After a 10-week long regular season in the 2017 LCK Spring Split, reigning World Champions SK Telecom T1 sit atop the standings at 16-2 and head to the Spring Playoffs as one of the five teams to qualify.
SKT are joined there by the only four other teams to post a winning record in the regular season. Samsung Galaxy, KT Rolster, afreeca Freecs and MVP were second through fifth respectively and will participate in the King of the Hill single elimination bracket for the right to take part in the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational.
SKT go seven deep
The most interesting dynamic thus far this season for SKT has been their willingness to play both of their subs; Top laner Profit and Jungler Blank. While Profit tends to play at fairly random times, Blank has been used almost exclusively to replace starting Jungler Peanut following a defeat.
Just this past week SKT played against ROX Tigers in a three-game series. In the opening match SKT, with Huni and Peanut starting, dominated from the very beginning, winning with an 18-5 kill score in just over 32 minutes. In an almost complete 180 ROX Tigers then defeated SKT in the second game with a 20-5 scoreline in the same 32 minutes.
Afterwards coach KkOma substituted in Blank for Peanut, and SK Telecom returned to their winning ways. ROX blind picked Twisted Fate for Mickey, a decision that was immediately viewed with skepticism. While Mickey is the best performing player on the ROX roster, the burden of playing a poor match-up into Faker was too much to ask. SKT took command early and controlled the pace of the game, focusing on 5v5 team fights to combat the pick composition ROX had drafted. The gamble on Mickey did not pay off as he finished with one kill and eight deaths as SKT took the victory on 38 minutes with an overall kill score of 24-10.
The dynamic of seven quality starting players adds another layer of dominance to SKT as having the flexibility of multiple players makes it that much harder for an opponent to game plan against them.
Samsung Galaxy stay strong
The second seed is surprisingly not super team KT Rolster (who claimed third), but instead World Championship runners-up Samsung Galaxy. After only adding a substitute player in the off season, many expected Samsung to regress after their incredible run in last year’s World Championship. However, that substitute player would make all the difference, as Haru has seized the starting Jungler position with his incredible play all split long. Samsung have been on an incredible run of late, with their last series loss coming back on 8 March to afreeca.
While Haru has performed better than the team could ever have imagined, Mid laner Crown is the driving force. Winner of the MVP this split, Crown has consistently displayed excellence throughout, and he is the main pillar upon which Samsung are built.
Longzhu Gaming miss out
One of the largest disappointments this split has been Longzhu Gaming, with this past week’s match against Kongdoo Monster summing up their season. Kongdoo had nothing to play for, knowing they were relegated regardless of the outcome. For Longzhu, however, a slight playoff chance remained, but they needed to defeat the bottom side 2-0.
In an incredibly shocking turn of events, Kongdoo absolutely thrashed Longzhu in Game One with a kill score of 18-1. The second game was more to form and in line with series expectations as Longzhu dominated from the get-go. In control all game long, Longzhu crushed Kongdoo 17-6 in 32 minutes.
In Game Three Kongdoo Monster made a drastic comeback in the most unlikely manner. Longzhu were up 4000 gold after 28 minutes and, after catching out and killing two Kongdoo Monster members, turned for the baron. In one of the strangest plays of the season, Kongdoo’s Support GuGer stole the baron with a Nami bubble, giving them an incredible swing in gold.
With this new-found momentum Kongdoo secured the following baron seven minutes later, paired it with the elder dragon buff and pushed for the win on 41 minutes. This all but summed up the year for Longzhu, showing their inability to remain consistent even in a series against the bottom placed team.
