On the 20th, at the Gangnam Nexon Arena, the 21st day of the 2018 LCK Spring Split took place. In the 2nd series of the day, KT Rolster defeated KSV with a score of 2-0. During the series, Mata played the laning phase safely and reliably. Also, he used Braum's shield to its fullest by efficiently protecting his teammates.

The following is an interview with Mata.

How do you feel after that victory?

It was our last match of Round 1. It feels great having defeated a strong team [KSV]. I played with the mindset that today's match was our first match in Round 2.


Recently, you guys have been taking wins by playing around Caitlyn. Is she picked for her strengths in the early-to-mid game?

Our team has always shown powerful plays whenever we picked a botlane duo that can take the lane advantage. But today, since our late-game was also on par, we decided to play slowly. Our secret to winning today's match was that we took things slowly.


But it's hard to say that you guys had the lane advantage in both games.

You're right, but we played slowly and calmly. That's how we were able to win.


KT Rolster seems to be a bit stubborn as they tend to pick the same kind of team composition for most games. It feels like KT should start preparing for a plan B.

Our teammates' champion pool isn't that bad, so we'll prepare more according to the meta. We might lose a large portion of our strength by not picking our "core" champions, but it's nothing that we can't fix through practice.


KT Rolster's macro and playstyle seem to have changed a lot. You guys used to put a lot of focus on top-jungle, but now, the team seems to focus more on the midlane. The support's movement and playmaking around the map also seemed to have been limited.

I actually prefer ditching botlane to look for fights in the midlane. However, our team is now fully capable of winning with just the mid-jungle alone. So I only move to the midlane when it's absolutely necessary. I have a lot more options now.


A lot of fans are comparing KT to KZ. In order for your team to take the 1st place, KZ will most likely become the largest obstacle.

As I've always said, our team is fully capable of beating any teams. We beat SKT, a team that we always lost to in the past, so we have now won against every team in the LCK. But upsets happen frequently in the LCK.


Your next opponent is JAG. They're not a team to underestimate. How do you predict the match outcome?

If we rush things, we might get swallowed up by JAG. We'll need to play carefully.


Any last words?

Although we're playing well as of right now, we might start making more mistakes. But even then, we're winning a lot of our teamfights in the mid-to-late game. Our past weakness, the frequency of showing openings in the late-game, allowing the enemy to make comebacks, has also decreased. We're doing our best, so please continue to watch us. We're a team that is constantly improving. I'd like to ask you guys to please cheer for us. 


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