It’s been a rough start for Excel Esports in the LEC Summer Split , they are 10th in the tournament and have yet to win a game after two weeks.

While they have received criticism from fans and analysts, it’s their decision to bring in a new starting mid laner, Son ‘Mickey’ Young-min that’s occupied the negative comments on Twitter and Reddit.

And in this week’s Excel at the LEC column , Mickey’s teammate Ki ‘Expect’ Dae-han sheds some light on what the former Golden Guardians mid laner is really like and how they’ve been dealing with their losing streak.

Mickey just wants to win

Many of the fans don’t like Mickey but I think he’s a really nice person who just wants to win games.

I knew Mickey before he came to Excel, we were friends but we never played on the same team together so I didn’t really know what he was like as a player.

People think he’s toxic but what people don’t know is that all he wants to do is to win the game. He tries really, really hard and he thinks he’s doing the right thing to win but other people and players might not agree with it.

But he does know how to win the game, mechanically he is very good. He knows how to make plays, he isn’t a player who just farms. He’s got good game sense but he hasn’t had a chance to really show that yet. We made mistakes this week and people haven’t seen what he can do.

Also I think he can be misunderstood because he can’t really speak English. There could be the same word in English and Korean but the meaning is different so maybe people can’t fully understand what he means sometimes.

I live with him now in the same house in London. We talk a lot and we eat together, he’s really nice and a good person but when he plays League he really wants to win so it comes across like he’s toxic.

I think he knows about some of the things people have been saying about him but he doesn’t really care, he doesn’t want to. Even if he did go out of his way to go on Twitter or Reddit, his English isn’t good enough for him to really understand what people are saying anyway.

Why we keep losing

Expect says his communication with Caedrel needs improving © Lol Esports

I just feel sad about these opening two weeks because we haven’t played our hardest matches yet against teams like G2, Origen and Fnatic. The teams we faced in the first two weeks are a little bit easier compared to these teams. But to go 0-4 against them feels bad.

We weren’t prepared enough in scrims. We didn’t manage to fix the mistakes we were making and it just all went wrong in week 2. As you can see in our games, we can make a small mistake like the level 1 invade that happened against Misfits or dying when they dive top but these aren’t small mistakes. They become big mistakes that can cost us the game so we keep losing because we keep making these mistakes.

But personally, I feel like I’ve played well so far these couple of weeks. I’ve been winning my lane but I haven’t been contributing to my team as much as I did last split. My communication with Caedrel, Special and Mickey hasn’t been good. The timing hasn’t been as clean as last split. For me, I know I am good enough, I am confident with my laning phase but as a team we’re not quite on the same page.

Facing Fnatic

Expect wants to stay positive despite losses © Lol Esports

We could in theory, win any game. After we switched to Mickey, our scrim results have improved and maybe it will keep getting better. Even though we haven’t won yet, we have the confidence knowing that we can.

But I don’t really want to think about losing to Vitality and Fnatic and going 0-6.