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In the most unlikely result of the week, bottom-of-the-table MVP defeated League of Legends Champions Korea-leading Samsung Galaxy in a thrilling 2-1 series to start Week 7, Day 4 of the LCK Summer Split in Seoul, South Korea.
Entering the series with world championship potential, Samsung (11-3, 24-10 match record) unsurprisingly had command of Game 1 early on. That all went south, though, when Samsung AD Carry Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk's Varus was caught sieging a mid-lane outer turret, which allowed MVP (3-11, 7-24 match record) to take an early 23-minute Baron to move into the driver's seat.
Ruler was again caught out at the 40-minute mark to give MVP a window to crack all three inhibitors. Samsung tried to prolong the game, but after backing out to recover, MVP returned to a Samsung base that was completely overrun with super creeps. MVP's two tank composition and the added shielding and displacement power of Jeong "Max" Jong-bin's Janna had too much survivability for Samsung to overcome, and MVP took Game 1 in 47 minutes.
Samsung switched things up in Game 2 by bringing in the veteran jungler Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong in place of Park "Haru" Min-seung. Ambition had his work cut out for him as he was playing into MVP jungler Kim "Beyond" Kyu-suk's legacy pick of Amumu.
The game ended up being incredibly slow, with only two kills in total by 32 minutes. MVP looked to be in a good spot to take control over the game when Beyond landed a pinpoint ultimate, but when mid laner Ahn "Ian" Joon-hyung whiffed on Orianna's Command: Shockwave, Samsung had a window. Samsung flipped the fight on its head to take out four members of MVP, giving way to a Baron secure. The buff allowed Samsung to march into MVP's base, where Ruler's Twitch doled out damage in droves to shut down MVP for the 42-minute win.
After finding success running a more standard composition in Game 1, MVP opted to return to the meta for the series' final match. It was neck-and-neck once again, with the teams going into the late game separated by less than 1,500 gold.
In the end, it was the fights around the neutral objectives that ended up making the difference. MVP punished SSG for forcing an Ocean Drake take, acing its opponents and transitioning to the Baron. After remaining so close in score for so long, MVP had the first important advantage of the game and used its newly purchased items to methodically siege the Samsung base. Less than five minutes after the decisive teamfight around the dragon pit, MVP had taken an unthinkable series victory.
Samsung hopes to return to form when squaring off against the surging KT Rolster at 4 a.m. ET on Tuesday. Another win for MVP wouldn't be surprising, either: it faces bbq Olivers at 4 a.m. ET.