Gen.G have once again shocked the LCK after taking down Sandbox Gaming 2-0 today. Their mid-season resurgence is heating up the race for Worlds and the underdog veterans are now throwing their hat in the ring for a shot at going to Europe.
Gen.G ran with Song “Fly” Yong-jun again in both games and the substitute mid laner played well throughout the series. Fly’s Karma in game one helped peel for Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk’s Ashe, while his Taliyah in game two shut down Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon’s Leblanc.
But Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin was the star of the show with on-hit Kennen in the top lane. Deviating from the full AP build, CuVee showed that on-hit Kennen still works just as well, soaking up side lane pressure for Gen.G and often splitting Sandbox’s teamfights in half.
While the game was a farm-fest for the first half hour, teamfights exploded after the Infernal, Baron, and Elder Dragon spawned within six minutes of each other. Gen.G often had the better setup leading into the fights, and as long as Park “Summit” Woo-tae didn’t get a flank off onto the Gen.G backline, they had it in the bag.
After one last-ditch attempt by Sandbox at the second Elder to keep themselves in the game, they were shut down in emphatic fashion. Gen.G found a delayed ace, ran the minions down mid, and knocked down their Nexus 48 minutes after they landed on the Rift.
Game two was much faster on Gen.G’s end. After getting an early pick on Summit, CuVee just stormed down the top lane on Kennen. As Sandbox tried to force a pick onto CuVee to get the game to swing in their favor at the 13-minute mark, Gen.G collapsed and picked up four kills.
Summit was unable to even step foot into the lane after 15 minutes since CuVee jumped on him any time he showed up on the map. Summit looked tilted as CuVee caught him out four times in 15 minutes, and Gen.G took their 8,000 gold lead at 20 minutes straight to the Baron pit to start closing out the game.
Ruler’s Kalista kept Sandbox zoned into their fountain after Baron. Gen.G cleanly finished the game in just over 23 minutes, the fastest game of the 2019 LCK Summer Split so far.
Sandbox now leave first place up for grabs with Griffin and Damwon sitting at a 7-3 record. They have a lot to work on with their teamfighting, which cost them game one, as well as their decision-making around objectives.
Gen.G will look to continue their ascent up the LCK ladder off the back of this hot streak. Ruler is the consistent performer Gen.G are building off, and when CuVee steps up, they look like a top three team.
Gen.G will play Kingzone on July 20, while Sandbox have a chance to reclaim first place against Hanwha Life on July 21 to round out week six of the LCK.
