Zeus had an easy excuse and didn't take it. Speaking to Sheep Esports after Hanwha Life Esports were knocked out of Worlds 2026, the top laner admitted the draw was tough, then put the blame squarely on his own team.

"I don't think there's any reason to blame the draw," he said, after explaining that HLE had faced strong teams back-to-back. Had they advanced, he added, he might have been able to talk about it more casually, but having gone out, it came down to HLE's own shortcomings.

A brutal path, in hindsight

He had a point about the draw. HLE's three losses in the Swiss stage came against GEN, IG and BLG, and all three went on to reach the semifinals. GEN are now in the final, and BLG play T1 for the other spot.

HLE's two wins came against TES and G2. The deciding series was a 2–0 loss to BLG on October 31, which made them the first MSI champions to miss the Worlds playoffs in the same year, per Sheep Esports.

Individual plays over team plays

Zeus didn't put the exit down to bad luck, but to how HLE played. He told Sheep Esports that the two early losses came from poor meta adaptation and the players' condition. More broadly, he said, the current meta rewards coordination across the map, while HLE kept falling back on individual plays instead of planned ones, which fed a bad cycle.

He also pointed to synergy. Even in a year where they won MSI, Zeus said, HLE's dips usually came when the team wasn't on the same page, and in the key moments the players' individual reads often went in different directions.

The game that got away

Against BLG, game 1 was effectively must-win, and Zeus said he believed it would end at a top-side teamfight. It didn't, the game dragged on and BLG took it. He tried to stay positive going into game 2, but admitted the loss took a mental toll and that HLE's draft got derailed from there.

He closed by apologising to HLE's fans and front office, and thanking his teammates. What comes next for him is an open question: according to Inven, Zeus turned down HLE's contract extension offer before Worlds, and his deal runs out in mid-November.