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LCK Summer 2016: Week 5 Recap

(Courtesy of OGN)

SKT's burning fury, Afreeca is back, and the end of the first round robin.

 

Jin Air Greenwings vs. MVP
The jolly old Jin Air “Robin Hood” Greenwings has made an appearance. Take games off the top in the league, and give to the lower tiered teams. Musings aside, the primary reason MVP won was because they played well. Period. They took the initiative on major objectives like Infernal Drakes, Baron, and generally beat JAG to the punch on multiple occasions. I don’t know who the shotcaller is, or where he’s been, but damn, it’s about time.


 
Samsung Galaxy vs. KT Rolster
Since Aurelian Sol’s release he hasn’t really hit it off with the meta, but after this series I’m thinking that’s about to change. Never would I have expect a zoning and support centric Au Sol as opposed to the traditional high damage pick style. The overload on utility items like Rod of Ages combined with his innately area controlling kit made for a killer stop gap between a frontline like Irelia, and the backline Jhin. KT absolutely wrecked MVP in fights across the entire match. In fact, I don’t think SSG got even a single kill.
While the second match was not as clean, that didn’t make it any less entertaining. These are just two great teams clashing for a top spot on the ladder. The lead ebbed and flowed, but by the end KT was the one to take the game and series.


 
SK Telecom vs. Afreeca Freecs
AFREECA IS BACK BABY! This. This is the Afreeca that made me a fan back in the Spring season. Completely out of left field jump out of your seat kind of play that makes the hairs on your arm stick up and a hot burning joy in your belly flare up - against SKT no less. So, I could gush about this series for ages but the gist of it is this: AF flipped the switch for beast mode. The first game had the substitute top laner go 4-0 on Trundle and quickly became unstoppable.
The relentless aggression continued through the second match even through obstacles thrown by SKT. Afreeca could not be stopped, they kept going and going and going like a train plowing through snow or an up and coming boxing champion climbing the steps of Philadelphia. It wasn’t even that SKT played poorly, Afreeca made it a fact in their mind that they would win and followed through. I guess, “Faker should practice more” continues to ring true.


 
MVP vs. CJ Entus
While AF has hit their upturn, CJ is still struggling to find theirs. Even against the recently challenger team, CJ looks… completely lost. Take for instance the featured clip, that’s pretty much the state of CJ Entus right now. MVP played better in every aspect and took fairly clean cut wins.


 
Jin Air Greenwings vs. Tigers
It’s funny how teams change from season to season. Previously, in Spring, the Tigers would dominate the early to mid game and win with an overwhelming lead from it. Jin Air: just the opposite. Bleed out the opponent over 50+ minutes games and wait for the perfect opportunity or a completely cleaned out base. Now, in Summer, both teams have switched, albeit not to such an extreme. In both matches JAG took the early lead and looked quite poised to follow through. However, here comes the Tigers, true to their name, fighting tooth and claw in the mid to late game with everything they’ve got. ROX out team fought Jin Air for the wins regardless of how poorly they did early, which would’ve been crazy to say only months prior.

 

Ever vs. Samsung Galaxy
Besides for their hiccup in Game 1, which forced the loss, Samsung Galaxy handily took the series. A few nice early kills snowballed into drake stacking is all it takes.

 

Longzhu vs. SK Telecom
SKT’s terrifying power shows once again. Their teamfighting and play making ability across every member of the team is absolutely incredible. For example, even with the out of meta Gnar, Duke was able to hit incredible multiple man ults with which the likes of hyper aggressive Bang was able to clean up after. Fantastic series for those looking to watch the very highest level of team play.

 

KT Rolster vs. CJ Entus
While CJ is playing better in general, they still aren’t able to actually take a convincing series home. In all 3 games they fought for drakes and punished mistakes, but when it came to the big game winning teamfights, they just don't cut it. Nonetheless, the improvement is promising.

 

Tigers vs Afreeca
Alright, so after AF’s jaw dropping performance against SKT, one would expect the same here right? Sadly it didn’t happen. However, fret not because Afreeca is burning bright despite the 2-0 loss. They fought hard at every opportunity and took risks most other teams would not. Risky Barons, frequent skirmishes, pick attempts, and more - although not any of them succeeded. I love to watch it and think it’s admirable for them to try so hard at every point of the match. They keep this up, and the second round robin will be a breeze.

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