The 2016 League of Legends World Championship concluded over the weekend at the Staples Center in Los Angeles after a fascinating month of action between the top teams in the world as they crisscrossed the USA playing games in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and finally LA.
SK Telecom reigns supreme
SK Telecom T1 won their third championship in four years by defeating Samsung Galaxy in an incredibly close and well-fought five game series. It was by any evaluation SKT’s most difficult run to the championship to date as they dropped at least one game in every round they played. However, every member played their part in making this team not just a great outfit, but also a champion one.
Duke
The up and down Top laner showed his true colours as the tournament progressed. Primarily focusing on tanks such as Poppy, Trundle and Gnar, Duke was able to provide consistent pressure in the 1v1 to give SKT a major advantage in the late game. Duke may not have had the flashy moments and big plays, but there’s something to be said for someone who doesn’t cost your team the win, who plays the champions required to get the victory, and is willing to be just a cog in a well-oiled machine.
Bengi
Perceived as the weak link heading into the Championship, and rightly so, Bengi effectively reclaimed the starting position during the Semifinals when he went 3-0 against the ROX Tigers and followed that up by going 3-1 against Samsung in the Finals. SKT played around Bengi’s champion pool, with consistent target bans to the enemy Jungler (including Nidalee on blue side) to allow Bengi a quality match-up. Bengi may not have the mechanical prowess that other Junglers have, but his ability to adapt on the fly and his understanding of Faker’s play style allowed him to rotate around the map appropriately in order to assist the team to victory.
Faker
The MVP of the tournament, and deservedly so, Faker showed why he has been touted as the best player in the world for four consecutive years. Faker showed only a couple of deficiencies all tournament long; namely getting caught out late in the game (specifically against Samsung while playing Orianna) alongside an inability or unwillingness to play Aurelion Sol.
Faker was the superstar SKT needed, always winning his lane by a combination of CS (minions killed), killing the enemy opponent by himself, and taking the first turret for his team. Faker’s Orianna was an absolute monster in the Finals, solo killing Samsung’s AD Carry Ruler and immediately granting his team the teamfight victory. While many observers had recently viewed ROX’s Top laner Smeb as the best player in the world, in the end Faker showed the poise and brilliance of someone who has done this before. The now three-time champion reasserted himself as the best, not only of Season 6, but also as the greatest player to ever play League of Legends.
Bang/Wolf
Together ADC Bang and Support Wolf were pillars for SKT to base their games around. Even after some tough games against ROX, both Bang and Wolf bounced back with stellar performances against Samsung. Bang in particular stood out as the secondary Carry to Faker, applying the perfect complement of additional damage that could follow up on the separation and havoc that Faker created. While many will get lost in the brilliance of Faker, look to Bang and Wolf as the reasons why Faker could play so aggressively as he knew he had them waiting in the wings to follow him whenever he might need them.
Critical coaching part of the package
kkOma
Last, but certainly not least, SKT’s coach KkOma continued to be a major contributing factor to their ongoing success. KkOma has been with the team for years now, always with a mastery of the pick and ban phase along with pre-game motivation that his team relies on. Even when KkOma makes a mistake – for example when Bengi was forced to play Nidalee for the first time ever in the Semifinals – it somehow works in the team’s favour after an injection of confidence from him. KkOma may not be on the rift, but his influence in every single game SKT have played cannot be understated.
While not as outstanding as their classic Season 3 team, a second consecutive title for SKT reasserted their dominance in League of Legends and it will be a tough ask for their competitors to stop them from winning another title next year.
