Sometimes it can be tough to be a League of Legends support. Unable to deal any notable damage, most of the time supports have to put their faith in their carries to win the game. Most of the time.
In their LCK rematch with KT Rolster earlier this week, MVP’s Jeong “Max” Jong-bin showed the world just how a support can carry a game—and on the professional level no less. From kills to steals, Max ran the full gambit against KT.
Drafting a pick comp, MVP’s objective in game one was to survive the laning phase, then use the mid game to find surprise kills with Ahri’s Charm coupled with Elise’s cocoon. Unfortunately for MVP, their plan didn’t work quite as expected.
Falling behind in every position except the top lane, MVP started the series out on the back foot. With Go “Score” Dong-bin’s proactive jungling alongside Heo “PawN” Won-seok’s amazing laning phase on Vladimir, KT held game one firmly. Even with the Baron they sneakily took at the 30 minute mark, MVP couldn’t seem to find an opening to comeback.
As the game looked just about over, Max launched a momentum swing for MVP with an unbelieveable Baron steal using Thresh’s death sentence. The play will Immediately going down as one best Baron steals ever to occur in professional play. And it immediately brought MVP back in the game when, just moments before, all looked lost.
Even with it, however, MVP couldn’t overcome the massive lead KT built over the past 40 minutes, and lost the game after the Baron wore off.
Despite a better laning phase, MVP found themselves in the same situation in game two by the time mid game hit. As players started to get caught out one-by-one while transitioning from the lane phase to teamfights, the scoreline started to balloon in favor of KT. With both Heo “PawN” Won-seok and Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu sufficiently fed, the game looked bleak. With MVP behind by 9,000 gold, this series looked like a wrap. But the tenacious Max wasn’t willing to let that happen.
One kill away from a pentakill—a feat no support has managed in the history of professional League of Legends—Max completely changed the flow of the game with an unbelievable quadra kill on Sion. Able to grab the Baron with the opening this provided, MVP quickly won the next immediate teamfight to end the game and tie up what should have been a wrapped-up series.
Backed by the momentum from their comeback win in game two, MVP came into game three with the intention to complete a reverse sweep. Coming out of laning phase ahead, MVP held onto their lead as tight as they could. Making sure they didn’t leave any openings, MVP played out game three quite methodically, shutting down any attempts KT made to take an objective, ending the game with four Dragon buffs and only two towers lost.
Now 10-5 in the LCK standings after this win, MVP are almost guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. MVP’s main competition in the standings, Longzhu Gaming and Afreeca Freecs, still have to play one another. So as long as MVP beat the seventh place ROX Tigers, their playoff seed is assured.
Contrarily, this loss to MVP marks KT’s second series loss in a row, marking a minor downward spiral for the team since the mid season break. After nine weeks as either the number one or two team in the league, KT has dropped to third place, with Samsung Galaxy taking second. After falling short of the community’s lofty expectations, KT will have a chance at redemption in playoffs, but that’s only if they can shore up the team’s many minor problems.
Next week MVP face the LCK’s first and second place teams in SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy. Their final test of the regular split, a win against either of these teams could be enough to push MVP over KT in the standings by the end of week nine, the last week before playoffs.
