The quarterfinal match between Splyce (Europe) and SKT1 (Korea) took place today during the LoL Worlds 2019. A star performance from Faker was expected, but the god of League of Legends remained pale. Nevertheless, SKT1 was ultimately a class above – thus the second team from Europe has been eliminated.
What was played? This was the 3rd quarterfinal at the LoL Worlds 2019. It took place this afternoon in Madrid.
SKT1 is probably the biggest and most successful LoL team in the world. Star player Faker in the mid lane holds practically all records one can imagine.
The team has been “struggling” in recent years:
- 2017 they lost the Worlds final
- 2018 they couldn’t qualify at all.
- In 2019 they had a mixed regular season in the LCK, only placed 4th – but managed to win in the playoffs.
Something seemed off there.
Now, Faker has excellent teammates such as ADC Teddy, jungler Clid, and top laner Khan. The team is considered a favorite to win the Worlds.
Splyce, on the other hand, is the 3rd team from Europe, and it is already a success for them to have reached the quarterfinals. They had to fight their way through the play-ins.
At Splyce, ADC Kobbe (23) stands out, he is supposed to win the game for them in the endgame, while jungler Xerxe (19) manages the early game.
This is how the series went: SKT1 won the first 2 games clearly and decisively: The games ended with 14:8 and 18:7 kills. In both matches, SKT1 seemed like they were two sizes too big for Splyce.
The Europeans failed to transition from a decent early game into a successful mid-game. They kept losing the ward and vision game time and again.
However, it was noticeable here that the actual star of SKT1, Faker, was having a quiet day. He faced off against Humanoid, a 19-year-old mid laner, but could not dominate the matchup.
In Match 1, Khan turned up on Lucian (8/1/4), and in Match 2, Teddy took the most kills on Kai’sa (7/1/7).
In Match 3, SKT1 seemed completely out of sorts. They substituted in backup support Mata (25) and let the game slip away in a rather careless manner.
They couldn’t find a proper answer to top laner Vizicsacsi on Ornn and the heavy crowd control from Splyce, who also had Rek’Sai, Ryze, Kai’Sa, and Nautilus.
Towards the end, it almost looked like SKT1 was tilting. Very strange decisions came out of it. Khan flashed with Renekton into a 1vs4 situation, where he simply got crushed.
In Match 4, a sensation was suddenly in the air. Splyce was able to hold strong at first. Especially Faker on Ryze remained pale for 20 minutes.
However, during that time, the top laner from SKT1, Khan, fed on Quinn so much that he decided the match almost single-handedly in the end.
Khan faced Renekton and could tear him apart during the match. Quinn constantly attacked Renekton from a distance, and he seemed helpless.
While Vizicsacsi played so strongly in the previous match on Ornn (5-2-9), he now proved to be a weakness (1-6-2) that SKT1 kept exploiting.
In the end, Splyce chased Khan with 4 people to finally kill him. But that proved to be quite foolish since while all of Splyce was hunting that one champion on the top lane, the rest of SKT1 were taking down the base and won the game effortlessly.
The special twist: In the 4vs1 against Khan, he even managed to take out Splyce’s ADC.
That’s what is called a Pyrrhic victory: Won the battle, lost the war.
Throughout the match, Faker was criticized by the casters for his “quiet performance”: Being Faker, it’s not enough to just avoid mistakes, but you have to do Faker things.
Faker managed to do this only in a few scenes, although he was able to play a “signature pick”, Ryze, in game 4.
After the match, a caster then exclaimed: “Gods can bleed, but they do not die.”
Somehow, this summed up an uneven match fairly well. A notable success for Splyce, but for SKT1 a task that brought little glory.
But Splyce played well here and more than met the expectations placed on them.
In the end, Khan was the clear MVP of the series, and SKT1 stands in the semifinals. But when it comes to the final four, a stronger performance from Faker will be needed to reach the finals.
Currently, 3 Asian teams are in the semifinals. Europe’s last hope is now G2 Esports – they have to face DAMWON Gaming.
