Continuing from last week’s trend, week five of the LCK was filled with surprises in the form of upsets. KT Rolster lost to MVP. Afreeca Freecs lost to the bbq Olivers. Honestly, after seeing this week’s results across the different regions, I would definitely refrain from making any predictions for the foreseeable future. On the plus side, after five weeks of waiting, we will finally get to see the two Korean “super-teams” meet on the rift. Next week, SK Telecom T1 and KT Rolster will face one another in a battle for first place. But seeing as we’ll have to wait another week for that match, here’s this week’s LCK recap to hopefully tide you over.
MVP KO KT
In what seemed to be an extreme take on the “anything you can do, I can do better” ideology, KT Rolster managed to outdo rivals SK Telecom T1 by losing to an even worse team than the Afreeca Freecs. Jokes aside, this was an exceptional series for MVP. Realizing they couldn’t win team-fights, MVP abused KT’s poor map movement, catching out the overextending members of KT until they amassed a big enough gold lead to end the game. By the time KT were given a chance to team-fight, they were so far behind that even their amazing mechanics couldn’t make up for it.
Unlike SKT, who in their loss looked to have outplayed themselves, KT’s loss revealed an exploitable weakness in the form of poor communication and map movement. If KT wants to gain sole possession of first place next week, they’ll need to shore up this weakness or else they could see themselves with another 0-2 loss.
Longzhu Up, Afreeca Down
Coming off a spectacular win against SK Telecom T1, the Afreeca Freecs did the most “Afreeca Freecs” thing possible and lost their next two games against Longzhu Gaming and the bbq Olivers. While the loss to Longzhu is forgivable, Afreeca’s 2-0 loss to the bbq Olivers is a cause for concern, especially seeing as they are in seventh place, putting them out of playoff contention. Hopefully, Afreeca can address and possibly fix their inconsistency during this break.
Longzhu, on the other hand, is continuing to rise up the rankings. With their win over Afreeca last week, Longzhu is now third in the league. Being the first team in Korea to play Talon and now that their communication issues seem to be fixed, Longzhu has become a very interesting team to watch. In two weeks time, Longzhu will get their chance to hold sole possession of third place when they play Samsung Galaxy, a team they previously beat. If Longzhu beat Samsung, they’ll have the head-to-head record in case anything goes awry for them later in the split.
Weekly Results
MVP 2-0 KT Rolster
SK Telecom T1 2-1 Longzhu Gaming
Kongdoo Monster 2-1 Jin Air Green WIngs
bbq Olivers 2-0 Afreeca Freecs
SK Telecom T1 2-0 Samsung Galaxy
MVP 2-0 ROX Tigers
Longzhu Gaming 2-0 Afreeca Freecs
KT Rolster 2-0 Kongdoo Monster
Samsung Galaxy 2-0 Jin Air Green Wings
ROX Tigers 2-1 bbq Olivers
Current Standings
1 – KT Rolster (7-1)
1 – SK Telecom T1 (7-1)
3 – Longzhu Gaming (5-3)
4 – Samsung Galaxy (5-3)
5 – MVP (5-3)
6 – bbq Olivers (4-4)
7 – Afreeca Freecs (3-5)
8 – ROX Tigers (2-6)
9 – Jin Air Green Wings (1-7)
10 – Kongdoo Monster (1-7)
What was your favorite moment of week five? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting us @GAMURScom.
Article by Malcolm Abbas. Follow him on Twitter @SmashhLoL.
