On Jan. 20th, day 6 of the 2021 LCK Spring split took place, with Liiv SANDBOX taking on Afreeca Freecs in the first match of the day. It was a 2-0 victory for LSB, and a meaningful first victory of the split, as they failed to pick up a victory in the opening week. 

The support player for LSB, Lee “Effort” Sang-ho, joined Inven for a 1 on 1 interview to talk about the victory.

Not only is tonight’s victory the team’s first of the split, it also marks the first for you after you joined the team. How do you feel?

While it did take a lot longer than I thought to take the victory, I’m very happy. Like you said, it’s also my first victory on LSB, so it’s very meaningful.

What was the feedback after going 0-2 in week 1?

We were told to play in the fundamental frame of things, and pay more attention to detail. Also, we talked about how we shouldn’t lose confidence after losses, and make the right and necessary plays.

Many said that the team felt very out of sync in teamfights.

We agree. There were some things that weren’t clicking in teamfights, so we focused on the parts that weren’t working and worked on improving them during practice.

Tonight, Han “Leo” Gyeo-re subbed in for Moon “Route” Geom-su. In your opinion, how are they different from one another?

Route is very good at playing the game through bot lane, while Leo focuses more on the top side of the map. He creates the right conditions to allow me to roam, so I think that’s why Leo started for the team today.

What was the reason behind the target ban on Lehends? Is it because he plays a lot of these off-meta champions?

I watched a match of theirs, and it felt like he was good with Seraphine and Rell. I felt it was worth target banning them, because they felt tricky to deal with.

Then, why did you allow Rell to go through the bans?

We felt that Taliyah and Pantheon were even trickier to deal with, so they took priority over Rell during the ban phase.

In game 1, despite LSB’s lead, AF tried to create variance through their macro. What was LSB’s thought process in that scenario?

We predicted that Kai’sa and Shen will be targeting side lanes, with Camille at the center of it all. We told ourselves not to get sucked into their game, do the things we need to do, and play through objectives.

You were named PoG for game 2. How would you rate your own gameplay today?

I’d give it a 90 [out of a hundred]. We felt like we made a mistake as a team towards the end.

The early roams were something that caught my eye. Who’s call was it?

I had some time to utilize, so I made the call. Our mid laner responded very well to the gank.

I also want to know how it is to play against your former lane partner, Bae “Bang” Jun-sik.

We’ve played together for a long time, and he’s someone I respect, so it felt very weird to face him as an opponent. However, we were more desperate for the win, so I told myself that no matter who my opponent was, I was going to win.

Your next opponents are DRX, a team that’s full of rookies.

As far as I know, DRX are playing NS RedForce after our match. I’m going to watch their match to analyse their patterns and characteristics.

Lastly, a word to your fans.

The fans’ support is what fuels me to work harder and play better. I’m very happy that we can finally tell our fans that we picked up our very first win of the split, and hope that they’ll continue to cheer for us.