On the 26th (KST), Afreeca Freecs took on SANDBOX Gaming in Round 2 of the 2020 LCK Spring. With a set score of 2-0, SB took down AF in a dominating fashion. Much of SB’s roster changed, with Summit and OnFleek being benched for Lonely and Punch respectively. The change in SB’s roster change was a great success, as it proved to be a great momentum shift for the team.

Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyun, the Support player for SANDBOX Gaming, joined Inven Global, to talk about the victory.

It’s been a while. Congratulations on your first victory in Round 2. How do you feel?

It feels really good to have a great start after such a long break.

There’s an interesting trend where the teams that are lower in the standings are beating teams that are higher in the standings. Do you think that the matches switching to an online format has a great impact in the team’s performance?

I personally think that playing the matches via online really helps the rookies perform better. Also, the losses have its own momentum as well, where going on a losing streak can immediately affect the next match. After going on a three match losing streak, the hiatus actually broke that negative momentum and our team had a chance to reset.

It’s a win that the team’s been looking for a while, but it must feel really bad to not have the fans cheer the team on at LoL Park. Especially for you, who’s known to treat your fans really well. How do you feel?

That’s right. The reason why pros continue to push themselves is because of the fans, but even so, we won. Even still, it’s a great feeling to not only meet the personnel from the organization, but also see smiles on their faces from the team’s victory.

Summit and OnFleek were benched for Lonely and Punch respectively. What was the reasoning behind starting the two members?

They performed well in scrims, and the coaching staff decided that they were ready. Also, in a way, it feels like we were very bold in making such a ‘nothing to lose’ decision.

The team’s results in Round 1 must’ve been very dissatisfactory. What areas did you improve upon to produce great results today?

After going on a 3 match losing streak, we felt like we had smaller issues here and there, as to having a large, specific issue. That’s why I feel like the mental reset from the break we had helped us perform better. The losing streak built up something that made us distant, so the mental reset made it better and solved a lot of things.

Did you watch RCK (Return of Champions Korea)? Not only did a lot of old school players play in the exhibition match, some of them were your former teammates, so you must’ve enjoyed watching it.

SANDBOX hosted it, so it was even more interesting to watch. Legendary players played in it, and seeing them play with their own skins made me very envious. Pray and I fell short when we were at Worlds, so we don’t have our own iconic skins, so watching PawN play with his own Talon skin made me very envious.

Your next matchups are against APK Prince and Griffin, both of which are teams that are lower than SB in the standings. Just as the interesting trend I mentioned earlier, how will you prepare for those matchups?

Including today, we have three matches this week, so it’ll be hard to make dynamic changes in our game plan. This week’s matches are really important, and if we’re able to transition our practice into our matches well, we won’t have trouble putting on a great performance.

Lastly, can you share your resolutions for your future to the fans?

Despite the losing streak, the fans continued to cheer us on. I’m glad that we’re off to a great start, and we’ll make sure to perform well to win in the coming weeks as well