Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik visited the venue of the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) final held in Daejeon on the 12th.
Kang, the Deputy Minister, watched the final between Korea's League of Legends (LoL) team "Hanwha Life Insurance eSports" and China's LoL team "Bilibili Gaming (BLG)" at the Daejeon Convention Center, where the MSI final took place that day. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Kang said, "My family likes esports, and I personally have a lot of interest in games, so I came to watch today's match," adding, "I plan to keep coming on-site like this and listen to the voices of game users."
In November last year, when the Korean esports team "T1" achieved the first-ever three straight titles at the LoL World Championship, Kang, the Deputy Minister, also said, "Player Faker went beyond legend and wrote a myth," adding, "Looking at player Faker, who has built a singular domain in one field for well over a decade and set yet another amazing record, I feel a sense of awe. It's a singularity rarely seen in any sport."
Going beyond praise for player Faker, he personally went to the MSI final and tended to the Korean esports scene. President Lee Jae-myung held a meeting with the gaming industry in Oct. last year and expressed his intention to promote the game industry, and Kang, the Deputy Minister, was also said to have played a leading role at that time.
Even during his time as a National Assembly member, Kang, the Deputy Minister, led a startup support study group called "Unicorn Farm," taking the lead in supporting the gaming industry and IT startups.