This article is part of our LoL Recap series.
In a hard-fought 2-1 series, Samsung Galaxy took down Afreeca Freecs to open up Week 2 of League of Legends Champions Korea on Tuesday in Seoul, South Korea.
Coming out of the pick-ban phase, Afreeca (1-2, 4-5 match record) chose to focus on letting the solo lanes control the early game in the face of Samsung's late-game scaling composition. Afreeca executed its gameplan to perfection, using an early first blood to give top laner Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-Hwan's Renekton and mid laner Lee "Kuro" Seo-haeng's Viktor plenty of room to start pushing for advantages in their respective lanes. This led to complete domination in terms of both kills and objectives, with Samsung only picking up a single kill and no objectives during the 33-minute Afreeca victory.
The series continued to revolve around the solo lanes in Game 2, but this time it was Samsung (3-0, 6-2 match record) taking control from start to finish. While Afreeca mid laner Kuro was on the typically strong Galio, Samsung top laner Lee "CuVee" Seong-jin's Kled and mid laner Lee "Crown" Min-ho's Viktor made sure to keep the champion from scaling into the unkillable tank he normally is. With Crown owning the mid lane, CuVee managed to split push and become a complete terror around the map, resulting in a 4/1/8 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) that earned him MVP honors. While Afreeca managed to prolong the game to 37 minutes, with no dragons or towers and only six kills to speak of, it had no hope of preventing Samsung from pushing the series to a decisive Game 3.
Samsung went back to its late-game focused team composition from Game 1, and was able to finally make it work in the final game of the series. CuVee started things off with an amazing escape on Kennen in the top lane to prevent Afreeca from kicking off an early snowball. From then on, Afreeca did manage to control objectives all over the map, but it never pushed for an advantage. Samsung was allowed plenty of time to scale into the late-game perfectly, with two late teamfight wins that gave it complete control and allowed it to pick up the drawn-out, 43-minute win to take the series.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
After another grueling three-game series to open Week 2 of League of Legends Champions Korea, KT Rolster earned a 2-1 series win over ROX Tigers on Tuesday in Seoul, South Korea.
While ROX (0-3, 2-6 match record) tried valiantly to hang with KT (2-1, 4-4 match record) in Game 1, it only managed to delay the inevitable. Things started off with KT support Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong's Thresh protecting his teammates from certain death numerous times with Dark Passages in the early game, keeping ROX at bay and allowing KT to keep on farming into the late game. ROX managed to pick up the first Baron, but KT didn't let it push for advantages of any kind before getting a Baron of its own next time around. Without much help from mid laner Sun "Mickey" Yong-min's Ahri, ROX gave up late teamfight after teamfight as KT locked up the 37-minute win.
Despite not drafting much initiation, ROX managed to control the game through decisive picks throughout Game 2, starting with two kills onto KT top laner Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho's Kled in the early game. These kills snowballed ROX across the map, giving it a mid-game tempo advantage. Whether it was AD carry Kwon "Sangyoon" Sang-yoon's Kalista or jungler Kim "Mightybear" Min-soo's Graves, ROX had no trouble taking fights and punishing over-extensions from KT. Having full control over the game, it was only a matter of time before ROX slowly chipped away at KT's base before finishing up the 33-minute win to push it to a Game 3.
In a game that lasted far longer than it should have, KT managed to outlast ROX for the series win. While the early game was dead even, a big four-kill teamfight win for KT in the early-mid game put it in the driver's seat. Mid laner Heo "PawN" Won-seok's Viktor, who finished with a stellar 6/0/8 KDA (kills/deaths/assists), guided KT Rolster along from start to finish, taking over in a desperate-feeling late game despite KT being up over 14,000 gold near the end. PawN helped KT win almost every late-game teamfight, and, while it took three Barons and 40 minutes, ROX never had an avenue for a comeback in the KT win.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 2, Day 2 of League Champions Korea kicked off Wednesday with Jin Green Air Wings taking down Ever8 in a lopsided 2-0 sweep in Seoul, South Korea.
Jin Air's (2-1, 5-2 match record) poke-heavy draft in the bot lane shined in the first 10 minutes of Game 1. Whenever Ever8 (1-2, 3-4 match record) was able to even the kill deficit in the early game, a massive farm advantage by JAG AD carry Park "Teddy" Jin-Seong's Caitlyn over his Ever8 counterpart kept Jin Air ahead. Jin Air rotated around the map significantly better, but Ever8 was able to stay in the game thanks to mid laner Park "Cepted" Wi-rim's Orianna earning five kills in 20 minutes. After a long stalemate, a 3-for-0 teamfight victory and Baron kill for Jin Air allowed it to snowball the lead. Jin Air closed out the game with little resistance after a massive misplay by Ever8 led to an easy double kill in favor of Jin Air.
Another standard draft phase, highlighted by Ever8's Xayah and Rakan picks for AD carry Kim "Deul" Deul and support Ha "Comeback" Seung-chan, kicked off Game 2. Jin Air showed no signs of stopping in the early game, which was evident by the 3,000-gold lead amassed before the 10-minute mark. Despite having a strong teamfighting composition, Jin Air continued to build on the lead through smart picks and a handful of skirmishes rather than outright fights. Ever8 tried to bring the skyrocketing gold disadvantage back down to earth by forcing a teamfight at the 21-minute mark, but Jin Air was simply too strong for the LCK newcomers. Jin Air then quickly took down Baron, and after pushing the bot lane and winning a 3-for-0 team fight, was able to finish off the sub-30-minute game and complete the 2-0 sweep.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
SK Telecom T1 certainly haven't shown up as the SKT we've come to know, but the Mid-Season Invitational champions have played their best when it mattered most. Wednesday was no exception, as SKT survived a hard fought series against Longzhu Gaming, ending Week 2, Day 2 of the of League Champions Korea with a 2-1 series win in Seoul, South Korea.
Each team entered Game 1 with different styles from the onset, shown by the standard team fight-oriented draft from SKT(2-1, 4-3 match record), compared to the pick composition Longzhu Gaming (2-1, 5-3 match record) brought to the Rift. Neither team was able to break away from one another until the mid game, when Longzhu was finally able to find a handful of necessary picks to gain map control. Methodically tightening its grip on the game through objective control and having a better mid-game composition, Longzhu was able to take down Baron at the 28-minute mark without much reaction from SKT. The Baron buff didn't do much for Longzhu, but it was able to end the game shortly after following a 3-for-0 team fight.
Despite being in a hole, SKT didn't try to change things heading into Game 2, operating a standard draft. Longzhu, however, looked to try something new by locking in Cassiopeia for top laner Kim "Khan" Dong-ha, and in the beginning the move appeared to be brilliant. Longzhu looked stronger in the early game despite a prolonged jungle invade by SKT jungler Kang "Blank" Sun-g's Gragas. But SKT wrestled the lead away after a series of smart team fights and a few misplays from Longzhu that left kills on the table. The game finally broke open after SKT was able to take down Baron near the 30-minute mark, narrowly winning a 3-for-2 fight. With its newfound Baron buff, SKT was able to take down four members of Longzhu en route to evening the series at 1-1.
The draft for Game 3 was another standard teamfighting composition for SKT, whereas Longzhu opted to take hyper-carry champions like Fiora, Kassadin and Xayah into every lane. The early game was scrappy, but SKT maintained its momentum by taking down first tower. All throughout the mid game, SKT kept Longzhu from scaling by protecting its towers well while forcing Longzhu to defend its own. SKT's lead grew through superior team fighting and a Baron kill at the 35-minute mark. While SKT was shockingly unable to capitalize on the buff, it did manage to break into Longzhu's base awhile later thanks to the strength of three Mountain Drakes. By that point, though, Longzhu had fully scaled into the late, allowing both teams to chip away at one another's base while dancing around team fights. A continual back-and-forth game ended with SKT whittling down Longzhu just fast enough at 55 minutes to take the series 2-1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samsung continued its early romp through League of Legends Champions Korea on Thursday with another 2-0 sweep, this time over MVP in Seoul, South Korea.
MVP (1-2, 2-5 match record) focused on the support position during the pick-ban phase, using four of its five bans on support champions. This left Samsung support Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in with a Bard pick that still managed to put in work, making MVP's draft strategy blow up in its' face. MVP drafted a strictly teamfight-focused composition, but wasn't able to come up with the necessary teamfight wins to hold off Samsung. Things were pretty even early on, with MVP even securing a teamfight win and Rift Herald around 18 minutes. Before long, though, Samsung (4-0, 8-2 match record) took more towers and started to grow its lead. MVP went for what could have been a decisive Baron play at 26 minutes, but ended up losing the ensuing fight, leaving the team in shambles and on the back foot while Samsung pressed its advantage. Samsung then kept the pressure on until it finally overwhelmed MVP and picked up the 36-minute win.
MVP again used a couple of its bans to try and limit CoreJJ's champion pool, and again it didn't do much to slow down Samsung. MVP did manage to keep things pretty even early on, starting with a trade kill in the bottom lane within the first few minutes of the game. After that, the game settled into a glacial lull, with neither team taking a sizable advantage over the other. MVP tried to turn things around with a Baron attempt at 34 minutes, but Samsung top laner Lee "CuVee" Seong-jin came in as Jarvan IV and changed the teamfight with a huge Cataclysm, securing an ace and Baron buff for his team. That was all Samsung needed to push down into MVP's base and secure the 37-minute win, with CuVee ending the game with an MVP-earning 4/0/7 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) and whopping 29,693 damage done to champions.
Samsung is done for the week and won't hit the stage again until next Thursday when it takes on KT Rolster at 7 a.m. ET, while MVP will be back Sunday at 7 a.m. ET to also face KT.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a series filled with ups and downs, Afreeca Freecs overcame bbq Olivers to pick up a 2-1 win to close out the second day of Week 2 in League of Legends Champions Korea on Thursday in Seoul, South Korea.
The pick/ban of the first game of the series saw a large focus on the jungle, but the story of the game was the performance of the solo lanes. Afreeca (2-2, 6-6 match record) had a great start with two kills on bbq top laner Kim "Crazy" Jae-hee's Kennen in the first three minutes of the game. This led to a massive snowball as the game progressed, with the pressure in top lane allowing mid laner Lee "KurO" Seo-haeng's Syndra to have his time in the mid lane. Picking up his 1,000th kill over the course of his 4/0/0 performance, Afreeca used its leads in both the mid and top lanes to grab the sole Baron of the game. The buff was the final piece of the puzzle that Afreeca needed to put together the perfect Game 1 win, not giving up a single objective or kill in the 26-minute stomp.
In stark contrast to the lightning fast victory in Game 1, Afreeca was slow coming out the gate in the second game of the set. Drafting a composition that needed time to scale, Afreeca needed to stall the game long enough to come online. The only problem was that, on the way to that point, bbq (0-3, 2-6 match record) completely dominated the map. The Olivers controlled objectives with extreme vigor and took teamfights with ease well into the late-game. Afreeca tried to take some late fights to turn the game around, but bbq had already knocked down all 11 turrets, putting the game on a razor's edge. AD carry Jang "Ghost" Yong-jun and his Xayah were perfect in every teamfight on his way to a flawless 4/0/12 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) as bbq finally locked up a marathon 56-minute win to force Game 3.
Spurned by the rough loss in Game 2, Afreeca bounced back with a commanding, if slow, victory in the final game. Afreeca opened Game 3 with a kill and Rift Herald secure 12 minutes in for an early lead. Despite the strong start, bbq stayed close behind Afreeca in gold, but shot itself in the foot when it forced a fight 21 minutes in after Afreeca had secured the Baron. Afreeca easily dominated the fight and took a big lead from then on out, methodically chipping away at bbq's defenses. It may have taken another 18 minutes, but the end result was never in doubt in this 39-minute Afreeca victory to secure the series.
Bbq Olivers will be back in action on Sunday at 4 a.m. ET to take on the ROX Tigers, while Afreeca will hit the stage next Thursday at 4 a.m. ET to also face ROX.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a complete trouncing of a series, SK Telecom T1 ran right through Ever8 Winners on Saturday in a 2-0 sweep in Seoul, South Korea to close out Day 4 of Week 2 in League of Legends Champions Korea.
SKT decided to switch things up in this series by starting top laner Ui "Untara" Jin-Park in place of Seung "Huni" Hoon Heo and jungler Kang "Blank" Sun-gu in for Han "Peanut Wang-ho. The switch seemed questionable at first, as Untara's Rumble got taken down in an early gank for first blood. But that proved to be the only death for Untara in the game, as action slowed to a glacial pace before SKT (3-1, 6-3 match record) found its groove.
With almost 20 minutes of no bloodshed, Ever8 (1-3, 3-6 match record) did its best to stall the game and prevent SKT from getting any major objectives. It was only a matter of time, though, beforel the defending World Champions secured both the Elder Dragon and Baron late in the game, using the buffs to easily wrap up the 42-minute win.
While Game 1 didn't do much to satiate the anticipation of the vaunted mid lane matchup between Ever8 rookie Park "Cepted" Wi-Rim and SKT legend Lee "Faker" Seong-hyuk, Game 2 featured plenty of action between the two. Faker's Cassiopeia, with plenty of help from Blank's Lee Sin, took complete control over the mid lane from the very start of the game, shutting Cepted down almost immediately; both Blank and Faker each had two kills on Cepted before 10 minutes had passed.
At that point in the game, it was essentially over for Ever8 as SKT bullied the LCK newcomers across the map. Blank and Faker were quite the duo in the game, putting together an 11/1/5 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) between the two of them as SKT was unstoppable as it steamrolled its way to a lightning fast 22-minute win.
Ever8 will try to rebound from the stomping with a matchup against bbq Olivers on Wednesday at 7 a.m. ET, while SKT looks to continue this momentum against MVP Wednesday at 4 a.m. ET.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ROX Tigers opened up the final day of Week 2 in League of Legends Champions Korea with a dominating 2-0 sweep over bbq Olivers on Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.
Game 1 saw both ROX Tigers and bbq Olivers focus on teamfighting with its respective team compositions, highlighted by ROX top laner Heo "Lindarang" Man-heung taking Kled to synergize well with ROX mid laner Son "Mickey" Young-min's Galio pick. The game was an even affair early on with neither team finding a sizeable lead. The teams traded some after the 15-minute mark, but bbq edged ahead by taking down Mountain Drake and forcing a teamfight near the 19-minute mark. ROX wrestled the lead back by finding two kills during a Baron rush to pick up the buff and start to pull ahead in gold. After knocking down three towers and gaining map pressure, ROX stalled and prevented bbq from gaining much gold. At the 30-minute mark, ROX took down another Baron after a fantastic bait in the mid lane by Mickey's tanky Galio. ROX used the buff to quickly move into the bbq base to lock up the Game 1 win.
While bbq banned Galio to try and keep Mickey in check, the ROX mid laner simply picked Taliyah and got to work once again while Lindarang was given Kled for the second game in a row. This wasn't a problem early on, with the teams playing a passive and calm early game. However, once the mid game hit, bbq had no answers for the two solo laners. ROX continued to pick up towers as the game progressed, maintaining a decent lead before its teamfight composition really started doing damage. While the solo laners added in plenty of damage on their own right, it was AD carry Gwon "Sangyoon" Sang-yun's Caitlyn that was the dominant terror in the game. He ended with a perfect 6/0/4 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) as ROX laid waste to bbq in 30 short minutes to lock up the sweep.
ROX will get right back into the swing of things on Tuesday to take on Longzhu Gaming at 7 a.m. ET, while bbq will face Ever8 Winners on Wednesday at 7 a.m. ET.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
KT Rolster continued its strong start to the summer split in League of Legends Champions Korea with a 2-0 sweep of MVP on Sunday to close out Week 2 in Seoul, South Korea.
KT (3-1, 6-4 match record) had a solid draft in Game 1 that included the strong picks of Galio for mid laner Heo "PawN" Won-seok and Rumble for top laner Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho. These picks ended up being the difference makers for KT, as the two bullied their respective lane opponents into submission to give KT a sizable early lead. While the early game was a bit slow, with both teams having just one kill in the first 10 minutes, KT eventually snowballed, dominating teamfight after teamfight as the game progressed. Smeb landed huge Equalizers to set up his teammates in fights, which also allowed jungler Go "Score" Dong-bin to run rampant with his Kha'Zix to the tune of a 6/0/5 KDA (kills/deaths/assists). With so many options in teamfights, KT easily rode the wave to a 27-minute victory.
MVP (1-3, 2-7 match record) tried to give itself an advantage by banning out the champions that KT used to dominate Game 1, including Rumble and Galio, while also grabbing a power pick of its own in the form of Zac for jungler Kim "Beyond" Kyu-suk. While Zac has been accepted universally as an S-tier champion around the world this split, Beyond never got off the ground in this game. His initiations were poor, often landing on low priority members of KT such as support Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong's Thresh instead of high priority targets like PawN and Smeb, allowing KT to win fights with ease. Even a mid game Baron by MVP couldn't bring it back in the game, with KT immediately cleaning up a teamfight to nullify the buff. KT continued to move well around the map for the rest of the game, allowing mid laner PawN's Viktor to teamfight his way to an MVP-earning 7/2/7 KDA. All KT needed was a Baron and Elder Dragon in the late game, and it easily grabbed the 40-minute win to put a bow on the series sweep.
KT won't have much time to bask in this victory with a matchup against the Jin Air Green Wings on Tuesday at 4 a.m. ET, while MVP has a date with the World Champions in SK Telecom T1 on Wednesday at 4 a.m. ET.
