After the Kickoff win, Rb says Nongshim are only “about 50%” of their potential

Nongshim RedForce lifted the VCT Pacific Kickoff trophy after a dominant 3-2 series victory against Rex Regum Qeon in the final. Their IGL, Goo "Rb" Sang-min, gave an interview to Sheep Esports after the match, in which he discussed what truly decided the matchup, how far this roster still is from its ceiling, and why the current meta fits the team’s aggressive identity perfectly.

Goo "Rb" Sang-min: “What I felt against the whole long day of going up against RRQ is that they have really good fundamentals, and they're a good team with crazy mechanics. But of course, they're a really stable team, but they also have weaknesses. And what they have done today to go through all their weaknesses and try to analyze them and actually pinpoint that weaknesses was the main cause for what went on today.

Rb: If percentage, I'd say the level is about 50%.

Rb: If I had to pick out maybe two players, I would pick first Dambi (Lee Hyuk-kyu), because compared to Stage 2, a lot of things had changed within him and with the team itself. And he thought that within the Kickoff, he showed the changes very prominently compared to Stage 2.

And secondly, it would be Xross (Jung Hwan), and he was originally a Challenger's player, and especially he even took a year off of playing in the league. And of course, by returning to our current rosters, he would have a lot more pressure on his shoulders. But he's been improving extremely well and developing and growing into the team. So please also pay more attention to him too.

Rb: Overall, I think that the current meta within the kickoff matches the team color extremely well. Since originally starting last year, they have had a really aggressive play style.

And right now, with the current meta, it kind of allows us to be a bit more aggressive and just try to draw out, like, the fighting plans or shooting and try to go one-on-one. And it allows them to pinpoint the weaknesses of the other teams a lot more easily. And yeah, that's the kind of flow of the game that they like to create. At the moment, yeah, he thinks that the meta is really good for the team.

Rb: One of the main factors that I think I acquired from playing within the CN League would be that I was able to increase my mechanics and overall physicality of my own play style and to build up a lot more confidence in trying to go one-on-one and within just trying to formulate the situations where I can go take the fight. It helped a lot with this kickoff.

And I think the difference between the CN league and Pacific league is that within CN league, they are a little bit more aggressive in trying to take out gunfights, but then in Pacific they try to be a little bit more laid back and try to use strategies a lot more than just mainly gunfights.

Rb: Honestly, of course, like, theoretically, the pressure upon, you know, coming up as the upper finals would be a lot less compared to the middle finals or the lower finals, but since the schedule for the remaining kickoff would be the upper finals and then the next day the middle finals and then the last day the lower finals, three consecutive days of best of five would be an incredible pressure on their stamina, so yeah, he thinks that there was some pressure.”