On the verge of their first loss of the year, Griffin saved their now 11-match win streak with a daring backdoor.
Led by Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong’s Evelynn, Griffin came back from the brink of defeat to beat SK Telecom T1 2-1, in what could be described as the best LCK match of the year thus far.
“We were so close to winning that I was really shaking at that moment,” Tarzan said in the post-game interview, earning a solo-interview after receiving the MVP title in both of Griffin’s game wins today. “I was so nervous, but in the end, I was really happy. It was thrilling.”
Just a minute prior to the backdoor, the match looked to be over in SKT’s favor. Griffin top laner Choi “Sword” Sung-won failed during the team’s first attempt at a backdoor—he joined his teammates, who fell trying to contest Baron, in the afterlife. With no opposing forces, SKT were just a few seconds too short in ending the game before respawn timers completed for Griffin.
“We actually thought we lost the game,” Tarzan said describing Griffin’s game-winning play. With only a single control ward and a prayer, Tarzan successfully completed his mission in providing his teammates with a portal into SKT’s base that they could teleport to, a task he called “a little tricky.”
Earlier in the match, SKT began the series by handing Griffin their second game loss of 2019 with a composition revolving around Aatrox, Lissandra, and Kai’Sa. Among those three champions, Aatrox was the one Griffin made sure to ban moving forward.
“I mean Khan did so well on Aatrox with his aggressive plays,” Tarzan said. “We thought Aatrox with Lissandra together would be really hard to play against, so that’s why we banned him.”
Griffin, on the other hand, elected to play the recently-nerfed Urgot top lane in games one and two. While many other top laners have abandoned the Dreadnought, Sword still “has a lot of confidence in Urgot,” since his damage was left untouched in patch 9.4.
After starting their first series following a two-week break with a game loss, Griffin found their way back into the match through Tarzan unveiling a new pick in Elise. From starting game two with a beautiful bot lane dive to ending that same game with a gorgeous cocoon onto Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s Lissandra, Tarzan proved himself to be the star of the show. And this title was only reaffirmed with his backdoor in game three.
The still-undefeated Griffin will now prepare for a rematch against the first team to take a game off of them this year—SANDBOX Gaming. Griffin and SANDBOX’s match is set for March 10.
