I’m writing my thoughts on these games right as they happen, so that I actually remember what’s going on, unlike my previous writeups (lol). But before that, why the heck was the intro so long? Sure, the music is nice, but waiting 50 minutes for the games to start is booooring. Anyways, yay world championships! My predictions for this series: 3-2 for SKT, so I’ll be rooting for Royal.
Game 1
A somewhat disappointing game heavily in the favor of SKT. They even went red side, and still got ahead. The picks by Royal were not well suited against the SKT team. I mean it was actually a very good team comp with a good amount of cc and a lot of hard engage.But SKT was able to get ahead during the laning phase, with two early ganks on by Bengi on midlane. Then they snowballed this into a 4 man roam bot lane, and the rest was history. Royal’s team comp couldn’t deal with the poke that SKT was putting out. They tried making plays to get back, with the flash Sona crescendo to maplhite teleport ult, but the execution missed at the fatal time, and they missed their opportunity. I’m surprised at how badly Royal did early game, which is not something you can mess up against the mid-game titans of SKT.
Game 2
Oh boy. It seems like Royal was trying to go for a fresh start here, with new picks and bans to completely differentiate their next game from the first one. One thing they messed up is that the Renekton ban by SKT signals a Jax pick. Aside from Renekton, I can’t think of a bad matchup for Jax in a straight 1 on 1 lane. This Jax pick has been wrecking Godlike for both of these games, and Royal needs to pick up on this. The Rumble and teleport Kassadin picks were a nice surprise, but Rumble ended up being a liability by getting caught at a crucial time and being down 100 cs at the end of the game. Additionally, Royal’s weak early games fed into SKT’s strong mid game lineup. All their lanes were losing, and things were looking bad. But by some miracle, they had this incredible team fight in midlane, and could swing things back into their favor. Unfortunately, Royal blew this chance due to a number of mistakes. First, they chased too far in the ensuing dragon fight, giving kills to Piglet and gaining unnecessary deaths. The nail that sealed their coffin was Godlike getting caught at Baron while Tabe was recalling. I believe Royal was stronger in a teamfight at that time, but trying to fight a 3/4 v 5 in their position was suicide. Everything went downhill after that, and SKT played very well in closing the game. I really hope that Royal can win the next game, because I know they have the ability to, and also because I don’t want the championship to end in a 3-0 stomp.
Game 3
Flawless victory by SKT. Looking back at game 2, the problem isn’t so much SKT’ outcomping Royal, or their lanes being countered; it was just SKT being metter mechanically and objectively. Midlane: White is a great laner, but he gets a little too greedy and overextends, causing him to get behind Faker. Toplane: Godlike losing lane with an early bushcheck, getting dove by Jax bot lane, and being perpetually behind. Botlane: Royal did ok, going toe-to-toe with SKT, but PoohMandu was just the better support, with better catches and superior play. In terms of objectives, SKT kept immediately capitalizes their early game advantages, getting tower after tower, and snowballing this to victory. Not even a 20 minute game, showing the absolute dominance of SKT.
So overall, it was kind of a disappointing championship game. There was a clear difference in skill between SKT and Royal, especially with the complete stomp in the third game. SKT proved that they are the #1 team in the world right now.
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