The second League of Legends Worlds 2017 championship took place today. It was between two very strong teams, LCK's Samsung Galaxy (SSG) and the last LPL team standing, Team WE (WE). Neither team performed exceptionally during the group stage, but they both returned in full force during the quarterfinals. Now, a semifinal between underdogs was underway in Shanghai, with a small edge to the home team, WE.
Here's the rundown!
Game 1
The first game starts off with a bang when SSG invades the enemy jungle even before minions have spawned. However, their attack goes wrong and the WE AD-carry, Mystic gets first blood. In the fifth minute of the game, both junglers head to the mid lane, as well as both top laners start channelling teleports, but this forces the teams to retreat and they cancel those summoner spells, thus all excape unharmed. Six minutes later, WE pressure their advantage in the bottom lane and this results in them taking the first tower there.
Just one minute later, WE's mid laner, xiye, goes top to gank for his ally and get a kill on the enemy top laner, CuVee. Soon after, WE lane swap and destroy the top outer tower as well as kill the rift herald, while SSG take down the bottom outer tower and take the first mountain drake, which grants them extra damage versus enemy structures and neutral objectives. The SSG top laner tries to kill the enemy AD-carry, who's lingering in the top side, but WE responds by sending their top laner, 957, using his ultimate, and their mid laner, so they kill CuVee.
Not long after, both teams group up in the mid lane and WE get a kill on the enemy mid laner, Crown. In the 18th minute of the game, a 1v1 fight between the WE mid laner and the enemy top laner ends in a very narrow victory for WE, as he limps away with less then 100 health. Later on a 3v3 skirmish in the mid lane starts, but nobody dies in the exchange. however, SSG have a minor health advantage so they use the rift herald to take down both the outer and inner mid towers. In the meantime, 957, ulties on his mid lane ally, who's bottom, to kill CuVee and get some damage on the bottom inner tower.
A fight in the SSG jungle later takes the life of the defending jungler, Ambition, so WE go kill baron Nashor. Meanwhile, their mid laner split pushes bottom to take the inner tower there. SSG try to defend their base, but this results in two members dieing, so they lose the mid inhibitor and a nexus tower. WE retreats to take a cloud drake, that grant them extra movement speed outside of combat, then regroup mid. The take the bottom inhibitor, and SSG attempts a last stand. They get wiped out however, but they finally get a single kill on the board before being crushed in the starting game of the series.
Game 2
The second game of the series starts off with the SSG jungler invading his direct opponent, Condi, to find him low on health, thus he gets first blood. But he stays for too long, so as soon as he respawns, WE head straight for him and get a return kill. SSG pressures the bottom lane to push the enemy duo away and they get the first tower at minute nine. Soon after, a massive fight takes place in the same lane, with both teams sending every member. WE take four kills, while SSG only take two and lose all their summoner spells.
Both teams lane swap, but WE does not push their advantage. Only at minute 17, another 4v4 fight happens in the top side of the map, where SSG get a single kill, but they use that small lead to destroy the tower there and get the rift herald. WE take the bottom outer tower and the first mountain drake. Meanwhile SSG push top further to take the inner tower there as well. They then group mid and use the rift herald to take the mid outer and inner towers. In the 22nd minute a small 1v1 skirmish between split pushing top laners ends in a health advantage to SSG who takes the bottom inner tower.
As soon as 957 is full health, he teleports in the jungle where a massive fight erupts and WE get two kills. However they get no objective and SSG still hold vision advantage, which they use to take an infernal drake at min 25, which grants them extra AD and AP. A minute later, another fight starts near baron and SSG claims three more kills and limp away to take the buff for free. At only 28 minutes in, they group mid to fight WE one last time and get three more kills and equalise the score to 1-1.
Game 3
This third game is played extremely cautiously, as nothing of note happens for 16 minute, when finally SSG take the first mountain drake while the opposing bottom lane due head home to buy items. One minute later, the SSG mid laner uses his ultimate to prevent that duo to return to defend the tower, so they easily take it down. WE then lane swaps, so SSG pushes bot some more to take the inner tower as well, while WE take the top outer tower as a response.
In the 21st minute, the first team fight takes place, where SSG group mid to kill xiye and finally take first blood, as well as the mid outer tower. But all of a sudden, a 5v5 fight starts near the baron pit, where only the SSG support, CoreJJ dies, on their side, while for WE only their duo lane escapes alive. This win enables SSG to take the buff, which they use to destroy all the towers outside of the WE base. Casters compare this match to a civilisation game where SSG achieve a slow economic victory, due to only small advantages earned by them without much bloodshed, this culminating in an 8,000 gold lead as they take a mountain drake 28 minutes in.
Again, a lull takes hold for another few minutes, but finally, another team fight breaks out in the mid lane, where both teams have grouped. SSG's massive lead means they get two more kills for free and go to take the baron buff again. They use it to chunk health points off their enemies and destroy all the inhibitors. They then retreat to take a cloud drake and buy items so their lead, now at 15,000 gold, materialises. Finally, they mount a final offensive with a large amount of super minions and dive to kill four enemies and raising the score to 2-1 in their favour.
Game 4
This fourth game starts off more excitingly, as both teams gank mid, and after a slightly long chase, SSG get first blood, about three minutes in. Later, they send both their mid laner and jungler top side, but this time WE is there to respond and eek out three kills with no response. Soon after this a fight starts in the SSG jungle where WE get one more kill and barely escape alive. After just two more minute, both junglers head top and in the 2v2 fight, they both die.
After some time, a chaotic 4v4 fight takes place in the bottom lane and WE lose their AD-carry, while SSG lose their jungler. This means WE have a smite advantage and take the first infernal drake at around 12 minutes in. Just 2 minutes later, another massive fight starts in the same lane, this time both teams sending all members. This time, SSG manage their ultimate abilities beautifully and take three clean kills and take the first outer tower and take the gold lead. Soon after they use it to get a vision advantage and take the rift herald uncontested.
Later on, WE tries to be proactive by grouping their whole team mid to take the outer tower there and roam to destroy the top outer tower as well. Meanwhile SSG's mid laner is split pushing bottom to get a lot of damage on the inner tower there. After, they group in the mid lane to use the herald and take the outer tower there and go take the cloud drake. Both teams reset afterwards. In the 21st minute, SSG group top and take down the last WE outer tower standing. Three minutes later, WE attempt to get a kill near the baron pit, by sending their whole team, but are unsuccessful, so the split pushing SSG top laner takes down the bottom inner tower for free.
Later in the game, SSG starts attacking baron Nashor and kills it right before WE arrives to counter. A fight does break out, however, and WE only manage to get a single team. SSG then uses the buff to take a mountain drake and destroy all enemy inner towers. They group mid and take the inhibitor tower but retreat as the buff ends. After they return, they group to take down both mid and top inhibitors. One last stand by WE ends up with SSG wiping them out and push to win the series 3-1.
Conclusions
This series was difficult to predict, as both teams performed poorly in the early days of the tournament, but were very strong as they neared the grand battle. I for one expected Team WE to barely get a win, and was encouraged by their first game, in which they easily destroyed their enemies. However, Samsung Galaxy recovered beautifully and surprisingly took all games following that first game crushing defeat.
During interviews, the winning members were quite reserved, admitting that the Kassadin pick was very surprising, so they elected to ban him in later games, this working out nicely for them. They did seem confident in facing off against the defending world champions and reenacting last years finals, when they lost 3-2. They will not underestimate their opponents though, as SK Telecom T1 shows up every time they are in a bind. Whatever the outcome, the most valuable player of the series, CoreJJ, is grateful for managing to get this far, especially since they were the underdogs of the series.
SSG is at peak performance this year, and I think they have a good chance of putting up a great show next week. But SKT is a very strong team, even when not not at their utmost strength, so it remains to be seen how the series will go. Will CoreJJ pull off so clutch saves to aid his team from his position as support, or will Faker show the world why he's the god of the mid lane once more? I predict a narrow win by SKT, but this prediction is the one I feel least confident in, as both teams have shown to be very strong this year. And, if you follow, me, you'll notice that I'm not quite a betting guru. Stay tuned for a rundown of the fight for the Summoner's Cup when we shall see who emerges victorious after a year of training and fighting the best teams the world has to offer!