On the 25th of January (KST), ROX Tigers played against Kongdoo Monster. Like most matches in the recent meta, the matches were very close and long. ROX Tigers was the team to smile last, with the superb play of Vladimir.

ROX Tigers made a big mistake in game 2 and lost, but with the strength of Lava and Lindarang in game 1 and 3, they collected their second win of the spring split. Especially, Lava recorded his career’s first penta-kill and proved that he’s different from last year.

The following is the MVP interview of OGN.

Related: ROX SeongHwan: "Games get long because the players play passively at competitions."

Q. Congratulations on today’s win. How do you feel?

Lava: Today’s match was really important, so I feel good. I feel better because I was voted MVP.

Lindarang: It feels good because we came back and that I got MVP.

Q. We heard that Lava was sick before the match against bbq. Are you alright?

Lava: I’m okay now. I think the penta-kill made the sickness go away. I saw it coming when I got triple-kill so I called the members to dive. Actually SeongHwan called for the dive first but the timing was bad so we let him die. (Laughs)

Lindarang: I had only 1 death until then, I sacrificed for him. (Laughs)

Q. You had a solo kill in the mid lane?

Lava: There was Lindarang’s help, so I don’t think it should be called a solo kill.

Q. How did your upper half get stronger so suddenly?

Lindarang: I think with the practice and teamwork, we got stronger.

Q. You seem to be trying new champions like Galio. Are you doing any research?

Lava: I saw opponents playing Galio in solo queue, so I started practicing. I tried playing him in scrims and had good results so I started playing him.

Q. Is the Karma pick in game 3 one of the picks you’ve practiced in scrims?

Lava: Too many mid lane champions were banned, and our picks were charging champions so I thought if we had Mantra Shield, it would be good.

Q. In the recent meta, the game time is long and there are many comebacks. What do you think?

Lindarang: If the defending team has good lane clearing champions, and if they start stacking up gold, it’s hard to penetrate. The attacking team has the bigger risk. I think Baron needs to have a passive stack like drakes. If the opponent has something like Sivir, even with the Baron buff, it’s hard to penetrate.

Q. The Stopwatch is doing a major role on taking the game longer. Many say that it’s broken, what are your thoughts?

Lava: Stopwatch is usable at around 6 minutes, and around that time, ults are on. With the Stopwatch, an ultimate can be ignored, so I think it should be usable at around 10 minutes.

Q. What did your coach say after losing game 2?

Lava: He casually told us to play game 3 like game 1.

Q. Your Vladimir was good in game 3. What do you think is important when playing Vladimir?

Lindarang: I like getting behind the enemy when playing Vladimir. One of the opponents continued to mark me man-to-man, so I wasn’t able to get behind easily, but at the last teamfight, I saw that they missed me and I went in. I felt that we won at that moment.

Q. In the early game, you dodged Jarvan in the bush. Was that intended?

Lava: I got lucky. Jarvan didn’t check the bush.

Lindarang: Since he’s No.1 in solo queue, he might have done it by instinct. (Laughs)

Q. Lastly, a word to the fans?

Lava: Last year, our mid lane was weak and the upper half was weak. This year, we’ll do our best and make all lanes strong.

Lindarang: All the fans and coaches waited enough. We’re on a roll now, so we’ll do our best to maintain our performance.