Griffin defeated SANDBOX Gaming 2-1 on February 2nd, the 4th day of week 3 for the LCK 2019 Spring Season. Although game 2 wasn’t any easy for Griffin, they crushed SANDBOX Gaming in both game 1 and 3, managing to stay on a winning streak with no losses.

Following is the interview we had with Sword, the top laner for Griffin.

Today’s match wasn’t all that easy but you still managed to win. How do you feel?

I think it was a bit unsatisfactory win, although it was also a chance for our team to improve.

You say it was ‘a bit unsatisfactory’ but I overheard you say, it felt like ‘the world was collapsing around you’ after game 2.

It’s complicated (Laughs). I never thought I would care much about having perfect wins but I started to care about it now that we lost a game.

As the captain of the team, how do you feel about your teammates nowadays?

Each one of us seems as if they are the captain. They all have their personality and great mentality. I may be the captain of the team but each player plays a role that is much like that of captain. So instead of feeling burdened, I feel at ease with my position as the captain in the team.  

SANDBOX played fiercely today. Why do you think you lost game 2 to them?

Things didn’t go as we intended even from the laning phase in game 2. As more and more things started to go wrong, lesser shot calls were made and our plays weren’t going smooth. It was no longer a team play. That’s how things went bad.

Was there anything you learned from it?

I felt that I still had room to improve. I was furious in game 2 and couldn’t think about the next game. I was just too angry when I should have been preparing for the next game… Then I realized I still needed to work on controlling my emotions in that part. I was ashamed. My teammates must have been angry but they let go of it and were getting ready for game 3. And I was there, angry by myself… Thanks to them I was able to bring myself together and get ready. As a captain, I should be pulling ourselves together and it felt like it was my teammates that did that for me back then.

I guess that must be why we were so aggressive in the last team fight like we were really mad. Maybe… we were mad? I made my moves too hastily. I wanted to initiate a good team fight on my Sion but I got too hasty when I couldn’t see any great opportunity to do so. But still, it felt great when we won that fight.

What kind of feedback did your coaches give?

Our coaches were great and gave us really neat feedback. They gave us feedback on when things started to go wrong, and they talked to us in a calm manner so that it helped us get ready for the next game. They changed a lot. Their feedback became more detailed than what we used to get when we were losing before.

How satisfied are you with the current Griffin?

I’d give it a 9 out of 10. I took 1 point off because of myself -- because of the emotional thing I had gone through today.

Next time, you will be playing against KT Rolster, your rival from last year’s playoffs. It’s been a while since you got to play against them. How do you feel?

I think we should always try our best to win. We are going to play like we do any other time. Each team has their own strengths and colours. We won’t be off our guard, and play like we always do.

Could you please say something for your fans, who must have been shocked by your first loss in the spring season?

I think we caused you to worry about us a lot today but there’s no need to worry. Our team members are very mature and cool; we will bring ourselves together and keep winning in future.

It seems today was the toughest day for Griffin.

It’s true. I think it was a good experience at the same time. It’s important to experience a loss like this rather than continuing to win 2-0 all the time. It happens to be the holidays (Lunar New Year) soon, which I think will be a great time for us to go over what we could have missed.