Afreeca Freecs handed SK Telecom T1 their fifth consecutive loss earlier today with a swift two-game victory to close out week three of League of Legends Champions Korea.
If you compared these two teams by their match records, Afreeca looked to be the clear favorites. Afreeca, who were fourth in the LCK standings, were facing the second-to-last team in the league. But this team was the three-time world champions, SKT.
Nobody expected the 2017 World Championship finalists to be at the bottom of the current standings, especially with the same core that previously made the last LCK split final.
And SKT’s play at the start of today’s match gave hope that their problems had started to dissipate. SKT found more picks than Afreeca as game one approached the 20-minute mark. But from that point on, SKT stagnated, and the former world champions couldn’t extend their lead past two kills.
Afreeca, on the other hand, simply ignored SKT and took various map objectives. They quickly acquired a huge gold lead simply by taking towers, while denying SKT from doing the same. By 40 minutes, Afreeca had a 12,000 gold lead, despite being down three kills.
And as the series progressed, it got worse for SKT. In game two, Afreeca had complete control of the map. SKT, through their extremely passive play, gave up their jungle’s vision control to Afreeca. This vision control allowed Afreeca to find a pick, take the Baron, and end the game.
Now tied for last place in game record with MVP, SKT face bbq OLIVERS and KSV Esports next week. A win against at least one of these two teams will be necessary if SKT want to end the first half of the LCK Spring Split with more than one win. SKT’s match against bbq OLIVERS is set to take place on Feb. 7.
