Gen.G 2-0 SKT
Gen.G catapulted itself to the front of the pack when it crushed SK Telecom T1 in a brutal 2-0 series to close out Friday's League of Legends Champions Korea slate that left a number of lingering doubts concerning the three-time world champions.
It was yet another series that demonstrated that the bottom lane metagame isn't quite as topsy-turvy as it might appear, as both teams ran a marksman in both games. The Xayah and Rakan duo that Gen.G's Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk and Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in opted into looked just as good as it did before the disruptive 8.11 patch, proving that the marksman role may be in trouble, but is far from dead.
Bottom lane was not where this match was decided, however, as it was the junglers that made the greatest impact on the series, for better or worse. Both teams picked extremely aggressive jungle picks in Game 1, which left Park "Haru" Min-seung and Park "Blossom" Beom-chan with little option but to duke it out with their Xin Zhao and Rengar picks, respectively. As expected, it was the former who triumphed, which led to an easy victory for the side of Gen.G in Game 1, as SKT never quite found the opening to make a comeback.
Game 2 was where the gloves came off entirely, as SKT felt its back against the wall and answered by employing one of the most dreaded mid/jungle combinations in the current patch: Taric and Master Yi. Unfortunately, unlike the first time the duo was selected this season, it fell completely flat. Haru's Camille pick increased the tempo of the game so dramatically when paired up with Song "Fly" Young-jin's Braum that Blossom never found the opportunity to enjoy the free farm that Master Yi requires to get off the ground. Instead, Gen.G savaged SKT in a one-sided stomp that barely lasted more than 20 minutes.
Gen.G's next match is against Team MVP at 4 a.m. ET this Sunday. SKT's next chance to redeem itself will also be against Team MVP, whom it faces at 4 a.m. ET next Wednesday.
--James Bates
Kingzone DragonX 2-1 Jin Air Green Wings
Kingzone DragonX got its first victory of the 2018 League of Legends Champions Korea Summer Season early Friday morning when it earned a less than convincing 2-1 victory over the Jin Air Green Wings.
It was a series that was far more standard than most of those played in the LCK thus far, as the marksman role seemed alive and well over the course of the series, unlike in other matches played thus far. In fact, the Jin Air Green Wings (0-2) were the only team to field a nontraditional bottom lane during the entire series when it put Park "Teddy" Jin-sung on Ryze during Game 2, and their decision to do so was a large part of why they lost that game.
Instead, the matchup heavily revolved around the top side of the map, at least after the first game was out of the way. Game 1 saw Kingzone (1-1) try to make one of the "boosting duos" work in competitive -- this time a mixture of Graves jungle and Braum mid -- to lackluster results. Some smart map rotations by the Green Wings clipped Moon "Cuzz" Woo-chan's wings right as his disproportionate farm was starting to become worrisome and allowed the side to earn enough objective gold to trivialize Cuzz's early advantage. The next two games entirely revolved around Doctor Mundo in the top lane, with each team desperately trying to win the game before Mundo reached the point of immortality. Unfortunately for Jin Air, it lost both sides of that challenge, as Kim "Khan" Dong-ha proved simply too adept at playing both ends of the matchup and debuted a solo queue special of Darius to shut down the Mundo in Game 3, which was enough to wrap up the series.
Kingzone DragonX will go on to face KT Rolster as its next opponent at 4 a.m. ET next Tuesday, while the Jin Air Green Wings will next take on Hanwha Life Esports at 7 a.m. ET on Sunday.
--James Bates