SK Telecom T1 reign supreme in the first round of the summer telecom wars

SK Telecom T1 claimed the first Telecom War win of the Summer Split in an unexpected 2-0 victory against KT Rolster earlier today.

The Telecom War is a match which has always garnered hype from fans. But heading into today’s edition, the outcome seemed to be an all-but-confirmed victory for KT. SKT faced multiple issues throughout these last two weeks of play, and had found only one win against Jin Air Green Wings—arguably the worst team in the LCK. KT on the other hand stood near the top of the standings, and had just defeated the league’s best team Gen G.

As the match began, KT further solidified pundit’s pre-game predictions. KT drafted a composition around the seldom-seen jungle Kindred in game one. Not only were KT able to successfully execute plays around the map in game one, but also counter SKT’s sloppier engages in order to accrue an early gold lead. KT easily snowballed this initial lead into a game win, and looked poised to quickly end the series and earn their fourth win of summer.

With their backs against the wall SKT came back much stronger in game two, with a composition unique to the former world champions. Games two and later three saw SKT draft a Morgana and Pyke bot lane, while star mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok was placed on a scaling bruiser. 

SKT’s players, but especially Faker and support Lee “Effort” Sang-ho, played out this composition almost to perfection. Although KT found an initial lead in game two due to a few early picks, SKT quickly recouped their losses. Effort’s pinpoint accuracy with Pyke’s bone skewer gave Faker’s Yasuo a consistent form of crowd control to last breath onto.

Although they experienced difficulties early into game two, SKT found complete control of both Summoner’s Rift and KT in game three. KT jungler Go “Score” Dong-bin, who was once again given the Kindred pick in game three, could do little since SKT won all three of their lanes. SKT easily transferred their laning victories into various objectives, such as turrets, Baron, and eventually KT’s nexus.

SKT will return to the LCK stage on June 28, when they face reigning champions KINGZONE DragonX.