KT Rolster 1, Hanwha Life 0
KT Rolster dominated Hanwha Life Esports on Tuesday, picking up a 2-0 win as KT Rolster approaches the end of the League of Legends Champions Korea regular season with its eyes on a top-3 finish.
If there's one thing KT Rolster's score (12-5) indicates, it's that KT has been on fire during the second half of the Summer Split. Overwhelming opponents with mechanical skill and superior macro awareness, KT Rolster quickly rose to prominence, peaking at the right time in the season. Special credit must go to top laner Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho, who dominated Game 1 as AP Kennen with a beautiful five-man Slicing Maelstrom to set up a KT teamfight win to seal the match, but all of KT played well in this game. Against a team like Hanwha Life which, despite its many faults in this game, is in position to qualify for the postseason, KT Rolster looked unstoppable, predicting Hanwha's every move with ease. With just one more game to go for KT Rolster and a chance to finish with a 13-5 record alongside Griffin and Gen.G, it's officially time for KT Rolster fans to get excited about KT.
For what it's worth, Hanwha Life (10-8) tried its best to win this uphill battle. Sure, its normal tricks failed to work against a team as disciplined and talented as KT, but it still managed to keep somewhat cool in the face of jaw-dropping destruction coming out of KT Rolster. Across the board, Hanwha players were struggling against their KT counterparts, ensuring that despite any good jungler Yoon "SeongHwan" Seong-hwan did in the early game was undid by the time the mid game rolled around. Even talented Kim "Lava" Tae-hoon couldn't stand up to KT's Son "Ucal" Woo-hyeon, all but ensuring that HLE had run out of win conditions very early in the series. Still, HLE is better than the teams below it in the standings and is in good position to earn a postseason appearance, however brief it might end up being.
Hanwha Life is now done until the postseason, if it holds on to its playoff spot, while KT Rolster will close out the Summer Split regular season against MVP at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Gen.G 1, MVP 0
Gen.G finished its League of Legends Champions Korea Summer Split regular season on Tuesday with a commanding 2-0 win over MVP in Seoul.
After a less-than-stellar Spring Split saw Gen.G (13-5) struggle, the Summer Split has been nothing short of greatness from the defending World Champions. Gen.G's playstyle of throttling the pace of the game might be deceptive in that Gen.G rarely dominates opponents by flexing on them mechanically, but it should come as no surprise that this Gen.G squad handily beat MVP (4-13). Smothering objective control throughout the series, including a masterclass in Game 1 where Gen.G took 10 towers to MVP's two while taking all four Drakes, was the weapon of choice for Gen.G. What's more, Gen.G effectively ran the same crowd control-loaded team composition in both games, revealing nothing to teams that will have to cross Gen.G's path later in the postseason. If this game was any indication, Gen.G is a force to be reckoned with at the top of the standings, locking in a top-2 finish with a chance of grabbing the No. 1 seed, depending on how Griffin does on Wednesday.
On the other side of this one-sided stomp sits MVP, which simply couldn't seem to do anything right. Misguided drafts that played right into Gen.G's win conditions, sloppy execution in skirmishes and teamfights, failing to play a cohesive macro game in any sense, and having no set gameplan apart from camping the bottom lane were just a few of the problems MVP had this series. At the end of the day, it's hard to be an MVP fan when, at the very end of its 2018 LCK campaign, the team looks shaky and can't force Gen.G to try harder on stage than it would in scrims.
Gen.G will now wait until the playoff gauntlet to next take to the Rift, while MVP gets to try and avoid getting embarrassed in its Season 8 finale against KT Rolster at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday.