2019 LCK Spring Split: LCK Week 2 results breakdown

LCK week two – day two

SBG VS. SKT

• Winner: SANDBOX Gaming

Game 1 was a pretty standard smash from SKT, from getting first blood to extending the game long enough for Kim “Khan” Dong-ha’s monstrous Viktor to deal obscene amounts of damage. Despite SANDBOX securing the baron mid-game, SKT’s global composition in Nocturne, Galio and Tahm Kench were able to pick off their opponents 1 by 1 and together with Viktor’s burst damage, were able to close out Game 1.

Game 2 however, was a completely different story for SKT, as Jang “Ghost” Yong-jin’s Draven pick was able to gain leads in the early game and SANDBOX snowballed with their bot lane. Kim “OnFleek” Jang-gyeom on Jax also proved to be an enabling pick, catching a few SKT members off guard with smart and creative ganks. Even Park “Summit” Woo-tae was able to solo-kill Khan in the top lane. Both Jax’s and Aatrox’s CC proved lethal in the mid-game team fights, as Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon on Aatrox was able to deal heaps of burst damage. After SANDBOX secured baron, the game got a little messy but in a 3 for 1 team fight around the second baron, whoever SANDBOX secured the win against SKT.

In Game 3, OnFleek was on his signature Camille and SANDBOX quickly established their dive composition with Cho “Joker” Jae-eup on Shen support. Despite swapping lanes for better lane matchups, Khan and Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok still fell behind in the early game as Gangplank and Urgot respectively. Thus, with their early game priority, SANDBOX secured all the early objectives (all outer turrets and three drakes) and slowly choked SKT out of even their own jungle. After Akali and Camille deleted Park “Teddy” Jin-seong on Kai’sa in a team fight, SKT rolled over and SANDBOX Gaming against all odds beat the league favourites in SKT.

GEN VS. AFS

• Winner: Afreeca Freecs

Gen.G vs. Afreeca Freecs was another treat to watch, as both teams with long histories in the LCK struggled to secure their first win in the LCK in 2019. Afreeca, in particular, decided to switch up their roster and play Lee “Dread” Jin-hyeok in the jungle, with Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon – their main jungler – playing in the bot lane. Spirit ended up on the Morgana and with Lee “Proud” Jeong-jae on Rakan and the unusual pick and roster move paid off in the early game as Spirit secured first blood off Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin, who lane-swapped mid.

Afreeca’s squishy comp was rounded off by Dread on Camille, Kim “Kiin” Gi-in on Vayne and Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon on Akali, meaning their damage was pretty insane during team fights. In the end, Game 1 ended with a 2 for 0 team fight for the Baron, a Baron-buffed Afreeca and their successful winning push.

To match Afreeca’s unusual roster swap, Gen.G also seemed eager for a change and subbed in Kim “Roach” Kang-hui in the top lane over CuVee in Game 2. However, Roach gave away first blood to Afreeca after overextending and getting punished by Kiin on Kled and Dread on Olaf. Despite another quirky pick from Spirit in the bot lane – he played Neeko – the pick didn’t seem to work out that well as while Afreeca were able to pick up kills, they could not secure many objectives, leading to a pretty even mid-game with no team leading in gold by much.

However, Gen.G’s veteran status shined through on the macro side of things eventually, as they secured the elder drake while also contesting for Baron in a 50 50, winning a team fight and winning the game in 40 minutes with a late game composition.

In Game 3, Spirit pulled out the Annie predator bot and with a good bot counter-gank read from Afreeca and a pre-emptive Lucian Teleport, they were able to pull ahead in the early game. Despite Han “Peanut” Wang-ho’s eagerness to make proactive moves onto Afreeca as Lee Sin, Annie’s stun and ult combo were able to punish him for his over aggression. During the fight for baron, Proud was able to prevent Peanut from stealing the baron with his Rakan CC and clutch blast cone hit which split up the Gen.G squad. With another contest at the elder dragon, which Peanut failed to steal, Afreeca proceeded to close out Game 3 cleanly.