Tonight is Telecom Wars. Entering the 10th week, we have two more weeks left in the season until playoffs kick off. In this match up, we’ll have SK Telecom riding high off an utter stomp against the KOO Tigers last week facing off against a surging KT Rolster team that has seen a boost in play with their recent support acquisition. The Telecom giants have been rivals since the Brood War days and have been consistently clawing at each other through the years to gain an upper hand. This is one of the premier rivalries in all of esports. The only other big name matches to watch out for this week would be SK Telecom taking on CJ Entus and the KOO Tigers trying to climb their way back against Najin e-mFire. We’re still in a bit of a fog regarding the standings from second to sixth place so it looks like things will only break apart in the final week of the season.

SK Telecom comes into this match looking nigh unbeatable sitting firmly in first place. They stand at 13-0 in total sets and 26-2 in total matches. Winning this set will grant them first place in playoffs, automatically entering the finals. After completely dismantling the, at the time, apparent second place team KOO Tigers, SK Telecom is facing yet another challenger. SK Telecom is riding a 17 match win streak and has won 20 straight best of three sets. The most dominant team in Korea, it’s very tough to see any other team even touch them. Due to taking home the crown in Spring split, they appear to be a lock for Worlds which will be their second appearance in three years fielding a League team.

KT Rolster moves right into this set riding high after a recent burst of wins. Sitting in third place, they are 9-4 in total sets and 19-12 in total matches. After a very strong end to the Spring split with set wins against the KOO Tigers and Jin Air Green Wings, KT Rolster had a bit of an inconsistent first round robin here in Summer. Going 5-4 in total sets in the first round robin, they entered the second round robin with a new addition in former SK Telecom support Piccaboo. The results have been great as he’s brought much-needed aggression to the roster, along with helping bring Arrow’s laning up to par. They have won four straight sets to kick the second round robin off, taking wins off Najin, CJ Entus, and Jin Air. Right now their Worlds hopes are still very much up in the air. Due to a poor Spring split showing they don’t have much in the way of circuit points, but with a solid showing in the regular season this split and a good playoff result, they can find themselves in contention for the third and final Korean qualification spot to Worlds. Qualifying for Worlds would give KT Rolster their first Worlds qualified team in their three years of competition.

Head to Head Matchup

The main match up to focus on this week is in the top lane between Marin and Ssumday. Like the match up last week, both of teams play around their top laners heavily and unlike the KOO Tigers, KT Rolster gives Ssumday all the resources on the map similar to what SK Telecom does with Marin. These two bring in the most gold of any other top laner and are primary carries for their rosters. While SK Telecom is not nearly as reliant on Marin as KT Rolster is on Ssumday, both teams understand the meta game to a very solid degree and have crafted their team dynamic to fit.

Here they are by the numbers.

Marin

Kills: 124

Deaths: 53

Assists: 176

K+A/D: 5.66

Kill Participation: 61%

Death Percentage: 24%

CS Differential at 10: +8.9

Damage Percentage: 25.9%

Gold Percentage: 23.8%

Earned Gold Per Minute: 281.1

Unique Champion Wins: 8

Games Played: 28

Ssumday

Kills: 98

Deaths: 59

Assists: 211

K+A/D: 5.23

Kill Participation: 68.2%

Death Percentage: 20.3%

CS Differential at 10: +2.9

Damage Percentage: 20.6%

Gold Percentage: 23.4%

Earned Gold Per Minute: 244.7

Unique Champion Wins: 10

Games Played: 31

SK TELECOM T1

Coached by Kim “KkOma” Jeong-gyun

Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-hwan (장경환)

Bae “bengi” Seong-ung (배성웅)

Im “T0m” Jae-hyeon (임재현)

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (이상혁)

Lee “Easyhoon” Ji-hoon (이지훈)

Lee “Scout” Yae-chan (이예찬)

Bae “Bang” Jun-sik (배준식)

Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan (이재완)

In the top lane is the man of the hour, Marin. Ever since the top lane centered meta has hit hard, SK Telecom has devoted each and every game to getting him ahead early and often. He garners more resources and attention than any other top laner, only comparable to the man he’ll be running up against today in Ssumday. SK Telecom has identified their strengths and pushed them to the limit, absolutely crushing opponents under the two-pronged threat that their solo lanes bring. Marin is given heavy priority in the pick ban phase, often getting his pick of the litter in regards to counter picks. He takes all these advantages, is told to carry, and does so. While I have been critical of his play and feel he has not deserved a lot of the praise he has garnered, I still believe he is playing extremely well and is at the very center of this roster. Against the KOO Tigers he brought Fizz out for the third and fourth time this split. Lately he’s been trending towards both Maokai and Fizz, however with the 5.13 AP changes, we’ll likely see exceptionally high priority placed on Rumble, a pick he has mastered.

A person that sacrifices everything in-game for Marin to succeed, Bengi has had a bit of a nice split. Along for the ride that his two main carries bring him on, he’s adapted very nicely to Cinderhulk changes and has corrected many of the mistakes and poor decision-making he faced in Season 4. As I’ve often repeated, I don’t think very highly of him and I feel he’s the main weak point on the roster, being an average to above average jungler in Korea. He does have some admirable traits, such as picking out a player and putting them into a strong position to carry a match, and being one of the most self-less junglers in the region. Playing a variety of champs, Rek’Sai and Evelynn being his most played, he has shown off six different ones this split, including some surprising Ekko and Olaf play.

The man in the middle, Faker. There’s so little one can say about him at this point. After dismantling the KOO Tigers last week, he improved his own personal record to 44-11 on the year. He’s the best mid laner in the world and no one in Korea has been able to come close to him. He’s the most efficient player in Korea, soaking up the absolute lowest amount of gold relative to his team of any mid while dealing more damage than everyone in the league not named Coco. He has been a machine this split after seeing a small dip in Spring where some people seriously questioned whether Easyhoon was a better player. He’s played a massive variety, recording 11 wins on unique champions this split, and lately he’s trended towards Viktor and Azir, like most mid laners. The match up in the mid lane is where I feel the biggest disparity will occur.

The SK Telecom bot lane consists of Bang and Wolf, two of the most consistent players in their roles. Having laned together for nearly two years, the pairing knows each other in and out and are always in sync. Very rarely the center of attention on SK Telecom, Bang has come into the role as a secondary carry. Gaining very little attention or resources in-game, he brings in the lowest amount of gold relative to his team of any ADC. His role in the team is very much like his counterpart tonight in Arrow. Bang has enjoyed Corki most of all, playing the mid game centered champ 10 out of his past 14 matches and recording a massive 12.4 KDA, 53-9-59. His partner, Wolf, has his hands full tonight playing against his former support competition in Piccaboo. Wolf has been a very steady support this split after a weak international showing at MSI. Showing a breadth of champions in his arsenal, he’s showcased phenomenal Leona, Alistar, Annie, and Janna play. Extremely well-rounded support that can mesh into any role he is asked to be in. Together, these two players rock the highest KDA of all players, Bang sitting at 8.4 and Wolf sitting at 9.1.

KT ROLSTER

Coached by Lee Ji-hoon

Kim “ssumday” Chan-ho (김찬호)

Go “Score” Dong-bin (고동빈)

Kim “Ares” Min-kwon (김민권)

Kim “Nagne” Sang-moon (김상문)

Lee “Edge” Ho-sung (이호성)

No “Arrow” Dong-hyeon (노동현)

Lee “Piccaboo” Jong-Beom (이종범)

Jung “Fixer” Jae-woo (정재우)

The top player on this roster and the center of all its focus, Ssumday has broken out of the shell he had been stuck in for the two years prior. Laying back and learning over the years within the KT Rolster organization, he finally showed the world what he was capable of at the end of last years Summer split with a phenomenal Finals performance against Samsung Blue. While the first half of the Spring split was very much more of the same in regards to his inconsistencies, ever since the second round robin in Spring he has been one of the top players at his role. KT Rolster has figured out exactly what SK Telecom has figured out, feed the top laner resources and watch them carry. Tonight we’ll be seeing these two main carry top laners duel. As stated previously the tipping point really will be on whichever team can get their top laner ahead and snowball to victory. Ssumday has showcased one of the largest champ pools in the entire world, performing at a high level on a wide range of champs. Most recently, he’s shown off his Irelia and Kennen alongside standard Maokai, Rumble, and Hecarim play. His champ pool knows no bounds and he’s an extremely exciting player to watch.

Formerly immortal, Score has adapted really well to the jungle ever since swapping over from marksman. Once known for impeccable positioning in team fights, he’s now known for a fairly aggressive, somewhat erratic jungle style. Despite the inexperience in the jungle, he’s been one of the better performers at the position in Korea and a large source of success for KT. Much like his direct opposition, Bengi, Score works on a low economy and focuses more on getting his two solo lanes up and running than he does about carrying the game himself a la Chaser on Jin Air. Sticking mostly to meta junglers, he’s also played more Ekko than most Korean junglers with three matches to his name. He showcased some strong Rengar gameplay earlier in the split, however the pick itself wasn’t particularly optimal. While all of that is well and good, the best part of Score’s gameplay is in conjunction with their new support, Piccaboo. The hyper aggressive roaming support and Score have formed a very strong connection on the map, working in tandem to secure deep vision and force positive ganks early in the game. One of the pieces that I felt was missing with this team has been filled with this duo and their phenomenal play together.

It appears KT has settled on Nagne as their mid laner of choice for the time being, edging out Edge. Nagne has played the past seven matches after a brief stint with rookie mid laner Edge playing a handful of sets. The Faker vs Nagne match up goes far back, all the way to Season 3 Worlds where Nagne saw some of his very first competitive experience on Najin Black Sword. There he stood toe to toe with Faker and looked like a very promising, upstart mid laner. The potential never truly panned out and he’s been a fairly average mid laner his whole career. That hasn’t really changed this year either. Statistically, Nagne is the very definition of mediocrity, falling middle of the pack in nearly all relevant categories. One large positive of Nagne is his variety in styles. He has come a long way from being a very narrow player into being able to play a wide range of champions with varying styles. While initially coming up with assassin play on Ahri and Gragas, he’s transitioned into a more control mage style player, showing very strong play on Cassiopeia and Azir this split. Recently it’s been all Azir, Cassiopeia, and Viktor from him, but everyone knows he does have picks such as that Ahri, Kassadin, and Twisted Fate lined up for potential counter picks.

The bot lane for KT has seen marked improvements over the course of the past few months. Starting the year off with Hachani at support, Arrow’s laning was as atrocious as ever. When Hachani was formally replaced with Fixer, his laning saw large improvements. When they signed Piccaboo, his laning suddenly didn’t look like a joke. While I still firmly believe Arrow is the weakest member of the team, he finally has a very strong support by his side and it is paying off. Arrow’s main weakness through his career was his abnormally poor laning phase. He was always a strong team fighter, but sometimes he just wouldn’t even be able to make it to the team fighting stage of the game. Current KT strategy places Arrow at the lowest priority of the three carries, much like his counterpart in Bang. His role is exactly like Bang: don’t feed in lane and show up to team fights. He performs this well and is one of the more efficient players in his role, garnering little in the way of resources yet putting out a very surprising amount of damage. He’s a proficient Kog’Maw and Sivir player, but has little in the way of other reliable champs. His Corki play has been pretty awful historically which is not inspiring considering how prevalent the champ is at the moment and how strong Bang is on it. His new bot lane partner and former SK Telecom support, Piccaboo, has been the boon to this team. Fixer was a solid support, definitely a Champions caliber player, but Piccaboo is on another level. He brings a completely different style than any other support in the region and regularly carries this team through the early game with some absolutely ingenious roaming. One of my favorite players to watch, Piccaboo is the spark for this team and if they have hopes of winning, a whole lot is on his shoulders to punish his former team. His champ pool consists of basically everything Wolf plays, along with a top of the world quality Thresh. They’re 8-2 with Piccaboo in the lineup, looking to hit the double-digit win column tonight.

PREDICTION

I truly, truly want KT to win this series. I’m not a huge KT fan, but I really do love some of the players on this team and feel they’re really exciting to watch. Heart says 2-1 KT Rolster, brain says 2-0 SK Telecom. KT has had a phenomenal streak thus far and actually look like a very strong contender for a Worlds spot, but SK Telecom is on another plane. I feel KT are far too reliant on Ssumday and Piccaboo, and they lack a second guy that steps up reliably to carry a game alongside Ssumday. Whereas SK Telecom has Faker who shows up every single match to carry alongside Marin and Bang, KT is just overly reliant on Ssumday. I could see KT taking at least one match though, just due to how volatile a Piccaboo and Score early game duo can be and how much of a lead they could garner. Barring that, this should be SK Telecom’s set easily.