Afreeca Freecs went undefeated in their first week of the 2018 LCK Summer Split after a hard-fought victory against KT Rolster.
Tonight’s bout between Afreeca and KT was arguably the most competitive of the last seven days—at least on paper. As the second and third-place teams from the previous split, this matchup was a rematch of Spring Split semifinals.
Thankfully, tonight’s match lived up to expectations.
Afreeca began this series strong by easily shutting down KT’s Mordekaiser composition. Led by mid laner Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng’s Anivia, and with the help of a couple key dragon steals, Afreeca destroyed KT in teamfights. KT AD carry Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu was unable to fully make use of Mordekaiser’s ultimate—or do frankly any damage—since he was immediately focused by his opponents. Afreeca consistently prevented KT from employing their Mordekaiser-focused strategy by separating Deft from the rest of KT with the combination of crowd control from Kuro’s Anivia and Park “TusiN” Jong-ik’s Shen.
Despite this loss, KT once again drafted a Mordekaiser composition in game two—but with a couple alterations. With Anivia and Shen both banned, Afreeca were subject to Deft’s wrath. Afreeca’s more mid to late game draft was unable to withstand the early pressure exerted from Deft and KT, and quickly crumbled before the team’s Gangplank and Aatrox hit their respective power spikes.
KT carried this dominance into game three, where they secured a sizable lead through smart macro decisions. The game and match looked to be a KT victory until Afreeca found two unexpected picks onto KT’s carries. Afreeca then took back control of the series by securing the Baron thanks to their man advantage. Although Afreeca found great engages earlier in game three, they now had the firepower to capitalize on such teamfights. It wasn’t long after the Baron that Afreeca were now the ones breaking into KT’s base to destroy the Nexus and claim the series.
Both KT and Afreeca return to the LCK stage on June 19. KT will open the day with their match against Spring Split champions, KINGZONE DragonX, while Afreeca will play bbq Olivers in the following series.
