The LCK’s Week 9 was full of surprises, with new players and upsets shaking up the play-off race.
Gen.G make a move
Gen.G made one of the more surprising moves of the week as they ended up
subbing in Rich for Fly after the first game against Griffin. Rich was a fairly
hyped player given his previous time playing competitive Heroes of the Storm
for Gen.G, but taking out Fly when Gen.G sat at 10-5 was surprising to say the
least.
Gen.G would end up losing to not only Griffin in 1-2 fashion, but they also dropped to the Afreeca Freecs 1-2 with Rich playing all three games. Rich did have a nice showing on Qiyana, but overall he struggled to find success and observers are wondering about whether or not Fly will be back in the line-up moving forward.
Losers of two in a
row now, suddenly Gen.G have seen their play-off chances dwindle, as they are
on the outside looking in given tiebreakers.
SKT stunningly upset
For SK Telecom T1 they had a stunning loss in their only match of the week up
against Hanwha Life Esports. While Hanwha Life have been much better as of
late, compared to the earlier portion of the Spring Split, this was a game SK
Telecom T1 needed to win if they were to remain at the top of the table.
Instead SKT now slide into fourth place with Griffin, DAMWON Gaming and SANDBOX
Gaming all tied in first.
SKT pulled a bold counter-pick in the final game with Quinn in order to shutdown Hanwha Life’s Renekton, but unfortunately it was not enough as a risky Baron that went in favour of Hanwha Life sealed the fate of the game.
Faker also had an
odd performance in the final game while playing Akali, playing overly aggressive
and taking trades Faker would typically not take. This appeared to be a
coordinated effort alongside the Quinn pick, but it failed fairly hard.
Results don’t go kt’s way
Kt Rolster did about as expected, losing to DAMWON Gaming before narrowly
besting the still winless Jin Air Green Wings. With Hanwha Life’s recent
success, kt are now sitting in a tie with them in eighth place, each with two
matches to go before potential relegation. Unfortunately for kt, they have a
worse match score with an inability to catch Hanwha Life on that front, so they
must find success next week to avoid being relegated.
The good news for
kt is that Mid laner Bdd continues to shine as one of the most mechanically
gifted players in the world, dominating on both Azir and Akali as he continues
to be the foundation for the limited times kt have had success this Summer
Split.
Griffin return to the top
It seemed to be just a matter of time, but Griffin are back on top, sitting at
the top of the league despite having a tied record with both DAMWON and
SANDBOX.
Griffin clearly struggled to adapt to the latest version of the meta before this past week when they finally fired on all cylinders in wins over both Gen.G and Kingzone DragonX.
Griffin were able
to secure a comfort pick for Doran in the top lane in both matches against Kingzone
with Aatrox, while also allowing Chovy more freedom in the mid lane as he
picked up both Kassadin and Vladimir. This, in combination with Tarzan, Viper
and Lehends all seemingly being back in form, accumulated into a massively
positive week for Griffin. Viper is the type of player who can single-handedly
take over a game, with his Ezreal and Kai’Sa being his star performers in Week
9.
Conclusion
Week 9 was a great week for Griffin and their return to form appears to have
come at just the right time. Gen.G will, however, rue their missed
opportunities and now are on the outside looking in when it comes to the play-offs.
