On February 18th (KST), Day 19 of 2017 LCK Spring Split kicked off with the match between Longzhu Gaming and Afreeca Freecs, and Longzhu Gaming took the match with a 2-0 record.

LZ took Game 1 with Yongjun "Fly" Song's surprise Talon, and Dongwoo "Crash" Lee pulled the team out of certain defeat in Game 2 by pulling the enemy minion away from the base.

Here is our interview with SSONG and Crash.

Congratulations on reaching the third place. How do you feel about today's victory?

SSONG: I'm really glad that we've won today. It's a more valuable win since the players did better in macromanagement and won from behind because of that. I'm very proud of them.

Crash: I'm glad that we managed to win from behind, and I'm also glad that we are at the third place.

SSONG, Longzhu Gaming is doing much better on keeping the lead. Can you tell us how you've coached them to achieve that?

SSONG: It is difficult to explain how to recover after being overtaken in words. Instead, the players wanted to play with champions that can show their strengths. I think the players have improved their skills through playing with unexpected or strategic picks rather than playing with orthodox champions. That's how we've been preparing our picks so far.

Crash: Last year, the team would get discouraged whenever someone gets killed by mistake. Now, we try to cheer each other up by saying something like "We can do it" even after making mistakes. That's a huge change for us. Coaching staffs have also advised us to think of something that we can and should do when playing from behind. They've been very helpful.

SSONG, Fly's Talon was an unexpected pick. Can you tell us more about the reason behind it?

Fly likes Talon...a lot, to say the least. Although Talon wasn't very good in the Solo Queue until very recently, it's been doing very well nowadays with high pick, ban and win rate. It's very good at dealing both burst and sustained damage, so I think it's a strong champion overall. Also, Talon can be a good toplaner, but it did better in high-tier Solo Queue as a midlaner. It's a tricky champion to play against.

It was his own call to position himself around the enemy team's DPS. I think he positioned himself like that after considering both teams' composition. Also, Fly likes to play with Talon, and he told me that he is can go up against any champion with confidence. So, he said he was okay with playing Talon except Ryze and Cassiopeia who are strong in teamfights.

Crash, your quick-thinking with the minion aggro possibly prevented your team from losing Game 2. Was it a planned move?

I didn't think it would work, but still thought it was worth a shot. I just went up through the minion wave and the minions started to follow me. I think I got lucky in a way.

Speaking of lucky, we also need to talk about how you took down dragon while being dead in Game 1.

I seriously wondered how I could possibly take it. After thinking it over, I realized that it was because of Stalker's Blade passive ability - Tooth and Nail. I suppose it is my lucky day.

You'll be facing MVP right before and after the break. What are your thoughts on those matches?

SSONG: MVP is on a roll with their recent winning streak, so we need to be more careful. We both like to play with unorthodox picks, so the team that prepares more during the break should get a better result.

Crash: I think we are better than them. I never cared about who I'll be facing as a jungler, so although Kyusuk "Beyond" Kim is a competent jungler, I won't be distracted by that fact.

Thank you for your time. Anything else that you want to share?

SSONG: We will return prepared and do our best to be worthy of "the Big Three" after the break. Please continue to cheer for us.

Crash: We are at the third place right now. We will try harder than we have been not just to stay on the third place but go beyond that.