SK Telecom T1 has lost the chance of progressing to the World League finals after losing to SK G2 Esports in the semifinals of the tournament.
This is happening for the second straight year as Korea will have no representative in the Worlds final. G2 being an unbelievable winner of the clash, was successful at MSI.
G2 won’t be facing another LCK team as they are set to square up against an LPL team, FunPlus Phoenix.
It could be recalled that Korea has always had a representative in the final from 2012 to 2017. During the year, they usually have at least one Korean squad, and they were two most of the time.
With Korea’s reign over, this has reflected a tectonic shift in esports that has been witnessed for some time.
It was a great shock to see the last LCK team eliminated from Worlds 2018. The elimination started Gen.G, the defending champions, who were sent packing in the group stage.
It was later the turn of Afreeca Freecs to leave the tournament after losing to Cloud9 in the quarterfinals. This was also a record-breaking event as no Korean team ever been beaten by o North America side in a best-of match.
The defeat Kt Rolster suffered in the hand of Invictus Gaming was although less surprising, but not having one LCK side in the semifinals was shocking to everyone.
After last year’s dismal outing, everyone expected something different this year with SKT, the three-time champions in the tournament. SKT has been a domineering force at Worlds.
The Korean team was playing at an extremely high level but were stopped by G2.
According to some eSport lovers, the real final might have been witnessed in the game between SKT and G2. The game was likened to the last what was seen in 2018 (kt vs. IG or the clash between SKT and ROX in 2016.
What has been noted by followers of the game is that SKT has issues, but they have been hard to identify.
In the beginning, the Koreans had challenges closing out games. This was what happened to them against RNG and Fnatic. This could be because they were trying to win the games in a different way, or they were overly cautious.
When will these issues be addressed and ironed out? Time will tell as SKT will have to go back to the drawing board.
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed
