It was only a week ago that SK Telecom T1 took on the ROX Tigers in the 2016 World Championship semifinals, but already it’s been hailed as the best series of the year, and possibly the best in Worlds history. The two have faced off again and again since 2014, when team co-ownership was restricted and Korea's premier league was restructured, but at every turn SKT have put a stop to the Tigers.

With each finals meeting in Korea and on the international stage, the Tigers have edged closer to taking their first series win over their rivals. This was supposed to be the year that they finally toppled their greatest adversary, paving the way to a World Championship title. But after a lengthy, grueling, spectacular best-of-five, SKT still won. The Tigers were stopped again, and SKT headed on to what may be their third Worlds victory.

Though that semifinal will be talked about for seasons to come, SKT top laner Lee “Duke” Ho-seong's memory of it is already fuzzy moments after playing in it. “I’m trying to remember how we won our first match,” he says. “Do you have a list of the champion picks?” He smiles, as I fumble through my notebook, whispering “Thank you” to me in English.

I tell him that he played Trundle and he nods. “The first game was very smooth, a straight win,” he says, visibly exhausted and radiating the happiness that only an arduous best-of-five victory can bring. “The second and third games not only did we perform really poorly, but we were also surprised from the Miss Fortune pick. That was not good at all for the team.” He pauses and laughs.

“When we first saw Miss Fortune, we were actually very happy," he continues. "We were pretty excited, because we thought it must be a mis-pick or something. After the second game, we thought that the reason why we lost wasn’t Miss Fortune, but by the third game we decided that we couldn’t risk it anymore, facing up against a pick like that that we weren’t familiar with.”

Known for his quiet nature, bass monotone and chewing gum habit, Duke often fades into the background in on-stage interviews — but now he is animated with the thrill of a difficult win, gushing and gesticulating despite the energy he's expended. “When I first joined [SKT] the coach actually scolded me pretty badly for remaining so silent,” he says. “I’m doing my best.”

Even though he is accustomed to grueling best-of series, Duke admits that this is one of the first times he has been on the winning side of a close best-of-five. "I’m really used to long series, before when I wasn’t on SKT. I lost almost all of them." He bursts out laughing, shaking his head at the memory. "Having broken that jinx on such a big stage is a bit of a relief for me."

After the departure of Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-hwan in the 2015-16 offseason, Duke pushed hard for a spot on SKT, a team he knew would win championships. However the transition was far from seamless. Unused to having a more talkative team with a comprehensive communication system, Duke found it difficult to speak up. His poor Teleport usage stood out, and eventually became a major weak point for the team. Though jungler Kang “Blank” Sun-gu soaked up most of the blame for SKT's weaker performances, a small slice was always reserved for Duke and his memetic TPs.

Duke is still critical of his own Teleports, calling his TPs in the ROX series "normal" rather than "awesome." He says the team typically has him focus on split-pushing at least partly because his TP skill is lacking. “Nowadays there is such a strong emphasis on the laning phase,” he laughs. “If I get out of the laning phase okay, I did my part.”

Pressed for his thoughts on how he performed against the Tigers Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho — widely considered the best top laner in the world — he is all good humor.

“I beat him three times and lost twice,” he says, laughing.

Although he still struggles to improve communication with the rest of his team, Duke has found something on SKT that he never had on NaJin e-mFire: confidence in his teammates. On NaJin, the top lane was truly an island; Duke shone in lane and even earned the MVP award in LCK Spring 2015, but NaJin still finished in sixth place, out of playoff contention. On SKT, Duke has already played a part in major victories in the LCK, IEM World Championship and Mid-Season Invitational.

In the first week of the group stage, Duke said he was sure that “SKT is the team with the best chance to win the tournament.” Now bound for the Grand Finals, his confidence in his team is about to pay off.

Emily Rand is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.