The second of Quarterfinals for the League of Legends World Championship 2019 started with a match between three-time world Champions, SK Telekom T1 with superstar Faker in the mid lane and first-time at worlds Splyce, who qualified through play-ins and managed to get out of groups.
Most of the community expected SKT to demolish Europe’s 3rd seed, Splyce, and start preparing for their next match the same day, but to everybody’s surprise, Splyce did put up a decent fight.
Game 1. Comfy picks from Splyce in Gankgplank, Gragas, Le Blanc, Kai’sa & Blitzcrank while from SKT we received surprise picks such as Lucian top, Lissandra counterpick for Le Blanc and a Draven bot side, who was nowhere to be seen during this Worlds. While the early game seemed quite even from both teams, Splyce’s mid-game is known to be inconsistent. They showed it after around the 15-20th-minute mark, their decision making was pretty weak, and they were getting slowly drained out while losing all objectives around the map. After taking the second baron, SKT managed to siege through the base of Splyce and finish the game with an overall outstanding performance from their top laner, Khan.
Game 2. Splyce completed changed around their draft, not picking a single champion, which they did in game 1. SKT picked up Kai’Sa to deny Splyce during the early drafting phase and the infamous Tristana mid lane who excels at split pushing. The history of game 1 repeated, while the early game was quite even, objectives were going left and right towards SKT, and they managed to choke Splyce out with MVP being Teddy, SKT’s ADC, with his outstanding performance.
Game 3. Surprise sub-in from SKT after winning the first two games and being one game away from winning the series. SKT subbed in Mata, previous World Championship winner. The community expected this to have him eligible for a champion skin if they are to win the World Championship. As per Riot Rules, to qualify for a skin, subs need to play at least one knockout game. While SKT picked up Azir/Skarner, Splyce went for power picks in the current meta. Xerxe had an outstanding match with Rek’Sai in the jungle securing the early game and transitioning quite well into the mid-game. With Xerxes’s influence throughout the game, Splyce managed to capture most objectives and close out the game.
Game 4. Effort was subbed in back for the support position of SKT. Splyce picked comfort picks, while SKT decided to save the counter pick Quinn for top lane. Khan was the star of the game, pressuring the side lanes continuously and not allowing Splyce to have a minute without pressure. With the focus on Khan during the match by Splyce, SKT managed to secure objective after objective. The tunnel vision on Khan during the late stages of the game was so hard that SKT managed to destroy the nexus while 4 Splyce members were killing the SKT top laner and carry of the game, Khan.
Overall, Europe’s 3rd seed put up a great fight, they were considered underdogs in this match, and no one expected them to win, but they managed to pull off a win of the contenders for the current year World Championship. SKT, on the other hand, looked a bit disoriented in the third and fourth game, with Faker slumping for the entire duration of the series.
