The Shanghai Dragons evolved from being a good team to a great team after winning Stage 3. Besides Min-seong "diem" Bae and Jin-hyeok "DDing" Yang, Yong-Jin "YOUNGJIN" Jin played a significant role as another DPS on the road to the team's first stage finals and championship. After the Dragons' victory in Week 1 against Seoul Dynasty, YOUNGJIN spoke with Inven Global about Stage 3 including the playoffs and who he thought was their biggest roadblock on the way to being Stage 3 champions.







▲ Photo by Robert Paul



Before Stage 3, did you and the team expect to play exceptionally well as you all did and win the Stage 3 championship?



Of course! I think the result showed the amount of effort that we invested. That effort and hard work paid off for us a couple of weeks ago.





What did you think was the tallest hurdle heading into the Stage 3 playoffs?



Since the Shock and Titans have really good DPS players, we were really preparing for those two in particular. I think we prepared pretty well since we came out with the win.







▲ Photo by Robert Paul





During the Stage 3 playoffs, you played against NYXL, Titans, and Shock who are the top teams in the league. Who would you say was your most difficult opponent?



I thought it was the Shock because when we were scrimming against them, we noticed they were using a lot of DPS players. In the actual match, we were actually expecting for Smurf, Architect, and Striker to play sometime in the match. ChoiHyoBin, however, was playing really well with Roadhog and it caught us off guard.





As far as NYXL and Titans are concerned, what was the difference between playing those two than the Shock?



For Vancouver, it was playing against their tanks. Against New York, we were just making a lot of mistakes - I can't really recall what those mistakes are right now.



We were able to beat them both because we realized at the time if we were not going to give it our all, we were going to have regrets coming into this stage. We didn't want that. We wanted to see what our potential was going into those games. Therefore, besides eating and sleeping, we had to be completely focused on the game.





Did you think it was a challenge to prepare going against the Titans then Shock in very little time?



I would say that it was challenging. Since the meta at the time was either GOATS or just DPS, our gameplan was to prepare for either of those. I'd say it worked pretty well.





Now that you and the Dragons won Stage 3, how do you become a better team moving forward?



To be honest, right after Stage 3 playoffs we didn't have much to practice. Now with this new meta, we need to adapt and find our own style. Once we find that, we'll be able to have similar results as we did in Stage 3.







▲ Photo by Robert Paul





Let's talk about adapting to the new role lock meta. What is difficult about adapting to this meta opposed to playing GOATS before that?



Before the role lock, I was able to come up with different strategies since there were so many options. Here, it feels a little strict so we have to be careful about what heroes we play since everyone is finding their style at the moment.





I know this is the first week we've seen the role lock in the league, but who do you think will be your toughest opponents?



I think it will be the Shock and Spitfire. We don't have a match against London in this stage but their tank and DPS players are one of the best in the league. When it comes to 2-2-2, that team is extremely strong. We have to remember that they are the defending champions.





In your postgame interview with Danny, you said we will do the winning pose in the finals. What do you have to do to get to the season finals?



We know it's tough from here on out, but we have to try harder and get better than we did in Stage 3. Believe in us and we will get to the finals.











Speaking of the pose, do you have a name for it?



Sinatraa pose!





Thank you for your time to talk to me after the match. Is there anything you want to say to all the fans out there?



To the fans, we're sorry for losing our first match. For the rest of the stage, we'll show you guys what we showed in Stage 3.