KT Rolster are now one best-of-three away from ending the regular split in first place after their absolute annihilation of Hanwha Life Esports.
Today’s match between Hanwha and KT held a ton of implications for playoffs. A win for Hanwha today meant them finally earning a spot in the post-season. KT on the other hand needed a 2-0 against Hanwha to continue their quest for first place.
Sadly for Hanwha though they not only lost to KT today, but they weren’t able to secure a single game win. Since Hanwha lost both games today, Afreeca Freecs simply have to beat the LCK’s eighth place team, Jin Air Green Wings, on Aug. 8 in order to to snatch away the final playoff spot from Hanwha.
Though today’s loss wasn’t all hopeless for Hanwha. Hanwha began the series on even footing with KT, trading kills and objectives. But like most losses in professional League of Legends, Hanwha’s downfall came at that one fateful setting in Summoner’s Rift—the Baron pit.
On his beloved Kennen pick, KT top laner Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho dropped a monstrous five-man slicing maelstrom onto Hanwha at Baron. Thanks to Smeb, KT found the play needed to take control of not only game one, but the entire series.
From Smeb’s heroic play onward, KT had Hanwha figured out. KT easily closed out game one, and brought their momentum into what would be one of the biggest stomps of the 2018 LCK season.
KT won all three lanes handily in game two, and had a complete read over Hanwha jungler Yoon “SeongHwan” Seong-hwan’s pathing. KT snowballed these leads such an extent that the game no longer resembled an LCK match, but solo-queue. By 24 minutes KT had accrued a 12,000 gold lead and were seemingly toying with Hanwha before finally ending the game.
With Hanwha now conquered, KT only have to beat MVP 2-0 on Aug. 9 to end the regular season in first place and be seeded directly into the playoff finals.
