Griffin are now only one best-of-five win away from earning the LCK Summer Split title after their incredible semifinal victory over Afreeca Freecs earlier today.
Not too long ago, Griffin were in OGN’s e-Stadium at the end of April following their first-place win in the summer promotion tournament. As the LCK’s newest team, Griffin made very confident comments on their future performance in the Summer Split during their post-match interview. Griffin claimed they were unafraid of their competition, and their coach assured viewers that they weren’t joining the league simply to produce mediocre results.
Four months later, Griffin’s entire starting lineup will once again assemble at the front of the e-Stadium’s center stage. The LCK rookies just beat Afreeca to qualify for the Summer Split finals. Although they took down Afreeca, the match itself was far from easy.
Afreeca and Griffin’s best-of-five playoff bout went the distance, with Griffin winning 3-2. But throughout the series there were many moments where Afreeca looked like they had the edge over Griffin.
Afreeca seemed to have figured out how to manipulate Griffin’s early-game weakness, drafting stronger early-game compositions following their game one loss—and these compositions helped Afreeca win games two and three.
Afreeca tried to return to scaling champions in game four, but they quickly learned that this was a mistake. Griffin found the early lead this time and held onto it until they took down Afreeca’s Nexus, tying the series up 2-2.
In the final game of the series, both Griffin and Afreeca crafted similar compositions featuring AD carries bot lane and mid mages. And with this parity in champions came an intense back-and-forth game that extended past 40 minutes.
The person who decided the series was Griffin’s mid laner and the LCK’s youngest player, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon. The 17-year-old seized Griffin’s victory with an unbelievable four-man Orianna shockwave at the Baron pit. Chovy’s ultimate sealed the fate of three of the five Afreeca players. And with death timers at a minute, Griffin had enough time to simply end the game.
Griffin have wholeheartedly backed up their promotion tournament remarks since they’re now headed to the LCK finals. They have the chance to make history as the first rookie team to win an LCK title. Griffin’s roster of rookies will try to claim their first LCK title on Sept. 8 when they face KT Rolster in the finals.
