On Feb. 18, in the 2022 LCK Spring Split, Kwangdong Freecs collected their 3rd win of the season by defeating Hanwha Life Esports. It was a difficult 1st round for Kwangdong Freecs as they spent most of the time at the bottom. After the match, head coach Jang “Cain” Nu-ri and bot laner Park “Teddy” Jin-seong joined the media to talk about their first round.

Congratulations on winning two straight. You’ve risen from last place. How do you feel?

Cain: The players’ performances have improved a lot and the teamwork is much better. Things felt good when I was watching today. Although our results in the first round are bad, I believe if we continue to practice and play this way, we could bounce back in the second round. I’m happy about today’s win, and I’m thankful to the players.

Teddy: We lost so many times in the first round… I’m happy that we got two straight wins. Our team synergy has become much better now, so I’m looking forward to the second round. I think we’ll be able to show a much better performance. I’ll work hard to make it happen.

What was the reason for the losing streak, and what improved today?

Cain: You know, even if they’re pro players, they can’t play all the champions and all the compositions extraordinarily well — there are champions they’re good at. In a way, we may not have interpreted the meta properly, and we failed to adapt to the meta early in the season.

Now, we’ve been practicing so that the players can do well and make better synergy. Each player in our team is unique. They’re all different, but nowadays, they’re starting to click. That’s why our performance improved recently.

Teddy: I think we have a grasp of the meta now, and we’re good at the champions we’re playing. The communication improved a lot too. We were indecisive in past matches, but now, that’s much better. Our decisions have become clean.

Do you think the meta change affected the team?

Cain: I think it did a bit. Initiating fights are important in the current meta.

Before the Lunar New Year break, you used to stumble all of a sudden, but that disappeared now. What changed?

Teddy: As I mentioned earlier, our communication improved and we make decisions quicker. That made us deal with situations better.

As you bounced back at the end of the first round, you should have a realistic goal for the second round. What’s your goal for the second round?

Cain: In the short term, our goal is to win as many games as possible and reach the playoffs. That way, we can move forward. Whenever I look at the standings, it hurts. It should go the same for the players as well. Although we didn’t do that well in the beginning, I tell the players that we could do well regardless of the results we got in the past. 

We’ve been practicing with a positive attitude, so we have a good chance to reach our goal. Rather than setting a specific number of games we need to win, we just need to win as many games as we can. Every single game is important. Whoever we meet, we need to win.

Teddy: Since all the teams are really good, we also need to play well and do our best. I want to win as many as possible.

Any comments heading into round 2?

Cain: Our players have much more potential in them. They can improve much more than now, all five of them. In round 2, I hope to improve much more to become an awesome team. And I hope we win a lot.

Teddy: I’d like to have a long winning streak in round 2.