Longzhu Gaming dismantled SK Telecom T1 earlier today to become the newest LCK champions.
Although they were the league’s No. 1 seed, Longzhu came into tonight’s final as the underdogs. With two rookies in their starting lineup, in addition to having never played a best-of-five, many LCK pundits doubted Longzhu. Their road to a championship title seemed difficult since Longzhu were going up against Spring Split champions SKT, who spent the past week impressively making their way through the playoff gauntlet. But Longzhu’s play in the finals proved otherwise.
Led by top laner Kim “Khan” Dong-ha’s spectacular play on both Jax and Jayce, Longzhu quickly pushed the best-of-five to match point. SKT, who hoped to farm until the mid game, were ill-equipped to handle Longzhu’s unbridled aggression.
Forcing plays all throughout the map, Longzhu amassed a ton of gold, most of which fell into the pockets of Khan. He snowballed out of control in games one and two, becoming a monster SKT simply couldn’t contend with. Even Kang “Blank” Sun-gu, who made his debut in game two, was unable to shutdown Khan’s Jayce.
One game away from total defeat, SKT brought out a secret weapon: former Fnatic and Immortals top laner, Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon.
SKT successfully drafted Gragas in the draft, which helped them make a surprising comeback in game three. Blank, in tandem with Huni and Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, shutdown Longzhu jungler Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan’s Zac. Longzhu were given no openings, and almost gave SKT the perfect game.
SKT felt confident after game three, but they returned to a scaling style by drafting a mid-to-late game composition, while Longzhu picked Jayce for Khan. And this proved to be a costly mistake.
Unsurprisingly, Khan once again snowballed out of control. Longzhu, who focused pressure to the top lane, made sure SKT couldn’t farm and scale. Without any time to build the proper resistances against Khan, SKT fell to Longzhu, and the organization suffered its first loss in an LCK final.
Now the LCK Summer Split champions, Longzhu join SK Telecom T1 as the second Korean team to qualify for the 2017 World Championship.
KT Rolster, Samsung Galaxy, Afreeca Freecs, and Jin Air Green Wings will compete against one another in next week’s regional qualifier to decide the final Korean team that will attend Worlds 2017. The regional qualifier is set to start on Aug. 28.
