SK Telecom T1’s first-ever best-of-five series against Taiwan’s Flash Wolves doesn’t last long. A mere hour and a half from the moment that both teams take to the Rift in Game 1, SKT is on the Flash Wolves’ Nexus for the third time, sweeping the series. Their victory came so quickly that catering had barely arrived before the energetic Korean team filed into the press room for a post-game conference.

Until this moment, the Flash Wolves had the upper hand against the world’s greatest League of Legends team, SK Telecom T1, all in best-of-ones. They had earned the nicknames, “SKT Killers” and “Korean Killers” due to their winning record.

On Friday, May 19, 2017, that record swings in SKT’s favor. Flash Wolves previously had the advantage at 4-2. With a single best-of-five sweep, SKT now own their head-to-head record at 5-4.

“Did you know it was going to be so quick?” Yahoo Esports asked SKT top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon after the series.

“Yeah,” Huni replied.

“All along?”

“Yeah.”

“Are finals going to be that quick for you?”

“Yeah.”

It’s a familiar scene. The members of SK Telecom T1 partially obscured by falling confetti, their hands around yet another trophy. The 3-1 finals series against G2 Esports isn’t as quick as Huni had predicted, but it’s another victory for SKT nonetheless.

Although SKT’s 2017 Mid-Season Invitational championship title was expected, the team has a different attitude this time around. As they walk through the maze of hallways in Rio de Janeiro’s Jeunesse Arena, they have a natural style, even a slight swagger.

Since 2013, SK Telecom T1 have been a confident team, but this is the first event that confidence is present in everything they do: the way they walk, their press interviews and interactions, inside jokes and jabs on the MSI main stage, and their playstyle on the Rift.

“I don’t think there’s a really good team that can beat us or give us problems,” Huni told me after Day 1 of the tournament. “Our goal is just winning MSI and we’re going to try hard for ourselves.”

Huni’s SKT teammates followed his confident lead, saying multiple times throughout the tournament that they would win.

“If we keep playing at this level, and also fix some of our mistakes that we have made, it won’t be that difficult to achieve no losses this championship,” SKT support Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan said after Day 3.

On Sunday, May 21, Huni and SKT followed through on their words. The bold prediction of an undefeated tournament run didn’t come to fruition, but they earned yet another trophy for the SKT case.

The arrival of Huni and former ROX Tigers jungler Han “Peanut” Wang-ho in the 2016-17 offseason quietly ushered in a new era for SKT. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, already an aggressive laner himself, would have two additional dive buddies in the duo, along with one of the most consistent bottom lanes in the world in Bae “Bang” Jun-sik and Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan.

SKT didn’t falter in the 2017 LoL Champions Korea Spring standings, but they did looked shaky at times. Peanut, who had never been an intuitive, pathing jungler even while on the Tigers, struggled to adjust.

View photos Kang “Blank” Sun-gu at the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational (Riot Games/lolesports) More

Part of this is due to the expectations of the SKT jungle position since the days of SK Telecom T1 #2 in 2013. Forged by Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong, SKT T1 #2 developed a style that encouraged Bengi’s intelligent pathing and warding patterns, rather than deferring to a more gank-heavy early game.

Initially, Bengi was also a jungler who ganked more frequently on the likes of Lee Sin, Jarvan IV, and Vi to get his laners ahead and start the SKT T1 #2 snowball. Bengi’s play evolved into the default SKT jungling style. Facilitating Faker in the SKT mid lane became Bengi’s primary objective. He achieved that by tracking his opponents in the jungle and laying down a strong vision net. Despite hiccups in 2014, and later in 2016, Bengi created and embodied the SKT jungle.

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