On April 11th, KT Rolster has made to the playoff by winning 3:0 score against MVP on 2017 LCK Spring Split Round 2. This was the match where they were able to pay back for the two defeats from the regular season and overcome the criticisms they’ve been receiving so far. Their coach, Jihoon Lee, shared the victorious moment with his players in their booth.

Here are the interview we had with him.

Q. How do you feel about making it to the playoffs?

It was a burden since we’ve been playing poor compared to our opponent team in the regular season. I thought if we work on our weaknesses, we’d be able to play well. Both our coaches and players have been trying hard and it’s satisfying how our effort seems to have paid off.

Q. You got nearly thrown off by MVP’s irregular pick, Blitzcrank.

I felt that we’ve been paying too much attention to our opponent’s irregular picks in the regular season, which was the very reason things got even worse. This time, our players wanted to let them take what they want and keep on playing. To be honest, I was worried when they picked Blitzcrank, and things didn’t turn out great in early-mid game, though we were sure we’d win with better team composition as long as we don’t make any mistakes.

Q. You have been playing countering most of the time in 1st and 2nd sets.

MVP wasn’t doing so bad in the lane phase, so we decided to play safe. Isn’t MVP the team that has great tendency for teamfights? Staying relaxed seemed to have led them into making mistakes.

Q. Things seemed to have perked up in mid-late game.

As we got ready, we went over our games in the 1st round. We tried to see what went wrong, and in the end, our coaches were able to figure out the problem in the end.

Q. You are to play against Samsung Galaxy soon.

We would be dominating against Samsung Galaxy in regular seasons and then lose to them in critical matches. I thought it’d be better to just lose to them in the regular season if this was to keep up. (Laughs) I think we have thwarted our jinx in our own way. It’s now more about 5:5. Samsung is really a great team. All laning phases will be fierce. We might even have to play full sets.

Q. Any players you are keeping in check?

It’s the mid laner and jungler that got my attention. They do pretty well, so we might want to stay on alert for them. If there’s one thing that’s good for us, it’s Samsung Galaxy losing touch of their game sense.

Q. Any last words?

Both our players and coaches are having hard time with such tight schedule. The general manager dined with us yesterday, and we’ve been getting attention from the executive office. The playoffs are not far away from now, but we will try hard to win against Samsung Galaxy.