After three seasons of coming in second, the ROX Tigers have finally had their moment of glory after defeating KT Rolster in the League Champions Korea’s summer split finals on Saturday. The five game series was the definition of a back and forth game with some awe inspiring moments. According to an interview with the whole team, the Tigers are far from satisfied with their performances, and will continue to grow, writes Inven’s Park Bum.
“We didn’t play as well as we had prepared to,” ROX’s jungler Han “Peanut” Wang-Ho said. “When we look back at the lost games, we can see us falling into our bad habit of impatience. We will work on that.”
“Lately we were feeling great after practice games,” top laner Song “Smeb” Kyung-Ho said. “To the point that we thought unless KT plays incredibly well, we could win easier than expected. But reality was different. We are not satisfied with today’s match so we will continue to work hard.”
The five game series was the definition of a back and forth, while also having some incredibly memorable moments, such as a miracle Baron steal by Smeb. According to him, that wasn’t really the plan.
“I didn’t think I would succeed at all” he said. “I just wanted to go after Jhin. When I ended up stealing it, I had an empty laugh. Peanut wanted a high five afterwards.”
Strategically, we could see the mind of head coach Jeong No-Chul at work, especially target banning KT’s ace jungler Go “Score” Dong-Bin. ROX’s head coach said that the decision was something he wanted to make.
“I told my personal thoughts to the team,” he said. “I determined that once Score gets his hands on a stable jungle like Rek’Sai, KT plays much better. We could take down KT by allowing Peanut to play his aggressive jungle style, thereby making a draft that focused on picking fights.”
This momentous occasion was also met with emotion with ROX’s mid lane Lee “Kuro” Seo-Haeng was seen on the broadcast with tears flowing down his eyes after finally getting his hands on the championship. To Kuro, this was more than just one win.
“This is the second time I cried,” he said. “This match was so important to me because I finally have a championship as a player. I felt my emotions take over after such a close match.”