With this win over bottom-dwellers Afreeca Freecs, Nongshim RedForce has put themselves in pole position to claim the last remaining LCK playoffs spot.
Neither of the two games was particularly easy for the squad, however, but thanks to some heroic play from their bottom and top lanes, NS was able to come away with the all-important series win.
The MVP votes were picked up today by Deokdam and Rich. Both players performed superbly today, and were able to skill check their lane opponents in order to gain early advantages for their team.
Rich finished both games with higher kill participation and gold per minute stats than his struggling top lane opponent Kiin. Particularly on his Aatrox game, Rich was able to brute force his way out of lane and across the map to create advantages for his team.
At one point, he was so incredibly fed that he was able to take on four enemy champions simultaneously, almost securing an early back door win for his team if it weren’t for a pesky respawning inhibitor.
The second game in the series was a little bit less of a contest. The prematch excitement of AF’s mid laner picking Veigar shortly died after it wasn’t able to leave much of an impression on the early game. With Deokdam exploiting the skill gap between the two bot lanes and putting on an absolute clinic with his much beloved Tristana pick, NS quickly closed out the series.
After today’s win, NS have put themselves in an almost unreachable position in the race for the last playoffs spot. Coming into the match the team had the highest percentage of likelihood of making playoffs, and now the team must be feeling pretty certain of the organization’s first playoffs berth.
NS will play against Fredit Brion and KT Rolster in their finals two matches of the Spring Split next week, two teams below them in the current standings.
