DRX’s performance took a hit, but KT overcame it to continue their winning streak.

On Thursday, KT Rolster defeated DRX in two games on Day 5 of Week 6 of the 2023 League of Legends Champions Korea Summer at Roll Park in Jongno-gu, Seoul, with a set score of two to one.

Below is an interview with KT after the game.

How did it feel to win the match?

Head Coach Kang Dong-hoon: I’m happy with the win, but I think the third set was very encouraging. We recovered from a lost game, and after the bottom dive, we were ready for the next game. The players did their job well, and I think they showed their skills in the process of closing the gap.

LICHENZ: I’m happy to come back and it was fun. The second set was a difficult combination and we had the lead, but then we had an incident on the messenger side and I thought it was going to be difficult. Even after losing the second set, I went into the third thinking that I did a good job with unfavorable combinations. But I’ve had a lot of upset wins since last year, so it was fun.

The second and third sets were dangerous

Coach Kang Dong-hoon: He was a little bigger in the ban picks than he was in the game. It was a difficult combination, and the result was not a good banpik, but the players did a good job. Overall, it was a good match for us to look back on the banpik and learn a lot. It wasn’t just a tough banpick today, we’ve been fighting tough combinations. Even in scrimmages, sometimes we don’t get a good banpick, but the guys do a good job and we’re able to win. We all have ideas about banpicks, and the results showed that, so we’re going to fix it. We’re working on alternatives, and I think we’ll be fine.

How do the players feel about the ban?

Lichtenz: The fact that we’re doing this shows that we’ve come a long way. It wasn’t easy in the second set, and I think we learned a lot, win or lose. I think we can learn a lot even if we lose today.

Coach Kang Dong-hoon: We usually talk about the Banpik a lot. We talk a lot about bans, tiers, and joker picks. I think the players and the coaching staff must have felt it.

I think it’s because the players have a lot of trust in each other that they’re able to play tough bans.

Coach Kang Dong-hoon: In the waiting room, someone joked that I’m the reason they’re doing tough bans. I think we can play tough combinations because we all trust each other. That was the case in the third set, and I think we need to continue to believe that if we upgrade our team with more preparation, we can go to the Rold Cup.

Next up, DK

Coach Kang Dong-hoon: They are a strong team. But if our players play well, we’re getting good results. We have our own preparations, so if we refine them well, we will get good results. Even if we lose, we’ll learn something.

Lichtenz: We’re playing Bible, and we played them last year in a line game. We know their tendencies, so we can build on that and prepare well.

The match was almost over at the beginning of the third set, how did you recover?

Lichtenz: I was down 0-6. I thought I was going to die on a bottom dive, but Biddy said it was fine. I think it’s meaningful to win games like this when you’re a professional gamer, and I think the team became stronger because everyone played well in that game, and I was full of joy, so I thought it was good to be a professional gamer.

Coach Kang Dong-hoon: Since the spring, I’ve been thinking, ‘We need to be this kind of team to win the championship,’ and if we can come back from a bad start, we’ll be stronger and closer to the championship. In-game, everyone did a great job. It’s the opposite of spring.

We made it to the POs

Coach Kang Dong-hoon: We didn’t know the rounds. We’re trying to prepare for tiers or combinations, so we’re trying to play matches where we have something to gain even if we lose. If we become a solid team and can do many things, I think we can be a stronger team in the fall.

End of the interview

Coach Kang Dong-hoon: I would like to praise the players, and there were parts of the in-game where they communicated with each other, and I appreciate that. The order and direction of the game stood out, as well as the unwavering and calm judgment. I hope it will continue in the future. I hope we can be more solid in the future.

Lichtenz: We learned a lot from the Blahan match and tried a lot of things. We’ll do our best, so please don’t be anxious and keep supporting us 안전놀이터.