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In a series with very little action, the ROX Tigers overcame bbq Olivers for a 2-1 victory on Thursday in Seoul, South Korea, to close out Week 9, Day 3 of League of Legends Champions Korea.
After a thrilling series between SK Telecom T1 (12-5, 24-14 match record) and KT Rolster (14-4, 31-16 match record), anything that followed was sure to be a letdown. This was especially true when the matchup that followed featured two teams at the bottom of the table. Despite a lack of hype, ROX (6-12, 17-27 match record) did have something at stake in this matchup: It could stave off relegation with a win over bbq (3-14, 12-30 match record).
While ROX did end up with the win, many of its season-long problems were on full display on Thursday, the biggest of which was the decision to go away from the hot hands on the roster. After defeating bbq soundly given the lack of action in Game 1, ROX decided to sub out top laner Heo "Lindarang" Man-heung, jungler Yoon "SeongHwan" Seong-hwan, and mid laner Kim "Lava" Tae-hoon for the trio of Park "Shy" Sang-myeon, Kim "Mightybear" Min-soo and Kim "Crow" Seon-gyu, respectively. With those three in place for the second game, ROX looked dazed and confused in a 30-minute loss that saw the team pick up just three kills to the 14 of bbq.
ROX went back to what worked in Game 1 and managed to stage a comeback win over bbq in the final game to lock up the series with a grueling 52-minute win.
Speaking of that comeback win for ROX in Game 3, it was the perfect example of why bbq is headed for the relegation tournament after a second straight lackluster split. It appears that bbq is simply unable to find win conditions with its team compositions. Even with a Baron and 11-to-3 kill advantage for a sizable lead at 30 minutes, bbq was unable to stop ROX from stalling the game until the late stages. Riding a lead to victory is something that bbq will need to get to work on in a hurry as it looks toward the relegation tournament to fight for its spot in the LCK.
ROX has now concluded its Summer Split, while bbq has one more outing against SK Telecom T1 on 7 a.m. ET on Sunday to close out the regular season.