After the rest of this announcement
SK Gaming had a strong start to the regular season, including a 3-0 first week win over Fnatic. Only the team finished the regular season with a total score of 5 wins for 4 losses, then lost its playoff match against Vitality in straight sets without taking a single round. They held their own yesterday against the highly unlikely Fanatics, and will face Fnatic on Monday at 8 p.m. Can SK beat them, or is this the end of their season?
(visible) problems of the team
Let’s start with Present the current hierarchy of teams in the LEC : One team looks a bit above the others (G2), while the other two claim to be potential candidates to take them down (BDS and FNC) without looking as strong as Samurai. G2 45% for the other two teams). Then there are several teams that are good enough to tickle the favourites, but still need to progress/mature to really compete with the top teams. SK is obviously in this category.
However, the obtained S.K A deserved victory against Fnatic, it must be recognized that the latter were not 100%. It was the first week of competition with their South Korean duolane, and what’s more, FNC shot themselves in the foot by starting on Renekton toplane, a meta the champion was very weak in. Despite Irrelevant’s tyrannical dominance in the top lane, FNC managed to keep up with SK despite other aggressive lanes. (notably exec’s drawn) and it was only during team fights in the midgame that SK had a decisive advantage, but this was mainly due to the fact that FNC was literally 4+ a canon minion vs 5 so Renekton was of no use. . This was the match Almost a draft victory (even if all SK’s played very well and applied the game plan) more than victory in skill. This doesn’t detract from SK’s merits, but it is It is impossible to rely solely on the outdraft to win a title in a major region.
Let’s be clear upfront, yes SK can (and must) Improve his macros so that he can compete with the best teams. However, it’s hard to see this as a flaw, their macros are less good than the top 3 teams, but still far from bad, and Neither FNC nor BDS seem to be able to defeat SK based on macro alone (Maybe G2 can, but we wouldn’t necessarily bet on it). Their faults are elsewhere, and among them the first If Isma isn’t on a utility jungler, the team could be in trouble. The jungler is currently the team’s metronome in the early game, but also the balance point of the SK composition. Isma is 6 wins for 2 losses today on a utility jungler, compared to 1 win and 4 losses on a more aggressive jungler. Isma is one of the rare junglers with a positive winrate on rail, while the latter has less than 50% of wins in LEC. Only in metas where more carries are wild (especially Xin and Brand, even though Xin is much less strong at 14.2) are also very dominant, SK can’t afford not to threaten with them.
The blame does not come from Islam, because Such choices can unbalance team composition. Irrelevant mostly likes to play carry champions, and SK tries to put it on champions that can carry. even though SK Toplaner’s performance can cause debate among viewersIt is good to remember two things: Irrelevant Described by some pros (not just his teammates) as a Monster on topplaneAnd that Jax is often forced to be banned. Only the team lacks some stability if Isma is also on the champion carry, and Irresult’s performance is still erratic. However, if Irrelevant can have as much impact on utility champions as it can with Bruiser, then SKs will be stronger.
Possible evolution of SKs
today SK doesn’t seem capable of competing with the LEC’s top 3, but they have the potential. The team could go in different directions, with the possibility of being able to appear Also perform with only DOS in real frontlane. The problem today is that currently Not the most effective in tank support lane, including being able to play weak side bots. At the same time, if Isma is in a jungle that needs power farming early, and Dos is in a tough matchup, you should Another player to bring movement to the mapSo that the team is not too passive in the first minute.
there The best solution today seems lowwho have already tried to exit Champions who want to shift more often than win their 1v1 (Nico, Talia but also Sylas). His Talia was Devastating in the second round against Team Heretics, dealing 41% of the team’s damage On the whole game. Another way SK manages to be dangerous in the midgame is if Execic is left alone in the botlane. Usually if SK botlane is dominant early on, the midgame will go well, but if not, SK seems to lose very quickly. It’s not so much that Axacic struggles to play defensively (he doesn’t seem particularly worse than other LEC ADCs in that area), but So far, every time the team has tried these types of strategies, DOS’s inconsistencies have failed to make a difference elsewhere on the map. It’s hard to determine if this is a macro issue, game reading, or coordination between players (probably a little of all three), but SK must gain flexibility.
This will clearly be the final word for SK. They are now a very strong team on certain types of strategy, but still lack the versatility to run other styles of formations. It’s hard to imagine beating Fnatic on Monday, unless they miss their match, but SK will clearly be a team to watch this season. The team has great potentialAnd if he’s already a more credible candidate for the top 4, a podium or even a final victory doesn’t seem out of his reach in the coming splits.
