FunPlus Phoenix’s semifinal loss to JD Gaming counts as the biggest LPL upset this season. FPX came in as the #1 seed, while JDG had barely scraped in as the #8. And yet, JDG will play the finals this Saturday, while FPX will only take home the bronze — captain Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang’s second in three splits.

After beating TOP in the third place decider, Doinb sat down with VPGame to reflect upon the loss to JDG and talk about facing TOP’s Zhuo “Knight” Ding on the battlefield.

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FPX finished in first place in the regular season. How does it feel to lose to JDG in the playoffs?

It’s a pity, because we had early lead in all three games we lost. Especially in Game 4 where we had a huge lead but somehow they managed to come back and close off the game. And also in Game 5, I claimed many kills but then played way too safely because I didn’t want to throw the lead — that was not how I usually think. I got three kills in the early game but instead of putting pressure on their lane, I chose to farm. However, their line-up outscaled ours and we just lost. Such a pity.

There’s a meme that says the MVP of regular season will never become the champion. How do you feel about this saying?

I think our defeat had nothing to do with my regular season MVP title, it’s just a meme.

Have you prepared anything special before playing against TOP?

We quickly adjusted our mentality after losing to JDG. We sat together in our gaming house and analyzed what went wrong. I believe losing to IG had also affected TOP’s mentality a bit, so all we needed to do is play the way we played in the regular season and we would win. Nothing special.

How did it feel to lane against Knight’s Sylas. Did you feel pressured?

Hmm, it was alright. Sylas isn’t the strongest laner so we let them pick him every game. They saw Sylas as a counter-pick to Lissandra as he could steal Lissandra’s ult, but I went with her anyway just because I feel my Lissandra can contribute a lot in team fights. In the game where I picked Renekton, I also won the mid lane. So actually I have lots of options to lane against Sylas; it simply depends on which champion suits our line-up the best.

Who’s better at playing Sylas, Knight or GimGoon? And will seeing them play this champion give you the impulse to play him as well?

I think I’m the best Sylas player while Tian comes second. As for Gimgoon, he still needs to put more work into it.

In Game 2 you had a tremendous lead. Why did you opt chasing for kills over grouping up and ending the game?

We didn’t “chase for kills”, we are professional players and we have our understanding of the game. At that time, we understood that it was hard for us to push and therefore it was meaningless to group up as it would only give them more farming space. Their line-up out-scaled ours so we decided to keep the aggression.

Which player in your team had the best performance today?

Tian.

Which player in TOP had the best performance today?

Knight.

This series also marks the end of your journey in the LPL Spring playoffs. How are you feeling?

It’s a pity. We really had the chance to make the grand finals, and losing to JDG means our best placement would be third. It was the same case for me last year: I played a third-place decider twice last year so I wish we could make it to the grand final this split instead of playing for bronze once again.