The story of the year so far in the LCK has been the rapid rise of Griffin. In just over a month, they went from the promotion tournament to first place in the league with a nearly undefeated record. They even gave their players a massive bonus as a reward for their unexpected results.
But on Tuesday morning, their progress was halted temporarily by the Afreeca Freecs. Afreeca came into the second half of the split in a desperate situation, coming off a loss to KT Rolster and in danger of missing the playoffs after making the finals last split. They couldn’t afford many more losses, even against good teams like Griffin.
Afreeca’s desperation showed in the first game where the absolutely dismantled Griffin’s funnel comp, which was built around Lucian.
The Freecs won both side lanes, with ADC Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram even picking up First Blood in a one-vs-two outplay in the bot lane. They had jungler Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon on Kindred, a champion they picked before they knew the funnel was coming. Spirit got a bevy of early marks because Griffin could not contest the jungle.
With total vision control, the Freecs picked up the Rift Herald right after it spawned and ran it down mid. It was very nearly the perfect game against the funnel, a stolen Baron the only real blemish.
Griffin came right back with nearly the same funnel comp, with Shen replacing the bot lane Swain being the only difference. On blue side, they banned Rakan, Tahm Kench, and Darius, allowing the Freecs to again get the Kindred that was so key for them in the game one victory.
The Kindred again got out of control. The Freecs set up a nice four-person dive in the bot lane, taking advantage of support Park “TusiN” Jong-ik’s stopwatch to juggle turret aggro perfectly. Griffin did get a mid turret from that exchange, and Park “Viper” Do-hyeon, playing the Lucian, was able to build a greater farm lead in game two.
But they just couldn’t stop the Kindred. Even when his teammates were caught out of position, Spirit got there fast enough to save the day and shut down Griffin. He and TusiN played absolutely beautifully to smash Griffin.
With the win, the Freecs surged to seven wins, one above both Hanwha Life Esports and KT—though both teams can still equalize later this week. With just five playoff spots and SKT lurking below them, every win counts from now until the end of the season.
