On the 15th of August (KST), in the 2019 LCK Summer Split match between SANDBOX Gaming and kt Rolster, SANDBOX clenched the victory in a close 2-1 fight. With the win, SANDBOX claimed a spot in the playoffs. Game 3 was rather difficult for Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon because he had to face Xerath in a 53-minute game.

The following is an interview with Dove.

Today’s match was very long. How do you feel winning it?

As much as it was long, there were so many fights. Since there were so many, I’m not very sure if we did well or bad. Result-wise, we won, so I think we did well.

You succeeded to reach the postseason for two straight seasons.

I’m very relieved that we secured a spot. Now that we reached the playoffs, our goal is to get rid of all our regrets from last spring and win summer.

In Game 3, you had to face Xerath in mid lane. What do you think about Xerath?

The laning wasn’t as difficult as I thought. It was rather hard with the macro in the late game. Along with the great defense KT displayed, the game flow was paused. It could be because of bad positioning, but Xerath’s ults were thrown at me often during teamfights. When I died for the second time, I thought it wouldn’t be easy. I’m really relieved that we won. Personally, I don’t prefer Xerath because I think he’s too passive.

What do you think about the long games from Xerath-Azir? Anything to improve?

Since Xerath had Teleport, I thought it would be easy to take control, but it all went weird after our first gank failed. It seemed like we were benefiting from skirmishes around mid, but the game didn’t go in our way in terms of macro. We finally thought that we had the upper hand after slaying the second Elder Dragon, although we weren’t able to relax until winning the teamfight.

What I need to improve is concentration. My thoughts wander a bit compared to the early-mid game. I need to fix that for us to endure such long games.

The last match is against SK Telecom T1. How do you think it’ll go?

I wasn’t able to see their match today, but I did see them pick Karma-Sejuani. It seemed that their draft style was similar to that of ours. Since the draft has become a lot more important recently, I think we’ll be able to win only if we start snowballing through the better composition from the draft.

Any last comments?

I’d like to thank all the fans that always cheer for us. Today’s match was very long. It might get boring for the fans to watch if this continues. I’ll do my best to keep it shorter, so please keep cheering for us.