Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu and his team, DWG KIA, defeated Liiv SANDBOX 2-0 on day 5 of the 2022 LCK Summer split. With each game ending in under 30 minutes, it was a match that was very fast paced in the current meta.

Canyon joined Inven in a post-match interview and first spoke about his thoughts on the victory. “We tried to play as proactively as possible when we were ahead. It’s a good victory, so it makes me really happy. I think the games ended quicker tonight because LSB also likes to play a very skirmish-heavy playstyle and they didn’t shy away from fighting us.”

Afterwards, he talked about the draft, the unique itemization on Graves in this series, and his thoughts on Nuguri.

Goredrinker Graves

“I did build Goredrinker on Graves during the Spring split as well. Depending on the enemy team comp, I build it if I need to be more bruiser-y. And I thought it looked good into LSB’s comp as well. In addition, the durability patch made Graves tankier, so he’s playable whenever you don’t have a good jungle champion to play.

Personally, getting caught out by Rell and insta-dying during the second Herald fight was a bit disappointing, but apart from that, I think I played pretty well.”

Liiv SANDBOX’s preference for Vi

I heard that they highly prefer Vi, but they didn’t pick him in phase one of the draft in game 1. That’s why we decided to ban it in the second ban phase. We left it open in phase 1 of the draft in game 2 because we didn’t feel the need to ban Vi from LSB, but they picked it right away.”

Jungle pathing in game 2

“There was a call made that Vi got a leash bot side. Early 1v1 matchup is favored for Poppy, and since Vi usually full clears, I decided to path top side. However, Croco went buff-buff-Gromp, so my plans got mixed up. I wanted to mess with him, but I failed. Still, our bot lane absorbed the gank really well, so the game was even again and went on.”

Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon

“Nuguri is not only really good at the game, but also understands the game at a very high level. The meta in 2020 is very different from the one now, and the responsibilities of the top laner has changed since then. That’s why you don’t see a top lane carry picked up these days. The reason why his gameplay doesn’t seem ‘explosive’ is solely because of the meta, because the current meta is a bot side meta.”

Canyon ended the interview by saying, “Our next match is against Gen.G. I think they’re an incredibly good team. Their mid-jungle is especially really good, so ShowMaker and I will need to play better to win. Also, I was able to hear the cheer from the crowd. It was surreal, and I was very grateful to hear it. Thank you for the continuous support, and I hope to repay the kindness through my gameplay and results.”