Week 6 of the LCK marked the halfway point of the season. Each team had back to back Best of 3s facing the same opponent, allowing for what is essentially, a prolonged Best of 7.
This week’s key fixture needs no introduction. If you are going to watch two sets of vods this split, make it these two. Arguably the year’s most anticipated matchup, week 6 played host to not only this year’s first instance of the telecom wars but also the return leg at the end of the week.
Set 1 - Thursday
Story lines were abound as SKT and KT faced off for the first time in 2017. Three time world champions SKT forged their legacy on the backs of calculated defensive plays, ruthlessly punishing opponents for being a hairs breadth out of position. Led by their captain, the talismanic Faker, SKT look to one of their toughest opponents yet in KT. Although a new roster was formed only this split, their players are by no means new. Indeed, each and every player of the newly revamped KT line-up is amongst the very best at their positions. Led by legendary shot caller Mata, KT has taken the league by storm with their aggressive early games, grabbing an insurmountable gold lead and mercilessly shutting out their opposition.
Standing equal at seven match wins and one loss a piece, the victor of their first encounter would see them take sole possession of first place heading into the second half of the spring split.
And what a series this was. SKT emerged victorious with a 2-1 win but they were pushed to their limits. The level of play on display on Thursday was incomparable to any other this year. One could even argue that they were playing an entirely different game. Such was the level of their macro and micro. Game one featured one of Kt’s renowned tank-less drafts, and wrestling a sizeable early gold lead. However it was Skt who would take game 1 off the back of stellar team fighting and Bang’s signature ezreal. Game 2 saw Kt once again run a tankless comp, however, this time, their execution was near perfect.
Despite SKT’s best efforts, including a phenomenal wombo at the baron pit and Faker’s 4000 elo shock wave, KT ruthlessly forced a decisive game 3 with pawn’s Zed tearing a bloody path through Skt’s backline. Game 3 had it all. Faker, as is his style, picked his opponent’s last pick and locked in the Zed and as SKT took an early lead early, the game looked like another standard victory. And it would’ve been, had their opponents been anyone but KT. Picking baron up after decisive team fight victories meant KT eventually had SKT on the ropes. SKT had their backs to the wall, an exposed nexus and 2 inhibitors down, as KT went in for the close. But it was Huni, who had been a hero on Rumble all game long, that would silence his critics and dash KT’s hopes as a beautiful equalizer eviscerated their health bars and SKT pushed for the win at 53 minutes.
Set 2
Sunday saw the second coming of the 2017 telecom wars and showed that the intervening days had done little to blunt the hunger of our players. Game 1 saw KT continue their trend of aggressive tank-less comps with the selection of Talon for Pawn in the mid lane and the previously out of favour Gragas in the jungle. However, the story of game 1 would actually be one of Huni. A commanding performance on Gangplank saw ganks turned around, team fights turned around and eventually games turned around as SKT overturned a slight early game deficit to go 1-0 up in the series. KT would draw themselves level in Game 2 as they unconventionally drafted a late game scaling comp as pawn led the charge with a Crown-esque display on Victor, constantly shoving Faker’s Corki out of lane and keeping KT in the game.
Late game saw a myriad of high level objective trades that saw KT get incrementally further and further ahead before sealing the game with a three super minion lane push. Game three saw not one, but two substitutions for SKT as Profit and Blank came on for Huni and Peanut respectively. And while on paper, this may seem a downgrade, they delivered world class performances, most notably as Blank out jungled Score throughout the game. However, changes were not only limited to SKT’s roster as KT’s picks once again deviated from the norm as Ziggs adc debuted in the telecom wars and Talon made a return but this time, as Smeb’s top laner of choice. The hero of the game would prove to be Skt’s superior macro and team fighting as the objective trades began to increasingly favour SKT, who would eventually close the game out at 48 minutes in an incredibly tightly fought contest.
MVP
For me, the week’s MVP was none other than the King of Ezreal, SKT Bang. Throughout all 6 games of the heated telecom wars, Bang was consistently performing at the highest level. Without a single bad game to his name, Bang produced stellar performances of immaculate positioning, intelligent laning (against the likes of Pray and Mata no less) and high damage output.
Elsewhere on the rift
The middle of the table remains highly contested as Samsung retained sole possession of third place with a 2-0 and 2-1 win over the BBQ Olivers whilst MVP and LZ traded games to share 4th at 6 wins and 4 losses a piece. The Rox tigers claimed 2 set wins over the Jin air green wings earning them a join 7th place standing with the Bbq Olivers as back to back Afreeca wins relegate Kongdoo to 10th place alongside fellow strugglers, the Jin Air Green Wings.
Results in full:
Tuesday
MVP vs Longzhu Gaming
Kongdoo Monster vs Afreeca Freecs
Wednesday
Jin Air GreenWings vs ROX Tigers
Samsung Galaxy vs Bbq Olivers
Thursday
Kt Rolster vs SK telecom T1
Longzhu Gaming vs MVP
Saturday
Bbq Olivers vs Samsung Galaxy
ROX Tigers vs Jin Air GreenWings
Sunday
SK telecom T1 vs Kt Rolster
Afreeca Freecs vs Kongdoo Monster
Article by Filbert Goetomo
