Chovy said he does not connect First Stand to Worlds in some grand narrative.

"I don’t see a big connection between First Stand and Worlds… First Stand is, you know, First Stand itself," he said. "I want to do well at First Stand because that’s what I have to do… that’s what I should do as a player."

That fits the mindset he described throughout the interview. No obsession with future storylines. No need to turn every event into a prophecy. Just the job at hand.

Gen.G dominated much of the tournament, beating major teams in quick fashion on its way through the event, before falling to G2 Esports in the semifinals and heading back to Korea.

For Chovy, though, the larger picture remains simple: play well now, keep the mind clear, and keep moving toward the Worlds trophy that has defined so much of his career, even if he is trying not to spend too much energy saying so out loud.