injury. He became its eventual permanent leader through the appointment of Yang Hyun-suk, ensuing he witnessed growth. On October 25, "Team A" were revealed as victors of the series and would subsequently begin preparations and debut as Winner. Kang made his official debut with the five-piece band, Winner, on August 17, 2014. The band's success upon debut was recorded as "unprecedented" by media outlets, having made their mark in the industry that early on in its career. Kang also participated in Superstar K2 judge panelist Yoon Jong-shin's Monthly project with Song for the digital single, "Wild Boy". The singer-turned-thespian returned to acting since his last project High Kick: Revenge of the Short Legged (2011), with the web drama We Broke Up (2015). He starred as its male lead with label-mate Sandara Park as his counterpart. The series was aired from June 29, 2015 to July 17 via Naver TV and found success by becoming the fourth most watched web drama on the platform within that year with 11.45 million views and 16 million views collectively as of October 2015. The series were invited to the Geneva International Film Festival in Switzerland, a first amongst all Korean web dramas. Its positive receptions led the main cast to hold a surprise "mini-concert" in Seoul with exclusivity to 200 attendees. His performance in the series accredited to his award for "Best Male Actor" by the K Web Fest Awards. For his second web drama, he starred in Love for a Thousand More (2016) as its male lead and opposite to actress Hwang Seung-eon. The series included band-mate, Kim Jin-woo, and is a joint production of CJ E&M, YG Entertainment, and YG KPlus. While it did not reach the same level of popularity as his prior project, the series exceeded 5 million views as of December 2016 and was cited a success. Kang released a soundtrack for the drama, titled "You" (너; neo) and served as its only release. In continuation of his acting career, he starred in Prison Playbook (2017–2018). He was cast with a supporting role through an audition in which required him to read a portion from the script using his regional dialect on the spot. Shin Won-ho — the director of the television series — revealed while he initially did not have high expectations as it had been long since he was seen in 'High Kick', he found his portrayal