Griffin continued their LCK ascent earlier today with a decisive 2-0 victory against the league’s second place team, Afreeca Freecs.
Away from the LCK stage for the past week due to the league’s break for Rift Rivals, Griffin’s return was met with steep competition. Ranked just under Griffin in the LCK standings at second, Afreeca had just come back from back from a disappointing Rift Rivals defeat and were hungry to win.
Afreeca’s hunger was clearly visible through their game one drafting, where they targeted Griffin’s reliable support, Son “Lehends” Si-woo. With his three staple picks of Shen, Morgana, and Alistar all taken away from him, Lehends was forced to reveal his secret weapon—Pyke.
Having Griffin AD carry Park “Viper” Do-hyeon on the safe farming Vladimir, Lehends was free to wreak havoc across the map through roaming. Lehends early ganks propelled Griffin to a major gold and objective lead, which the first place team only furthered as the game progresses.
Afreeca could not overcome the teamfighting prowess of Griffin’s fed players, who seemed to easily pull off difficult plays like multi-man Gnar ultimates with ease. If Afreeca ever survived Griffin initial assault, Lehends would come from the shadows to execute them with Pyke’s death from below.
Unable to secure any early leads in game two, Griffin faced a much harder battle. Griffin drafted an even harder composition to execute in game two with Yasuo mid lane, and were rightly punished by Afreeca. Griffin continued to fall further behind Afreeca in map vision and pressure, which forced them to gave up the Baron.
But in Griffin fashion, the young upstarts made their comeback with a flashy teamfight win against a Baron empowered Afreeca. From this single teamfight victory, they were able to completely turn the game around and close out the match with yet another 2-0 victory.
Griffin’s next match will be against Gen.G on July 13.
