In January, Alliance and SK Gaming were untested, rebuilt League of Legends rosters that had all the potential in the world. Alliance, at the time a so-called “super team,” took more than its fair share of time to get onto its feet. However, since the start of the summer, they’ve embraced their role at the top, remaining the No. 1 seed throughout all 11 weeks of the regular season. SK Gaming, on the other hand, entered the year with much less well-known players, but managed a more-than-respectable second place finish in the spring. They stumbled a bit throughout the summer season, but have finished strong and are now just one series away from the finals once again.
Both of these teams have skilled enough players to win, but Alliance have momentum from the regular season and are the early favorites. Can SK Gaming overcome and send them packing?
Across the board, Alliance have better stats. And perhaps the most stunning fact is simply how consistent they are above the heads of SK. One stat in particular marks the dominance Alliance have had this season—kill participation. Every single Alliance member has a bigger share than their SK counterpart, meaning that Alliance function as a team more often, and help each other out to get kills. They fight as a team and can absolutely shut other teams down.
If SK want to have a chance, their best shot is relying and supporting the team carries, Adrian “CandyPanda” Wübbelmann and Jesse “Jesiz” Le. Wübbelmann has the most experience on the team, and led the team to their silver medal finish in the spring. Both him and Le have shown flashes of brilliance throughout the year, and they’ll need every drop of it if they want to upset Alliance. Should they fail, Alliance will have no problem advancing to the regional finals.
