In a hardfought clobbering of a series, Samsung Galaxy stayed on top of the League of Legends Champions Korea with a 2-1 win over Longzhu Gaming on Wednesday to kick off Week 5, Day 2 in Seoul, South Korea.
Longzhu Gaming (6-3, 14-8 match record) set the pace early on in Game 1 with its pick composition, camping Samsung mid laner Lee "Crown" Min-ho's Viktor to put jungler Moon "Cuzz" Woo-chan's Lee Sin and mid laner Kwak "Bdd" Bo-seong's Orianna ahead. Repeatedly bullying Crown, who died four times by the 13-minute mark, Longzhu had complete control of the map, knocking down towers after picks to cultivate a 6,500-gold lead at 22 minutes. Longzhu struggled to punch into Samsung's base despite a 27-minute Baron kill, but Longzhu's objective control eventually overwhelmed Samsung's passive siege composition. With four dragons and a second Baron kill at 33 minutes, Longzhu was supercharged as Cuzz started a final 4-for-1 fight, en route to a 6/2/4 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) and locked down a 37-minute Game 1 win.
While Game 1 was rough for Samsung Galaxy (8-1, 17-6 match record), it had a better start in Game 2, with top laner Lee "CuVee" Seong-jin's Gnar hitting a solid midgame spike to give Samsung a definitive lead. Longzhu tried to pull ahead with a 24-minute Baron, but Samsung took the ensuing teamfight 4-for-2, setting its late game splitpushing/teamfighting composition up for a 5-for-1 ace at 29 minutes. With a charged Elder Dragon at 36 minutes, Samsung looked to close out the game, but a series of heroics from Bdd and company stalled the game out. Taking a 5-for-0 ace while its Nexus fell to under 500 health, Longzhu was unable to leave its base for fear of a backdoor, allowing Samsung to secure a second Elder Dragon and back-to-back Baron kills before finally finishing out the longest win of the Summer Split in just under 57 minutes.
Samsung returned to a siege composition for Game 3, while Longzhu went all-in with a risky all-AD, 1-3-1 splitpushing composition with practically no waveclear. Samsung was done getting outshone in the early game, though, as CuVee's Camille picked up an assist during a three-minute gank before nabbing a solo kill a few minutes later. Samsung opted to camp the top lane while Longzhu camped mid, with Samsung getting the better of that exchange by a mile. CuVee was an unstoppable splitpusher for Samsung, fearlessly diving multiple turrets to take out Longzhu's squishy waveclear and allowing Samsung to rack up a 5,000-gold lead by 23 minutes. Taking a 3-for-0 teamfight and a 28-minute Baron kill, Samsung looked unstoppable as it flooded into Longzhu's base, where CuVee put the finishing touches on a 5/2/2 KDA in a 31-minute Samsung win to stay in first place.
Longzhu Gaming looks to recover on Saturday when it faces Afreeca Freecs at 4 a.m. ET, while Samsung Galaxy will face Jin Air Green Wings at 7 a.m. ET on Saturday.