Defending Champions Secure a Slot in the Semis
RNG’s jungler, Mlxg, said that their initial goal was just to make it out of the group stage. Having done that, are they happy with 1 win against SKT?
Game 1 – RNG Wins
RNG said that they’re not expecting to win a game against SKT but they did by taking the very first game of the series. In hindsight, RNG’s win over SKT isn’t because of them doing things better against their opponent, it has more to do with SKT slipping up and RNG quickly taking advantage of SKT’s errors.
37 minutes into the game, just when SKT was closing the gold gap, Duke wastes his Teleport and gets nothing. SKT resets and Bengi goes to the lower part of the map. RNG sees this and sneaks a Baron with Looper teleporting in to help his team.
After losing Baron, SKT sets their sights on the Elder Dragon but RNG was able to wrestle it away from them. Faker prematurely uses his ultimate and Bang Arcane Shifts to Looper’s range who quickly chunked him down. With SKT’s ADC removed from the fight, they back down and surrender 2 huge buffs, and eventually the game, over to RNG.
Game 2 – SKT Wins
If RNG won Game 1 due to errors from SKT, Game 2 was the exact opposite of it. Just a little over 3 minutes in the game’s clock, RNG gives up 2 early, and very easy, kills to SKT. Mlxg tries to invade SKT’s jungle but the 2 junglers meet in the river with Blank having a level advantage over Mlxg. Mata tries to help but, with 4 members from SKT now moving in, they were just easy pickings. 8 minutes later, both jungler and support are 0/2/0.
Meanwhile, players on SKT’s side finished the game with spotless records except for Duke who had 3 deaths.
Game 3 – SKT Wins
After such a crushing loss in Game 2, RNG’s mental state was called into question. It was even mentioned that Looper spilt water on his keyboard after that game.
In this game, it is very obvious that RNG is breaking down. Just 15 minutes after the game has started, the score is 5-1 with a 5k gold lead for SKT. 2 minutes later, RNG engages in a fight and gets aced. At the 20-minute mark, the gold lead has doubled and the kills are getting out of control, 13-4, as RNG continues to dive again and again into fights.
Game 4 – SKT Goes to Semifinals
If RNG finishes the series with the performance they showed in Games 2 and 3, I’m sure they won’t take it easy on themselves. Going this far into the 2016 League of Legends World Championship just to tilt when you’re in a losing streak isn’t a good way to leave the tournament.
Thankfully, RNG after a long talk with their coaches, was able to get their heads back into the game.
Even though they still lost, the graph above just shows that, in the early stages of the game, they were actually able to pull ahead of SKT. Everything turned around after SKT dove the RNG bot lane and cleaned up the remaining members of RNG who tried to respond.
From there, SKT got control of the game and, in the end, secured their semifinals spot.
Yes, RNG is no longer in the tournament but the fact that they were able to take a win from the defending champion and were able to recollect themselves for a last stand shows that they deserve their spot in the quarterfinals.
With 2 Korean teams already in the semifinals, will we see a third Korean team or will the Chinese be able to steal one slot?
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