Heading into the finals of the LCK for spring 2016, the ROX Tigers went as the heavy favourites by fans and analysts alike. There was no reason to believe SKT would win until reality struck us like a bolt of lightning. Player for player, SKT is a better team, and the strongest player on the Tigers isn't allowed to play hard carries because of the meta we’re in. Still, SKT managed to topple the favorites and pull out what has to be their biggest underdog victory to date. Yes, I know, SKT as underdogs is something I never thought I would type, but thats what they were going into the finals.

Lee “Duke” Ho-Seong

What do you do when your Worlds winning top laner goes to another team? Well, if you're SKT, you actually find a player who is individually more talented. For fans of LCK, it was really a matter of time until we would end up seeing Duke on a major team. To put it into perspective for those who haven't seen Duke play in 2015 -- Duke managed to win enough MVP points to win MVP of the season when his team didn't even manage to make it into playoffs. He was almost solely responsible for Najin maintaining their position in the league.

However, being extremely talented and driven isn't going to guarantee success. For quite some time, Duke never really found himself comfortable on the roster; communication was extremely flawed (often seeing Duke not teleport at all when it was required, or teleporting too far from where he was needed). Still, even without the teleport understandings with his team, Duke wouldn't lose lane even if in a bad match up. He is a powerhouse from the top lane that can dominate his foes and take over games entirely on his own. If that wasn't enough,his playoff performance with the team showed the team’s overall improvements when warding and coordinating teleports.

Kang “Blank” Sun-gu 

It's been a rocky year for the new jungler of SKT. Spending most of the early weeks not playing at all, SKT would often just field in Bae “Bengi” Seong-ung instead of the young talent. This was not because Blank was bad; simply put, he didn't fit in the squad just yet and needed to modify his playstyle. It's understandable since, after all, jungle is the role that most varies from solo queue to the professional stage. SKT desperately needed Blank to find his stride since Bengi wasn’t really able to adapt to the meta dominated by Graves, Nidalee and Kindred.

Thankfully, as weeks progressed and passing through IEM Katowice, Blank was fielded in full time and started to mesh unbelievably well with the team. This upward trend would continue for most of the latter half of the split and into the playoffs. The results were spectacular from their very first playoff match and it only got better from there. Allying himself well with his mid laner, Blank took a bold and aggressive approach to each game. Sure, it did make him get caught in certain situations, but he always managed to maintain relevancy during games and started to embrace the carry jungler role that SKT can give him. It’s probable that Bengi might still get some games at MSI, but in the current meta, Blank fits the SKT squad better and has learned to ward continuously, so much so that he even became the jungler with the highest average wards per minute in all of LCK.

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok

Somebody should ask Faker if he ever gets tired of being given trophies. With a collective 5 OGN/LCK champions victories and 2 World Championships, Faker stands tall as the most accomplished player League of Legends might ever see.

Regardless of his accomplishments though, Faker has definitely shown moments of weakness during 2016 spring. His game on Twisted fate vs Jin Air Greenwings stands out as one of those performances where Faker simply didn’t play to expected standards. (Side note: if you claim it’s unfair to expect a performance from Faker every game, you’ve clearly not seen enough of Faker to understand that he expects to perform well himself and is the first person to be disappointed with himself when games such as his TF vs Jin Air happens.) As it stands though, Faker is simply the man to defeat. He can still play practically any champion League of Legends has to offer, and still holds the title as the scariest Lulu player across all regions.

In addition to Faker's already insane skill, we have to remind the fans that him and Blank have developed good synergy ever since IEM Katowice. Faker's continous pressure allows Blank to freely walk into the enemy team's jungle and place down as many wards as SKT deems necessary. 

Bae “Bang” Jun-sik

Even though SKT has had its ups and downs, there will always be one thing for certain, and it's how consistent Bang is as a player. This is Bang’s third official year at the professional level. You wouldn't truly be able to tell because nobody has been as good as Bang for as long as the SKT Marksman has. In fact, Bang is quite possibly the only player to be continuously improving over such a long period of time and is still going strong heading into Shanghai.

Bang is as reliable as an AD carry can be. Even if he’s left alone in a lane to fend for himself while his support teammate is off to roam, he’s never found himself in a deficit he can’t come back from. Whether he is playing positional carries like Ezreal, constant DPS like Kalista or a team enhancer like Sivir, Bang is always relevant and a constant threat to the opposing team, even if starved of resources.

Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan

There isn't much to add about Wolf that we haven't mentioned already about Bang (aside from the "whole best in their role thing" -- Wolf isn't quite there yet). As Bang has grown over the years, So has Wolf alongside him. From being primarily an Alistar player to demonstrating his prowess on Thresh, Tahm Kench, Braum and even Trundle in the current meta, Wolf has proven there is no meta to which he cannot adapt to. Even if it is to a decent-but-not-great level, Wolf seldom has moments of poor performances, making him one of the most reliable supports in the LCK.

The more the jungle role develops, so does the support position. Ever since summer 2015, supports and junglers roam hand-in-hand, and while it is slightly less prominent this spring split (usually focusing more on the jungle/mid combo), SKT still works well when support and jungle roam together. Wolf will look for openings to roam with his jungler, and with SKT’s support’s tendency to pick tanky melee supports, the Korean squad can aim to set up dives at any point in the map, knowing that their AD Carry will not get punished for it.

Player to look out for: Blank

It’s almost scary how much Blank’s play and communication improved with SKT over the playoffs. SKT’s jungler went from an uncertainty to a commodity. This timing was crucial, since it allowed SKT to balance the mismatch in power vs ROX Tigers. Had Blank not found his inner carry, we might be talking about looking out for the Tiger’s jungler, Peanut, instead. The great thing for Blank is that in a meta where jungle/mid synergy could define a game, he has the single best option in his mid lane that he could have asked for: Faker. This will be Blank’s first international showing (as well as Duke’s), and we have to keep an eye out for the 18 year-old jungler.

Conclusion: SKT has no real individual weak spot (barring a complete choke from Blank in a major stage). They’re coming in as the heavy favorites and could very well go through the entire tournament without dropping a single game. It will be up to everybody else figure out how they can use SKT’s misuse of teleports during the mid game to their advantage, and hopefully turn it into enough of a lead.

Connect with the author on Twitter at @HeckMaister.