SK Telecom is literally unstoppable.?
Tigers vs. SK Telecom
The Tigers just got straight up outdrafted in a way you don't usually see in this league. ROX took some traditionally good picks of this patch, for example: Vladimir, Swain, and Graves. Great team fighting ability with good sustain, looks great at a glance. Thing is, Lee "Faker" Sang-Hyeok got Anivia, and even worse, he knows how to play it. Predictably the Tigers were destroyed in all team fights. Maybe next time ban a champion that directly counters your team comp?
Funnily enough, the second match had pretty much the same exact picks, except the jungler champions were switched, and once again the Tigers didn't stand a chance. Barring the skill gap, the team composition match up had ROX doomed from the start. I'm sure the 'never die' comp demolishes lower skilled teams, like the way Illaio does in low elo, but it just doesn't stand a chance against a god.
Since the teams in this league scrim all the time, it's no surprise similar team compositions and macro game strategy bleed over within a small time frame. Longzhu pretty much confirmed this by taking the exact same picks as the Tigers before them. Only this time, they don't have to worry about the likes of SKT directly countering them. CJ saw it coming and still did nothing to draft around it. Unsurprisingly, Longzhu came away with the victory after over 60 minutes of brawling.
Then, we got to see how a shield versus spear situation plays out. In other words, Longzhu took defensive/poke picks while CJ sought out 'hyper run at you as engage.' Although, despite the wildly different win conditions from game to game, this match played out pretty similarly to the previous one. Just straight up rolling in the mud fighting at every opportunity. Unlike before, CJ would be the one to come out just ahead, forcing a 3rd match.
CJ continued to execute the ultimate spear comp with strong siege and team fight picks while, once again, Longzhu only wanted to chill in base with picks like Swain and Cait. CJ kept much more in control of the match and eventually won through sieges with Baron.
Samsung Galaxy vs. Jin Air Greenwings
JAG took the early lead almost entirely through CS, even through SSG's first few picks. Jin Air continued to snowball this lead with a teamfight win into a cheeky Baron and looked to win the game. That is, until they heavily over committed to try and kill Park "Ruler" Jae-Hyeok. Samsung were able to retaliate and claw their way back into the game, and although Jin Air tried twice more to wipe out SSG they were out team-fought with the power of the Ashe kiting and a Maokai/Braum frontline.
Similarly, match 2 had Jin Air in the lead early once again, still haunted by their uncanny ability to not be able to close out a game. It's impressive how many ways they can completely fall on their face. After over committing to a tower dive their ADC died in the process. Samsung got a finger and took an arm in a return siege, with a Baron taking both games in the series with impressive comebacks.
KT Rolster vs. Tigers
Simply brilliant domination by the Tigers. KT didn't stand a chance after a fantastic double teleport play into massive leads across the board for ROX. The only mistake: Han "Peanut" Wang-Ho stole his ADC's pentakill, oops.
Game 1 looked great! Game 2? Not so much. The Tigers looked like a completely different team, and not in a good way. Multiple throws occurred, most of which were at Baron. In particular, the same Baron play would see back to back team wipes within a few minutes. This match was hard to watch. KT, with the unkillable Maokai, eventually were able to keep a Baron and not get aced, which they used to siege into a win.
I don't even know what's going on anymore. The Tigers went back to how they were in the first match: unrelenting perfection. It's like the second game didn't even happen. Eh, anyway, KT didn't stand a chance nor did they fight for one.
Classic case of skill mismatch. Longzhu took minor early leads and snowballed hard. Ever barely put up a fight.
CJ Entus vs. Jin Air Greenwings
CJ Entus just didn't stand a chance here. Jin Air kept it clean and by the book by stacking early drakes and turning that into map control. The map control would allow them to bait a Baron, turn on the checking CJ and win the game handily.
Game 2 was pretty much the same story, with the interesting bit being CJ trying out a 'protect the Jinx' composition. It failed. All JAG needed to do was assassinate her with the likes of Leblanc then CJE would have nothing.
Afreeca is in a sad state at the moment. In the early part of the match they just barely held on only to pretty much lose everything when two members were picked off. KT were able to snowball a huge lead off this and cleanly won the game. It really doesn't help that AF were drawn into KT's win condition. In other words, KT wanted to skirmish with their skirmish comp, Afreeca obliged by getting dragged into the mud with them.
Same story, different match. Afreeca barely hold on only to be caught out and demolished. Pitiful performance really. Not sure what's up with AF these past couple weeks, they look dreadful.
Honestly, MVP's jungler is Beyond amazing. He was absolutely instrumental in both wins with unforeseen spectacular play. Granted, it was against Ever but still, magnificent. In both games Ever took the early lead only for MVP to come back swinging in the late game. The second match in particular had Beyond stealing a Baron which made the team fight sweep into siege quite easy.
Even though it was pretty much a blowout, this was still an amazing series. Best of the week even. Samsung went in as, more or less, a top 3 contender. Against STK however, they were nothing more than bandit in the night looking to steal the throne. SK Telecom made Samsung look like garbage. Every major mistake was harshly punished. If SSG didn't do something perfect, better to not do it all. Also fun to watch is aggressive Bae "Bengi" Seong-Ung. If I had to guess both Gang "Blank" SeonGu and Bengi are learning from and improving each other. The whole course of the series, even on Rek'Sai, he was making plays across the map giving the rest of his team that fighting edge to eradicate Samsung. It is both cliche and early to say, but damn, SKT is looking like a world champion, again.
