SKT showed once again why that they are the best team in the world, but it wasn't as easy as expected.
A difficult task lay ahead for G2 but they started out in the best way possible. Perkz all but solo killed Faker with just a tiny bit of help from his jungler. It got better from there and Perkz’ Jayce was 3-0 after eight minutes. Peanut snuck an infernal drake but Faker and SKT continued to trail and G2 were even able to get the first turret. The Koreans finally got on the scoreboard 16 minutes in and were able to trade turrets and take a rift herald. The game stalled for a while after that until a fight broke out around the baron. SKT came out ahead with four kills and were able to take the baron itself, flipping the gold lead on its head. G2 had given their opponents an inch and they took a mile. The next baron went SKT’s way as well and after an ace in G2’s base, the game was over.
Faker had looked unnerved in game one but Peanut’s zero deaths had more than made up for it. In game two Faker continued to look human, giving up yet another solo kill - though this time at least he wasn’t first blood. The game got scrappy and SKT looked to be making another comeback when they evened up the kill score, despite being down 4,000 gold. But G2 weren’t ready to give up another lead and this time they found a winning skirmish in their opponent’s jungle to finalise a surprise win.
G2 had shown that they could push SKT in game one and went one step further in game two, but game three was all about SKT. Despite G2 drafting Ashe and Miss Fortune, SKT were in no mood for ROX-esque shenanigans. They got first blood this time around and after another kill for Faker SKT had a small lead but one that they would never give up. A horribly failed invade by G2 handed the Koreans three more kills and a 2.5k lead. In fact, G2 didn’t get a kill of their own until 15 minutes in and despite getting the first tower of the game the gold gap continued to grow. Even when G2 caught Faker - who was having a much better game three - they weren’t able to do anything with it. The game was finally decided after a comfortable team fight win for SKT gave them the baron they needed to break the base.
In game four it was time for the comfort picks. Faker and Bang were on Leblanc and Twitch respectively, while Zven was given his trademark Kalista. It was not an even trade. SKT again fot first blood and kept a thousand gold lead for a while in a slow, tentative game. Even the first real brawl of a team fight resulted in just a single kill after multiples summoners were blown. G2 were able to get first tower once more but it was traded back immediately and by 20 minutes into the game SKT were up 2,000 gold. That only grew when Wolf’s Tahm Kench baited the European team into a nasty over-extension in the top lane and with a baron picked up off the back off three kills it looked like the game was all but over. G2 went down fighting but by now they were to far behind and the next baron was all it took for SKT to take their second MSI title in a row.
Image courtesy of SKT Twitter.
