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SK Telecom T1 blitzed through a 3-0 sweep over Samsung Galaxy on Tuesday in the second round of the League of Legends Champions Korea playoffs in Seoul, South Korea.
Considering this series was a rematch of the 2016 World Championship grand final, fans were certainly expecting a close matchup between SKT and Samsung. Instead, fans witnessed SKT dismantling and embarrassing Samsung. Despite going through a streak of eight consecutive game losses earlier in the regular season, SKT looks back on track and ready to tear through these playoffs.
Throughout the entire series, there was a grave sense of hopelessness hanging over the heads of Samsung. Going into each game, it never seemed to win a single draft phase, with SKT drafting superior compositions each time. It's not even that Samsung necessarily drafted poor compositions itself, but, rather, it left up several strong champions for SKT to do major damage with.
Not only did it give SKT AD carry Bae "Bang" Jun-sik the overpowered Caitlyn in Game 1, it then gave him Kalista for the final two games, as well. Picking up an 8/1/5 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) in Game 2 should have been enough for Samsung to ban away the champion, but it chose not to, so Bang again ran rampant with a 7/0/2 KDA to close out the series.
Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok also controlled the mid lane from start to finish. He finished with an incredible 12/6/13 KDA in the series, including a 9/1/2 showing in Game 1 on Lucian. Game 1 was particularly awe-inspiring from Faker, who solo killed Samsung mid laner Lee "Crown" Min-ho a few times to take over the game. With Faker playing this well, SKT looked more dangerous than ever.
This series was important for SKT's quest to qualify for Worlds, especially considering the manner in which it won. Game 1 was a true slow burn, during which SKT found advantages in every lane throughout the early and mid game before exploding with one crucial teamfight win in the late game to lock up the win. In stark contrast, Game 2 saw SKT execute a methodical comeback victory in which it simply outmuscled Samsung in a few late game fights that led to a grueling 49-minute win.
With Samsung's will seemingly broken by Game 3, even switching out three members of its team did little to improve Samsung's chances. The only memorable part of Game 3 was a brief pause due to a "toilet issue" from top laner Lee "CuVee" Seong-jin, as Samsung couldn't stop the SKT onslaught in the 32-minute series-clinching win.
With the win, SKT moves on to the semifinals where it will face KT Rolster in one of the most significant iterations of the Telecom Wars to date, Saturday at 4 a.m. ET. The winner of that match will face Longzhu Gaming next Saturday in the grand finals.