LoL Worlds and Results 2015 .

It’s amazing the hype train of Worlds for LoL. SKT T1 goes into the Finals undefeated. Very few objectives taken off of them and seems to be steamrolling their competition to a second world tournament win. KOO on the other hand, had a few troubles and bumps along the way, but made it to the finals after demonstrating that they can turn games and close them out. Having these two teams in the finals shows how diverse the game can be, even if both teams are from the LCK.

 

 

Game 1:

Game 1 was interesting. The global ban of Gragas was still in effect, and Mordekaiser and Gangplank were also banned. SKT banned Tahm Kench and Kalista as well not wanting them to fall into PraY and GorillA’s hands while Renekton and Elise were banned from KOO. SKT’s team was Rumble, Rek’Sai, Kassadin, Sivir, and Shen. KOO picked up Riven, Lee Sin, Lulu, Jinx, and Alistar. KOO first picked Lulu to keep it away from SKT after they picked Rek’sai in the first round. KOO did a ½ Protect the ADC Comp ½ Pick comp while SKT did a Teamfight assassinate team to counter it.

It’s a basic Korean start with the ADC/Support going up against the Top laner of each others team. SKT gets the first tower, then KOO gets their first tower a few seconds later with 1 less person thanks to Jinx’s Minigun. Suddenly all the teleports are used top and Wolf dies to Hojin with 4 people there to support him. First Blood goes to KOO. SKT 3 man tower dive PraY up top, but he kills Faker in retribution. It’s a huge game of back and forth kills, but SKT has been getting objectives while KOO has not. A few mistakes after that by KOO, SKT capitalizes on another Dragon, 3 turrets and when Smeb goes to face check Baron, he dies and Baron goes to SKT. Dragon #3 goes to SKT, Bang pops On the Hunt and gets a Triple kill, tower and another Baron. It just snowballs from there. 16 kills for SKT to KOO’s 5, up by 13k gold. They catch PraY and KurO soon after and finish the game near the 42 minute mark.

 

Game 2:

Game 2 goes about the same way with Bans. Renekton, Gangplank, Kalista, Mordekaiser, Tahm Kench and Elise are banned. KOO first pick Rek’sai, Faker gets Lulu and Wolf gets Alistar. After that KOO’s team is Fiora, Viktor, Kennen and Shen, while SKT pick up Rumble, Jarvan IV and Tristana. Smeb gets his Fiora which he’s pretty good on. To me… and it seems to the analysts for Worlds agree, Rumble is probably the best counter pick for Fiora. The loudest ninja appears again as a support for another ninja against a yordle and cow bot lane which will be interesting.

SKT was interested in a late invade at KOO at wolves. Wasting Benji and MaRin’s flashes to chase Smeb and Hojin. They kill Smeb, but give Hojin a double kill under the Tier 2 mid turret. Then they attempt to dive PraY and GorillA under the Tier 1 bot turret and die there as well in a 2 for 1 trade. 4 minutes in, and KOO is ahead 4 to 2. At the 13 minute mark, KOO is up 8 to 5. KurO this game is showing people why he loves Viktor so much. SKT gets dragon at 19:40, longest time the First Dragon was taken in any SKT or KOO games. Then KOO starts to slip. Small mistakes every few minutes let’s SKT catch up. Mainly from Smeb and GorillA. KOO picks a fight at 28:40 and lose two to none thanks to them splitting up right before the initiation, they do counter with a mid tier 2 turret though. Game is tied at 31 minutes gold wise and KOO baits Baron a few times. PraY and GorillA die during one of them and SKT pick up Baron. Smeb tries to solo dragon, but Bengi shows up to smite steal it. SKT gets 3k gold ahead off this and kill Smeb, GorillA, PraY and KurO then push into their base. Hojin dies shortly after defending Nexus turrets and SKT wins the game at 38:11.

 

 

Game 3:

So far the Series is going as predicted. SKT is ahead 2-0 and looking to shut out the series with this game. Typical bans again. Tahm Kench, Renekton, Kalista, Elise, Mordekaiser and Gangplank. SKT pick up Rumble, Rek’sai, Lulu, Sivir, and Alistar. KOO choose Fiora, Lee Sin, Kassadin, Ashe and Thresh. Team Fight vs Pick Comp. KOO has been getting ahead in every game within the first 10mins, if they can do that with this team set up, they could easily win. SKT can easily win, as they have shown us, so it’ll be interesting.

It’s a fast start. First tower drops at 3:26 to SKT in the top lane, but Hojin gets first blood when he kills Benji. PraY kills Faker, Hojin kills Wolf, Bang kill GorillA, Hojin kills Bang in a battle in the river near Dragon. At 5 minutes, Hojin has 4 kills on Lee Sin. A minute later, Hojin gets another kill on Faker. 4 minutes later Hojin and GorillA show up and kill faker again giving the kill to KurO. 13mins in and KOO gets bottom turret and Dragon. After a lot more kills, another Dragon to KOO and a few turrets drop it’s 24:30 and KOO is ahead by 8k gold. Shortly after, Smeb dies, MaRin kills GorillA, Hojin kills Wolf, KurO kills MaRin, PraY kills Faker and Bengi and it’s an Ace for KOO, which turns into a Baron for them as well. SKT gets a few picks after that making it look like a turn around, but Smeb split pushes bot lane and get the Tier 2 bot turret. While on the Inhibitor turret, Bengi and MaRin come to stop Smeb, but he kills them both under their own Inhibitor turret for a double kill, then takes the turret and inhibitor. Meanwhile the rest of KOO kill Wolf after taking the middle turret and inhibitor. KOO is up 10k gold at 36 minutes. Ashe Arrow hits Faker square in the face, KurO instantly kills him and Wolf, GorillA dies to MaRin but PraY kills MaRin, KurO kills Bang and that’s an Ace in the base of SKT, KOO wins the game at 37:45.

Game 4:

I saw this series going to a Game 4. I don’t know why, probably because Faker does get a little cocky in the 3rd game of any of his series… and the main reason Easyhoon plays game 1 and 2 of most of their series, but here we are, Game 4 of the Finals. Bans change a bit. Renekton, Rumble, Gangplank, Kalista, Mordekaiser, and Fiora. Tahm Kench is first picked by KOO. SKT counter with Elise and Alistar. Rek’sai and Lulu go to KOO. Gnar and Sivir go to SKT, while Ashe and Kassadin get picked up by their opponents. Last pick is Ryze for Faker. This is when I knew SKT won. Elise/Ryze is just too much catch for anyone to escape. Specially on Faker. Give Faker On the Hunt and you can’t escape him. KOO needs to win this game to stay in the running and bring it to a game 5 for a reverse sweep.

Seeing comfort picks from both sides, the game starts. Smeb goes top lane with Hojin’s first blue buff, also weird is Standard lanes and no jungle invades. As I type it, Bengi puts in deep wards in Hojin’s jungle. Faker kill Hojin for first blood when he ganks for KurO. This starts the snowball. 11 minutes in, and the only kill is on Faker. Ryze kills Smeb with a teleport/flash play when Bang gets bottom turret. Faker destroys KurO in a 1v1 in the bot lane and PraY gets caught afterwards. This is 3rd dragon for SKT at this point. SKT has total control of the game and KOO doesn’t seem to have a chance to come back. 0-6 in favor of SKT and 3 dragons at this point. SKT grab Baron, and Pray/GorillA die with a Tier 2 tower, Inhibitor turret and the inhibitor it was protecting. 0-8 in favor of SKT. MaRin finally dies to KurO, Hojin and Smeb after he was a bit greedy in their jungle. Faker solos SKT’s 4th Dragon. KOO desperately uses everything they have on Faker, who sidesteps it all. GorillA dies from it. SKT get top inhibitor and turret and KurO. Bang pops On the Hunt and Faker on Ryze kills Hojin, Smeb and GorillA to lead them to a win at 34:30. SKT is our second time World Champs.

Results:

SKT win 3-1. No real surprise to anyone watching Worlds. SKT has a dominating run with no losses until the Finals. Happy to see that KOO could take a game off of them though. LCK teams are always showing up and destroying the competition. If NA or EU or any other division teams want to compete, they need to learn from their mistakes and push past them.

Looking at the overall tournament. No NA teams, CLG, Cloud9 or TSM, made it past Group Stages. Either did both Wildcards. At least 1 team from each other division made it this far. EU had two representatives, Fnatic and Origen, LPL had Edward Gaming, LMS had Flash Wolves and ahq, and the LCK had all 3 teams make it. After Quarterfinals, LPL and the LMS teams both loss to the EU teams, and KOO knocked out it’s fellow LCK member KT Rolster while SKT knocked out the LMS team. LCK knocked out both EU teams in the Semi-finals, and SKT obviously won the tournament. Even better, they were all easily decidable matches with 3-0 or 3-1 victories.

What does that say about the state of League? Obviously LCK is ahead of the game when it comes to Meta plays. They also play a lot more on average than any other divisions. They have a tournament or games at least once a week, sometimes twice and they practice 8-10 hours a day when not competing. No other team or division does that. NA and EU got close, but they don’t put in the practice like the LCK members do. I’m just happy that I earned 71 points from the Pick’em event and scored higher than 87% of other players, including Imaqtpie, Scarra, Riot Quickshot and Bunny FuFuu. Phreak beat me by 1 point. Only 1 person picked everything correct and putting them the only winner. No one even got close to him, as second place was at least 15 points behind him.

Now for Pre-season and Start of Season 5! Hope you all got at least your Gold Division for your Championship Sivir and awesome borders… I’m still working towards mine… being a Sivir main, it makes me sad that I might not get it! Good Luck Summoners on the Rift, and until next year for Worlds.