SKT have dragged themselves out of the relegation zone in the 2019 LCK Summer Split with a 2-0 victory over rivals KT Rolster today. But the series was far from clean and both teams made critical mistakes across the matchup.
Game one started out slowly with SKT picking up the first dragon and Rift Herald before KT answered back with a dragon of their own within the first 15 minutes. Both teams postured around opposite sides of the map looking to dive the splitpushers—Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s Neeko and Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho’s Jayce—but both dives went down in drastically different fashions.
KT sent three players top to try and get Faker, but a perfect Pop Blossom bait forced the KT trio to run for their lives. Kim “Khan” Dong-ha and Kim “Clid” Tae-min then pincered down on Smeb in the bot lane to secure first blood for SKT, handing them a 2,000 gold lead.
From there, the game went back and forth, with both teams seemingly trading their lives for no apparent reason. Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong voyaged Khan to his death after a poorly-timed engage at 29 minutes to give KT a free Baron.
But their chance to get back into the game was snuffed out after Kim “PraY” Jong-in found himself out of position on Xayah at the second Baron fight at 35 minutes, allowing SKT to pick up both Baron and Elder Drake. SKT didn’t let the lead fall out of their grasp again, and while they took another 15 minutes to close the game out, they took the win.
Related: Tonight’s Telecom War may be the end of the line for the losing team
KT went into game two with a teamfighting composition revolving around Kalista and Galio, but failed to find anything to fight SKT over. SKT held dragon control from the start, taking all five drakes without much pressure. While KT picked up first blood, they weren’t able to snowball the game out of control.
This gave Park “Teddy” Jin-seong’s Varus the time to come online, and he was able to dish out damage in spades. KT could never find the picks to keep resetting Smeb’s Bloodline and they were melted quickly after engaging in the few fights they took due to poor positioning.
SKT were then able to walk over their rivals at objectives, finding picks of their own thanks to Lee “Effort” Sang-ho’s Nautilus Dredge Lines. After taking their second Baron, SKT sieged down KT’s exposed base with nothing but a few minions to trouble them as they finished the game in 36 minutes.
While SKT have boosted their record to 2-5, their performance tonight was far from their spring highs. Constant errors in judgment when taking fights made SKT look scrappy and lacking communication. Teddy was a standout performer, keeping SKT in both games by putting out consistent damage in fights while positioning well.
For KT, this loss is likely the nail in the coffin for their chances of making Worlds. They were outclassed by SKT on a macro level and were passengers for most of the series as they waited for SKT to make mistakes. When the mistakes from SKT came, KT squandered their chances in both games to get a leg up over their rivals and slowly bled out.
SKT will play Gen.G on June 29 before KT face Afreeca on the same day.
