LCK Week 2 Review

 

Champions Korea is back for its Spring tournament and things are already getting very interesting as two unexpected teams have risen towards the top of the standings – Samsung and Jin Air Green Wings.

 

Let’s take a look at the standings:

 

1.	ROX Tigers	3W – 0L
2.	Jin Air Green Wings	3W – 1L
2.	Samsung	3W – 1L
4.	SK Telecom T1	2W – 1L
4.	KT Rolster	2W – 1L
6.	CJ Entus	1W – 2L
6.	Longzhu Gaming	1W – 2L
6.	e-mFire	1W – 2L
9.	afreeca Freecs	0W – 3L
9.	SBENU SONICBOOM	0W – 3L

 

Two weeks in and the LCK only has one unbeaten team left in the form of World Championship finalists, the ROX Tigers. Losing just one game (to KT Rolster) across their three match-ups so far, the Tigers have started 2016 as they ended 2015 – in fine form. The team’s newest addition Peanut has made Nidalee a legitimately terrifying prospect from the Jungle once more. His overall K/D/A of 5.44 is impressive enough, but in the 2 games as Nidalee, he managed 22.00. Meanwhile, in the Mid Lane, kurO has already played 6 different champions across 7 games, grabbing himself 38 kills in the process.

 

The Jin Air Green Wings, while not a novice squad, were not expected to be this good. With a mixture of rookie players and veterans from Jin Air’s previous seasons, at best they were seen as a ‘good but not great’ side. That being the case, few eyebrows were raised when they were beaten 2-0 in their opening match against Longzhu. Since then, however, they have dropped just one game, beating world champions SKT 2-0 then following that up with victories over both e-mFire and afreeca Freecs. Top Laner TrAce has been the standout Jin Air player so far, particularly when playing AD Carries in the lane, helping to boost his K/D/A to an impressive 13.5.

 

The other surprise package so far have been Samsung, for whom the addition of Ambition in the Jungle is starting to look like a very smart pick-up indeed. While they suffered defeat in their most recent outing against SKT, they have taken down afreeca Freecs, Longzhu and e-mFire to start their season in positive fashion. Ambition’s K/D/A of 4.18 included a devastating display as Elise in the final game against Longzhu, where he emerged with a score of 8/2/4.

 

Back in our preview of the season, we noted that SKT would want to avoid a repeat of what happened last time they won the World Championship, when the team collapsed and they failed to qualify for Worlds in the following campaign. It doesn’t look like there’s any danger of that happening here, but even so, their defeat to Jin Air turned a lot of heads and they head into Week Three with a 2-1 record. Faker has been predictably solid in the Mid Lane, but the Gangplank mid-pick is proving to be a banana skin, even for someone with his talents. Despite this, his K/D/A of 6.63 is solid. Meanwhile, AD Carry Bang has proven to be a terrifying Lucian player, with a score across three games on that champion of 12/1/5.

 

KT Rolster have also started the season in positive fashion, winning two of their three match-ups so far.

New Mid Laner Fly seems to have taken up a provider role in the team, with AD Carry Arrow and Top Laner Ssumday demonstrating the killer instinct, sitting on 35 and 28 kills respectively.

 

Next week’s match-ups see the tantalizing prospect of the two World Championship finalists meeting up to do battle on the rift once more. If you watch one match in Korea next week, make sure it’s SKT v ROX Tigers. With ROX Tigers also taking on Samsung later in the week, they’ll need to be at their very best to stay at the top of the standings.

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