SK Telecom T1 have trounced Hanwha Life in less than one hour on their first LCK game back after Rift Rivals. Lee “Effort” Sang-ho stepped in over Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong in the convincing 2-0 sweep, and SKT looked all the better for it.
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok continued his Rift Rivals form in game one against Kim “Lava” Tae-hoon with a solid 3/0/5 performance on LeBlanc. While Hanwha Life had the early objective control with Olaf and Galio, they tried for one objective too many at the Rift Herald 12 minutes in.
SKT had hit their first power spikes on Park “Teddy” Jin-seong’s Sivir and Kim “Khan” Dong-ha’s Aatrox and ran over Hanwha Life while contesting the Herald. Hanwha Life weren’t able to secure the buff and lost four of their members for it as the game spiraled out of control.
Hanwha Life tried to get themselves back into it with a desperation Baron at 23 minutes. As the health inched lower, Kim “Clid” Tae-min jumped into the pit as Jarvan IV and stole it away, with the rest of SKT acing the struggling Hanwha. SKT ran the minions into Hanwha’s base, finishing them off three minutes later.
After that game one clubbing, Hanwha Life looked demoralized in game two. SKT made their execution swift for Hanwha’s fans. In what was a mirror of game one’s macro decisions, Hanwha tried to contest the Rift Herald at 12 minutes, giving up first blood and taking home nothing.
Faker then styled on Lava’s Azir with a perfectly executed Akali assassination as Hanwha flailed around on the map. SKT were ahead on the rotations as Hanwha Life had no way to transition decent early games into leads in the mid game, and the veterans ran away with the series.
While Hanwha Life are hardly a title-contending team, this is a good sign for SKT. Having struggled in the first half of LCK Summer 2019, they have rebounded after Rift Rivals and are hitting their stride at the right time. Effort looked like a perfect fit for Teddy, and is cementing himself as the likely new starter for SKT down the line.
For Hanwha Life though, their Summer campaign is only going from bad to worse. As they are trying to escape the relegation zone, they need every match victory they can get. Falling over in this fashion will not instil much hope in fans about surviving Summer with many gaping holes in their play across the map.
SKT will face off against KT Rolster on July 12, while Hanwha Life have a must-win series against Gen.G on July 14.
