Photo courtesy of Mmosite.com

SKT vs Royal World Grand Finals Impressions well watching the games

Pre-Game:

Royal:

Royal came into this tournament as a huge underdog. It was a common impression among many analystss and players that OMG had thrown the matches in the Chinese regional finals. And I believe that does have some truth to it, as OMG did use Coma their Sub, rather than bigpomelo. OMG wanted to be in the group stages, since they were confident in being able to make it out of their group, and wanted to avoid facing SKT or Ozone who would be put against two of the teams with byes. OMG certainly did try their hardest in the games vs royal, but they did not put their strongest roster forth.

Royal really stepped it up after they qualified for worlds, and has been playing on top of their game. Their extremely aggressive playstyle, with NO hesitation at all has really been dominant. I also believe Tabe and Uzi are both the best at their roles, which makes them the best bot lane in the world at the moment.

SKT:

SKT is the #1 team coming from Korea, which made them the favorite for winning worlds from the very beginning. SKT’s Faker, as we all know, is damn amazing. He is, in my opinion, the best player in the world at the moment, and that is not something I say lightly. I don’t believe, in the history of league of legends before this point, that there has ever been a player that I would deem the best player at the moment, it has always been far too close to make such a judgement.

Game1:

SKT chose red side side, which let them counter pick Orianna with Gragas. The champ pools of these two teams do not overlap too very much, so both teams got team comps they liked. Although we see royal struggling to counter pick Jax, they don’t really know what to play vs it when renekton is banned.

SKT facechecked the bottom tri-brush with royal all sitting inside of it, but royal chose to back off from this fight because they had the weaker level 1. They could have taken advantage of their vision advantage to force a summoner before backing off from the brush, but were a bit too scared.

Royal Tri-lanes top lane with Vayne, Sona, Elise, three ranged champions, which allows them to push down the turret against Jax/Jarvan faster than SKT’s bot lane can push vs Malphite. This is very smart by Royal, and gives them an advantage early, although they do lose a bit in the experience war, since a Tri-lane+Solo-lane gives less experience than two duo lanes.

Bengi the playmaker ganks for Faker right when faker reaches 6, and gets first blood. He then immediately comes back again for another kill, and Godlike wastes his Teleport mid trying to save him. This is very significant misplay, as it allows Faker + Bengi to do a 4 man dive bot lane, with no counter-play being available from Royal. SKT gets a double kill + tower + dragon from that play, and the game is over.

Game2:

Royal decided to pick Kassadin when both Kayle and Fizz were available as counter picks vs Zed. I think this was a mistake, as it concedes the early game to SKT, who is a team that will not throw leads. SKT uses the weak lanes Royal picked to first pressure top lane, and then three man dive mid lane getting 1st blood.

Royal does manage a good counter play with Uzi and Tabe baiting a fight bot lane, and Kassadin tping in for a double kill. It’s not enough though, as SKT’s strong early game allows them to dive bot lane and get the first turret of the game, followed by the first dragon.

Royal, who is desperately behind, manages to ace SKT well they were pushing down mid turret due to a good engage and fast kill on ezreal, followed by cleanup. I believe from this point, due to royals comp greatly outscaling SKT’s, Royal should have been able to snowball the rest of the game. SKT manages to use their masterful vision control to force a bad fight against Royal, and gets an ace. They then manage to get Baron and strangle Royal out due to their amazing play.

Game3:

At this point it is clear that Royal is incredibly shaken. They look extremely demoralized. I believe they got greatly outpicked, as their top laner+jungle combo of Kennen + Lee Sin is incredibly weak.

Royal is scared to get any vision up lvl 1, and due to that they get forced into a 1v2 situation. Kennen + Lee cannot hope to survive in a 2v2 vs Zyra Corki, and Lee chooses to just completely abandon the lane. Kennen is zoned from tower, and is dived when Royal switches lanes and sends him vs Jax. The game is over at this point, as Kennen is too far behind to do anything.

SKT showed how dominating they are. They are incredibly impressive. Royal is an incredibly strong team, and SKT just obliterated them.

Photo courtesy of LoLesports.com