Today was the second quarterfinal of League of Legends Worlds 2017 championship, and it turned out to be way more exciting than previously though. Most people, including myself, pegged SK Telecom T1 (SKT) to win this series 3-0 against their european opponents, Misfits Gaming (MSF). But it appears that the defending world champions were in for a much tougher fight, with this best of five series going to the full five games needed to win.
Here's the breakdown!
Game 1
This first gameof the series started out as expected, with SKT dominating their opponents, with Faker roaming top lane and scoring first blood against Alphari. SKT asserted their lead by invading the enemy jungle but a 3v3 fight breaks out, with SKT getting one kill, increasing their advantage. To counteract this move, right after the fight, MSF roams bottom lane and attempt a dive, but give up a kill.
However, SKT got a bit too cocky and invaded once more, but MSF was ready this time and get a kill shrinking the oppressive lead on them. But SKT's midlaner, undeterred, roams top once again to get a kill. Some time later, SKT's bottom lane, along with Faker, dive the MSF duo and kill their AD-carry, Hans Sama. With this numerical advantage, they destroy the first tower of the game and get the first drake, the mountain variety, that grants the team more damage against enemy structures and neutral objectives.
Some time later, the teams fight near the rift herald, with SKT emerging victorious, killing two enemies and taking the herald buff, and pushing both top and mid to destroy the outer towers. Afterwards they use the herald to push the inner mid tower, while the whole team groups bottom to attempt to dive MSF bottom close to the inhibitor. During all this they claim vision superiority, which they use to get another mountain drake.
Their domination of the map, and denial of this vision enables them to lay traps. One such trap was set in the top side of the map, and two MSF members get caught. During their respawn, SKT gets baron Nashor and retreats to get items and heal up. After that they group and push bottom. Upon reaching the inhibit, knowing they have a massive advantage over their enemies, they dive and kill four out of five MSF member, thus destroying their base unopposed to win the first match of the series quite easily.
Game 2
The second match started out completely opposite to how the first did, with MSF starting plays all over the map. They first converge on the bottom lane with both their jungler and their top laner teleporting there to dive the SKT duo. The attack does not go as planed, them losing two members, one granting first blood bonuses, but getting at least one kill in return. But they do not falter and try again later, this time getting one kill with no response, enabling them to get the first tower and the first drake, of the cloud variety, that grants them bonus movement speed out of combat
Afterwards they gather top lane and dive to start a 4v3 fight where they get two kills for SKT's one kill and use their advantage to kill the rift herald. They also lane swap top with bottom lanes. SKT takes advantage of this and ganks bottom to kill Alphari and kill the second dragon of the game, of the ocean variety, that grants the team increased health and mana regeneration. But MSF is no phased and push mid lane using the rift herald gained earlier and use their AD-carry, who remained top to destroy the inner tower there. Later on, they group once more to dive mid to get a kill and go take an ocean drake.
Using their map advantage, MSF tries to kill baron Nashor, but SKT challenges them and a close fight starts with only one kill going in favour of MSF. Both teams retreat and converge back just two minutes later, this time SKT losing two members which grant MSF the ability to take the baron buff, which they use to take down the bottom inhibitor without any opposition. But right after, they push this win further and get two kills of SKT and push for the win, equalising the score to 1-1.
Game 3
During this game SKT decide to substitute their jungler Peanut with another member, Blank, who would go on to be their jungler for the rest of the series. MSF starts the game very aggressively and start a 2v2 fight in bottom lane, one that they would win by a hair, getting both kills and losing nobody. Not long after, Maxlore, MSF's jungler ganks bot to push their advantage, and get one more kill. However they stay too long and get cut off losing all three members during their retreat.
However, their duo is still massively ahead and push on to get the first tower, afterwards they switch lanes with their top laner. The MSF jungler ganks this duo once again to get two more kills, but this time SKT responds with a gank of their own in mid lane to get a kill on Power of Evil. MSF though ganks top again to get two more kills and top tower after some time. Soon after they invade SKT's jungle to get one more kill that transitions into the rift herald.
All these leads they have accrued, means that MSF finally uses it to get the first mountain drake at 17 minutes, but SKT uses their numerical advantage on the top side of the map to get the tower there. But during this, MSF gathers in mid lane, where they use the herald to push the mid lane and destroy the last outer tower. Some time after a small fight starts which finally grants SKT some breathing room when they take one kill off their opponents. Another MSF mistake at drake, means that they lose yet another member, but they do manage to secure the infernal buff just before.
After respawns, MSF tries to sneak the baron, but SKT responds and a big team fight erupts. During the chaos Hans Sama finally goes down, but in return, MSF gets the baron buff as well as three kills. Once he's alive again, they group to kill a mountain drake and push the inner mid and bottom towers. But during their retreat, their midlaner gets caught. Later on, they invade the SKT jungle again and get a kill and use this numbers advantage to destroy the top lane inner tower.
Once they retreat to spend the newly gained gold, SKT attempts to kill baron Nashor, hoping MSF doesn't notice. But unfortunately they do, and attack with all their might, and manage to steal it, as well as killing three SKT members, while only losing two. They use the surviving members to kill the newly spawned elder dragon, thus the team is as strong as it can get. They use their power differential to siege the enemy base, taking all inhibitors and to wipe out SKT off the map to win the game, bringing the score to 2-1 in favour of the underdogs.
Game 4
This game, SKT decided to fire back by trying to get the the oft considered the best mid laner in the world, Faker, ahead. Thus, their jungler ganks his lane and score the first blood. Because the bottom lane was going even, MSF decides to lane swap and use their numbers to trade towers and get rift herald, but SKT responds in kind by killing the first drake of the game, which was an infernal type, that grants AD and AP to the team.
MSF gathers top once more and manage to kill the SKT AD-carry, Bang, and use the previously gained rift herald to push and take down the mid lane outer tower. Once the teams reset, SKT grouped top to get a kill and destroy both outer and inner top towers. But they stay in the lane for too long, and MSF catches the enemy AD-carry out of position and transfers this advantage into killing the infernal drake. Later, SKT gathered in mid lane to destroy the outer tower, but their opponents fight back, get a kill and take the mid inner tower.
MSF uses this advantage to get vision and get a kill in the jungle and go for baron. SKT attempts to challenge this, but give up one more kill, and concede the baron buff. Now, MSF groups mid to push and kill Band again. It takes a while until they dive the rest of the team, time in which that AD-carry respawns and gets a win for SKT that results in the siegeing team getting wiped out and the newly respawned cloud drake going to the defenders.
MSF tries to play it safer and set up an ambush near the mid lane, but pull the trigger a bit too early, and a major fight breaks out. The great coordination from SKT means that MSF lose four members without getting anything in return and SKT getting the baron buff. Once all the members respawn, MSF tries to fight for the elder dragon, but once again, SKT outmaneuvers them in this team fight and manage to wipe their opponents out. This urges them to push in to win the game, equalising the score once more to 2-2.
Game 5
The final game in this series was probably the closest of them all. SKT starts strong by invading the enemy jungle and gets first blood on the enemy top laner, Alphari, and steal the red buff, setting both him and the jungler, Maxlore, behind. Afterwards, they pressure the top lane and push the enemies away from defending and take the first tower. MSF counteracts this measure by taking the first infernal drake of the match.
SKT tries to push their advantage and attempt a gank in the middle lane, but MSF ambushes them from a nearby brush and get two free kills on them, then they use their advantage to destroy the top outer tower and take the rift herald. Bit while they recall, SKT takes the cloud drake that just spawned and later on the bottom one as well. For a few minutes nothing of note happens, but teams go through small skirmishes for vision. When an infernal drake spawns, they engage in a close fight with no fatalities. But this results in a slight advantage for MSF and they stay back to take that drake
But SKT's top laner, Huni, uses his dueling prowess to pressure his direct opponent but stays around for too long and gets ganked and killed. After this MSF tries to take the baron buff, but SKT tries to stop them, where they lose a member but deal enough damage to scare their enemies of the objective. Upon regrouping, MSF goes in the bottom river to kill a third infernal drake, raising their base damage by 24%, gaining quite an advantage.
For the next ten minutes, nothing major happens, again, teams mostly fighting for information, not prepared to risk qualification for a kill. But a fight breaks the silence where teams carefully exchange blows and lose a member each, but not gaining a significant advantage. But MSF, determined to gain a team-wide buff, attempts to take down the elder dragon, but get ambushed and lose four members without getting any response. This spurs SKT to push mid hard to win the game and settle the very close series. Final score 3-2 for SKT.
Conclusions
This quarterfinal turned out to be much more exciting than previously anticipated. As mentioned at the top of the post, most people expected SKT Telecom T1 to stomp Misfits Gaming, but it turns out that the EULCS team performed much better than anticipated. This best of five series almost ended up in being the most surprising upset in League of Legends history. But alas, SKT managed to recover and win in the end.
Casters and analysts then shared their thoughts and awarded Faker as the most valuable player in the series to to his roaming and setting up plays for his team to capitalise on, aiding their win, thus maintaining his status as mid-lane god. But they did mention that if this award could be given to a losing team, it would go to MSF's support player, IgNar, who made excellent initiations and bold offensive mastery and item use.
Even the winning teams's members mentioned in interviews that this was probably the hardest matches they ever played and felt truly challenged for the title. They predict that MSF will play a large role in the international tournaments in the future to come. I, for one, am in awe that they managed to pose a threat to the defending world champions, as their previous performance was nowhere near as great as they have presented themselves today. It is a great achievement they accomplished today, and if this championship continues this way, we are in for some great matches ahead!