The LoL Worlds 2019 started with a bang yesterday. At the start, the SKT1 team with superstar Faker faced off against Fnatic. The Europeans were considered a dark horse to win the championship in League of Legends before the game. However, in the match, they stood no chance against the Koreans of SKT1.
What was played? Yesterday, the group stage of the LoL Worlds kicked off. Now the championship is really on.
The Koreans from SKT1 are in the “group of death” C alongside the Europeans Fnatic, the outsiders Clutch Gaming from the USA, and Royal Never Give Up, the strong Chinese team led by Uzi.
Yesterday, the game between SKT1 and Fnatic took place. This was both teams’ first match of the World Championship. No one really knew where the teams stood at the moment:
- SKT1 had a mediocre regular season in Korea but got stronger towards the end in the playoffs and managed to become champions.
- Fnatic is alongside G2 Esports the dominant team in Europe. And Europe has appeared to be “the new power in League of Legends” since 2018.
Double teleport to the bot lane puts SKT1 on the road to victory
How the match went: The match was one-sided, and Fnatic struggled greatly from the start.
Fnatic played with Garen (Rekles) and Yuumi (Hylissang) on the bot lane. SKT1 countered with Kayle (Teddy) and Nautilus (Effort).
An important play occurred after 11 minutes. Here, Fnatic wanted to catch SKT1 supporter Effort at the tower. The bot lane duo of Garen and Yuumi advanced. Behind them lurked jungler Rek’Sai (Broxah). Fnatic wanted to classically secure a kill on the bot lane as three. However, this turned out to be a mistake.
What seemed like a “3:1” situation in favor of Fnatic quickly turned out to be “5:3” in favor of SKT1. Fnatic couldn’t escape this, as they were at the enemy tower when they realized what was happening behind them.
Because Teddy and Khan teleported to the lane. Faker and Clid also made their way down.
The 5 members of SKT1 made quick work of the 3 opponents from Fnatic. Rekkles tried to somehow kill Nautilus, but that didn’t work out. He barely escaped the situation with a few health points left.
SKT1 secured 3 kills. At that time, they already led 4:0.
Audience applause for Ryze on the run
A nice scene for Fnatic can be seen here. The score is 2:6. SKT1 makes a push through the middle and secures 2 kills.
Faker and Clid pursue the fleeing Nemesis on Ryze, who seemingly just wants to get away.
A 1vs1 develops between Clid on Lee Sin and Nemesis on Ryze. Clid is at full health, Nemesis has about 40% when it really starts. Ryze needs to hurry, as Faker (Tristana) is only a short distance behind them.
However, Nemesis manages to turn the tables and kill Clid while fleeing. Faker can’t catch him, and Ryze barely escapes. This caused applause in the Berlin arena and gave Fnatic fans among the audience some hope.
Yet ultimately, the game was a clear affair and ended after 35:43 minutes with 21:9 kills for SKT1.
What did Faker do? He played a cool 9/0/8 on Tristana. He was the only one of the 10 players who did not die once.
After the match, Faker had a small message for the fans in Europe: “I am back.” The spectacular part is that he spoke English and smiled.
Faker apparently enjoyed the match.
