Before twenty minutes, there's no better way to rush an early lead than taking the outer ring of turrets. Long gone are the days where extremely early dragons buoyed laning deficits or a tower for a dragon trade before ten minutes seems viable. With 125 global gold and 150 gold split among players who take the turret, no other objective gives as large of an early lead.

No team in the European LCS has capitalized on the early gold buffer provided by an outer ring of turrets better than SK Gaming. By picking champions like Lucian and Graves, SK Gaming have made taking first tier towers early their utmost priority. As a result, they can use the gold buffer to force dragons or win team fights convincingly in the mid game.

One or two teams in the European LCS banned out Lucian and Graves to some success prior to the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Katowice, but the GE Tigers and yoe Flash Wolves both took out SK Gaming in part by exploiting the ban. SK has nearly dominated the LCS so far, but it’s clear that a major flaw was completely exposed only two weeks before the playoffs. They have a limited time to develop an alternative or risk losing the first place that seemed more or less assured until midway through the split.

yoe Flash Wolves advanced to the Playoffs at IEM Katowice after taking down SK Gaming.

Two answers to the SK problem have cropped up in response to the “ban Lucian and Graves” strategy that dismantled them at IEM. One is that FORG1VEN cannot play other champions, and the other is SK’s limited style of play requires him to play these champions.

Neither of these answers seem completely correct. FORG1VEN has pulled out Caitlyn, Tristana and Corki. Though SK doesn’t have as high of a win rate with these champions, it doesn’t seem like FORG1VEN’s play is mechanically inferior when he uses them. These selections also have a mechanism for taking towers quickly in the early or mid game, meaning they should allow SK to continue playing their preferred style effectively.

Caitlyn is perhaps best known as the original fast-push AD carry. Corki’s power spike is not as immediate as Graves’ or Lucian’s, but a level five or six Corki can clear waves quickly with Phosphorous Bomb and bully a top laner with Gatling Gun shred. Tristana’s Explosive Charge passive triggers on turrets, making her ideal for pushing structures.

There are slight caveats in both cases, but it’s best to start at the root of the problem. Why does SK Gaming lose without the early gold buffers from turrets? The early gold not only allows them to reach mid game power spikes more quickly and dominate dragon fights, but taking the outer ring of turrets also prevents the opposition from abusing SK Gaming’s lack of vision.

By taking the outer ring of towers early, SK forces the enemy team to cede map control. It becomes less safe for them to enter their own jungle, as SK has less of a deterrent to invasion. In addition, they can no longer benefit from the free vision provided by the outer structures if SK chooses to move between jungles. More map control allows them to set up their mid game fights more easily.

If SK doesn’t take the outer ring of turrets early, it’s easy for teams, like GE and yoe, to take advantage of SK Gaming’s low vision control. With their turrets still in place, GE and yoe were able to invade SK Gaming’s jungle, place down their own wards, and set up flanks or dives to take picks. If the game got rough, they could quickly retreat to the safety of their still-standing turrets without threat of pursuit.

In addition, the gold buffer provided by early turret kills not only gives SK an item advantage, but allows them to make more mistakes. If SK doesn't set up properly for a fight or use vision optimally and get ambushed, more gold allows them to maintain their lead as long as they don’t make too many mistakes.

Taking these turrets compensate for SK’s largest flaw in multiple ways and will be integral to their identity until they improve their vision control. As a result, time spent leveling Corki to five or six could be crucial time wasted and allow the opposition to make proper invades and begin grabbing picks to set SK behind. Corki and Tristana loosen SK's control just enough that the opposition can stall against these picks to keep their towers up and snowball against SK before team fights.

Caitlyn, on the other hand, doesn't seem to fit FORG1VEN’s style. Of all the champions he’s played at IEM or in the LCS this year, Caitlyn’s long range is not in line with FORG1VEN’s in your face approach to team fights. FORG1VEN relies on waiting for an enemy tank to close the gap, then uses his champion’s escape abilities at the last minute or blowing out short range burst abilities to chunk them. (It goes without saying that a massive gold lead also aids this kind of risky AD carry play.)

In team fights, FORG1VEN seems to have less of an impact when playing Caitlyn and it shows in SK’s losses, not just to the GE Tigers, but to H2K. Even as a member of Copenhagen Wolves, when Caitlyn was FORG1VEN's second go-to champion, his impact with her wasn't on the same level as when he used Lucian.

In the past Week, SK Gaming has been avoiding Lucian and Graves picks. Against the Copenhagen Wolves, when they could have had their hands on Lucian, they deferred to Tristana, then Corki in the remake. Both against the Giants and the Copenhagen Wolves (at least prior to the remake against the Wolves), SK were unable to get early turrets as easily and fell behind.

They were able to compensate by capitalizing on positioning errors by the Giants to come back into the game and immediately shore up on towers. When SK and Copenhagen Wolves remade their game, SK came out playing much more quickly and made sure they secured their outer ring turret advantage as soon as possible.

Completely revamping their identity and placing more wards might be too tough of an ask for SK Gaming this close to the Playoffs, and they certainly won’t be able to rely on teams like H2K making as many mistakes as the Giants. SK’s approach to the remake against Copenhagen Wolves is on the right track. For now, they can't afford to change the way they play, just play the same style with different picks.

SK had the right approach to the new season when they developed a fixation on turrets, which has unfortunately turned into a dependency. If a team in the Playoffs comes out with a strong turret holding strategy like GE Tigers did at IEM with the double Doran’s Ring Maokai, they may have to settle for less than first place.