SK Telecom T1 kept their playoff dreams alive with a surprising 2-1 upset victory over Gen.G earlier today.
Since their benching of star mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok eight days ago, SKT have gone undefeated in their last three matches. But these wins came with a tinge of skepticism from fans and pundits alike. Although SKT’s macro looked improved with the introduction of mid laner Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik to the starting lineup, SKT’s strength of schedule was quite weak—two of their three wins came against teams at the bottom of the standings.
But today, against the LCK’s second-best team in Gen.G, this iteration of SKT finally had the chance to prove that they’re indeed playoff contenders.
Throughout today’s three-game series, SKT displayed a strong understanding of how to play the early game. SKT consistently overpowered Gen.G during the laning phase through their early macro. Whether it was ganks from SKT jungler Kang “Blank” Sun-gu or Pirean’s bot lane roams, SKT seemed to always have the edge over Gen.G. And this edge gave SKT control of both the Elemental Drakes and the Rift Herald.
Problems arose for SKT, though, during the mid game. Although SKT were able to cleanly close out game one with their initial lead, they struggled to recreate that success for the rest of the series.
SKT faltered when it came to mid-game decision making, falling to traps set by Gen.G. These mid-game mistakes allowed Gen.G to take the Elder Drake and make their game two comeback.
Although they won game three, SKT’s problems were still present. But thankfully for SKT, Gen.G had their own macro problems, which prevented them from taking control of this game. And in League of Legends, whenever both teams struggle with rotational play, there’s only one thing left to do—fight.
With this in mind, it was fitting that today’s match culminated in one late-game Baron fight where SKT came out ahead. And with this Baron fight taking place at just under 40 minutes, SKT had enough time to simply end the game before Gen.G’s players resurrected.
Now with an 8-7 match record, SKT will continue their run for playoffs on Aug. 1 when they take on Afreeca Freecs.
