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SK Telecom T1 found a crucial win against KSV Esports to keep their playoff hopes alive on the final day of week eight in the 2018 LCK Spring Split.
During this LCK split, fans saw SKT experiment more than ever before. Unable to recreate their past successes, SKT reinvented themselves with the help of rookie jungler Park “Blossom” Beom-chan. With Blossom’s presence on Summoner’s Rift, SKT became a more aggressive team—they were reckless at times, but could still instigate early skirmishes when needed.
Today, however, SKT returned to their original starting lineup from the beginning of the split with jungler Kang “Blank” Sun-gu, and support Lee “Effort” Sang-ho. And with the return of this iteration of players, a nostalgic version a SKT reappeared—a version of SKT that excelled in rotational macro play.
In game one, SKT held a stranglehold over KSV from start to finish. SKT’s better play around objectives earned them four Elemental Drakes, including two early Infernal Drakes, which gave SKT the edge over KSV in the following teamfights.
KSV’s only saving grace came from their top laner, Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin, who got the better of SKT top laner Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk. But CuVee’s lead was soon diminished once SKT took the Baron, and decided to mount their push from the bot lane—the place where CuVee conducted his splitpush.
In game two, fans witnessed the quintessential SKT game of old—lose early, but win late. KSV, led by CuVee who picked up a solo kill onto Thal early in game two, found various picks around the map, which led to an early gold lead. With this lead, KSV got the first Elemental Drake, and the match started to shape into a reverse of game one in favor of KSV.
But that all changed when SKT caught KSV mid laner Lee “Crown” Min-ho overextended in the bot lane. This catch led to a victorious teamfight for SKT, which evened out both the kill and gold differential.
From here, SKT took back control of the match with another beautifully played teamfight almost 10 minutes later. And since this fight occurred right around the Baron pit, SKT were free to grab the buff, then immediately close out the game.
Moving one step closer to the playoffs, SKT will face MVP and Kongdoo Monster during the ninth and final week of the LCK Spring Split. SKT’s first match next week against MVP is set for March 22.
