Jin Air dominates, Longzhu faces hardship , and Ever shatters expectations - welcome to the first week of LCK Summer.
Afreeca Freecs vs. Longzhu Gaming
Our first series of the Summer season was nothing less than explosive - huge team fights, bewildering picks, and an unforeseen victory in the face of absolute adversary. It all started with Song "Mickey" Yeong-Min jumping on a rather unusual Fizz pick, true to his style for sure, but not necessarily a great pick in this meta. Opposite them, Longzhu took the once-priority pick Rek'sai. Nonetheless, both teams opted only to poke and prod for a large portion of the early game not wanting to take any unnecessary risks. Then everything let loose all at once: Afreeca took a drake while Longzhu baited out a Baron fight. Their game sense must’ve been out of sorts because they clumped extremely close together; so close in fact Afreeca had no trouble taking a complete team fight sweep. It’s okay though, mistakes like that only happen once right?
Unfortunately. LZ continued to clump up once again only for Afreeca’s Bard and Ekko to chain CC nearly the entire team into a clean victory.
Heading into the next game we see more draft strangeness, Nami and Karma, two off meta picks in the Korean scene, are picked for support. Otherwise, this game was much closer nearly going to a third and final match, however, after several long periods of trading sieges Afreeca just ever so barely scraped by and took their first series victory of the season.
CJ Entus vs. Ever
New to the LCK lineup but not new to our hearts, Ever has something to prove: that they can stand with the big boys. Those familiar with their past highlights such as winning a major international tournament know what this team is capable of. This match, a rematch of that KeSPA Cup final series, reaffirmed those claims of glory as Ever dominated CJ Entus in every single way. I was a touch scared for them during the draft phase when they picked Nidalee and Ashe immediately after CJ took Braum. I suppose that’s just how confident they were in their skills to make their pick comp work against even a champion that could directly counter it.
The early game was just as you would expect, ESC played to their win condition well by making picks and taking objectives of the back of a man advantage. CJ began to forge a comeback with their team coordination and patience, but were soon run over by Ever’s intensity.
Game 2 ended just as quickly as it started; Ever’s bot lane pulled off some cheese strats by which they invaded the jungle stealthily via Bard leveling Magical Journey first, of which is highly unusual. Then they slaughtered the fail-flashing Ha "Kramer" Jong-hoon for first blood and would keep an iron grip on that lead. Over the course of the rest of the game ESC rotated cleanly around the map and eventually suffocated CJ for a clean series and shattered expectations. I knew Ever was good, but man are they good. I know it’s only one series, but they are seriously looking like a top 2-4 contender after a week.
ROX Tigers vs. Samsung Galaxy
Returning 2nd place heroes and nearly undefeated throughout the previous season ROX Tigers versus the middle-tier Samsung is not exactly an inspiring matchup. But this is a new season, and with a new season: a clean slate. For example, bet you didn’t expect ROX to pick up Aurelian Sol did ya? Not only that unusual pick, but Swain top and Ekko Jungle. One might say they’re trying a bit too hard to be a trendsetter. Unfazed, SSG stuck to a tried and true skirmish comp. As one might expect, ROX applied the pressure early with some delicious aggressiveness; only, this time, it backfired. Samsung held out long enough to catch an opportune team fight and took every objective, including the nexus, in one fell swoop - not without a last ditch fight by ROX however.
Leading in the matches against such a foe must be mentally exhausting, is it a fluke you wonder? Are they going easy, or do they have a secret weapon ready to unleash fury like nothing else? Regardless of the reason, SSG held firm ground and went with a well put together poke composition. This never ending poke supplied by Nidalee, Varus, and Ezreal would prove too much for ROX to handle. They were whittled down slowly over the course of the entire match, lose a tower here, lose a drake there, and next thing you know the Nexus is gone.
MVP vs. KT Rolster
Similar to the previous match of CJ and Ever, it’s new blood versus an old contender, however unlike last match there would be no upset. I wish I could say it’s because of how well KT played but really, more than anything else, MVP played like garbage - in the first game at least. I lost track how many major mistakes they made, from the draft pick of mid Lucian, to poor mechanics ruining a gank, or making a terrible call for an objective.
The next game: a bit better I suppose. Off the back of many mistakes by KT, like executing to a minion wave, MVP was able to put up a semblance of a fight. I mean, they were about a single auto attack away from winning, or whatever. Impressively, KT kept a cool head and stopped a potential game winning push and responded with their own game winning push. Heartbreaking to be sure for MVP.
Jin Air Greenwings vs. Longzhu
Not much to hype here, JAG plays a methodical control game and Longzhu is a chicken without a head right now. Both games contained literally some of the cleanest play I’ve ever seen by Jin Air. They might as well have been playing against bots - Longzhu barely put up a fight. Although it should be said JAG played much more aggressively than they have previously, maybe that’s why? Oh, and look out for the potential Zyra flavor of the month picks incoming.
