Two world championships, five domestic titles, first place at MSI, and an IEM Season X championship - this is how you buy the phrase Never count out SKT. For the greatest team to ever play League of Legends, victory is expected. Yet, as the 2016 season of League Champions Korea came to a close, SK Telecom T1 saw a slump that not even they were stranger to after their Summer was cut short in the semi-finals by rival team KT Rolster. Nonetheless, with their Worlds berth secured by circuit points, SKT took a much-needed vacation before getting back to work for the impending Championships.

Fast forward to today and we’re already halfway through Worlds group stages with SKT proving themselves to be a favorite for the tournament. The team ended the weekend tied for first place in their group with a 2-1 score and have displayed a return to form, while not entirely leaving their Summer weaknesses behind them.

As expected, SKT’s Worlds thus far has been championed by the unkillable demon king himself Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. Faker is making waves through the San Fran crowd after kicking off SKT’s weekend of competition with a beat down of embarrassing proportion on opposing Cloud 9 mid laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen. Faker not only put the strength of Syndra (one of this year’s strongest power picks) on display, he showed that even after lifting the Summoner’s Cup twice in his career, he is hungry for more.

The team fell in line with their star player and effortlessly defeated North America’s third seed in just under 35 minutes- making it clear that they had begun to iron out some kinks in their play. Most notable was the team’s early game strength around long standing jungler Bae “Bengi” Seong-ung. Bengi had seen very little play this past season in favor of newcomer Kang “Blank” Sun-gu, but his appearance at worlds was no surprise after Blank’s performance nearing the end of the season left much to be desired. In stark contrast to Blank’s recent absence from the early game, Bengi managed to secure kills with both Faker and Telecom top laner Lee “Duke” Ho-Seong in the laning phase, allowing the team to quickly snowball their lead.

SKT’s second opponent of the weekend was China’s third seed I MAY. T1 rolled over the Chinese team even harder than C9, sending I MAY to the score screen in 32 minutes with nothing more than three kills to show for their troubles. Together, Faker and AD carry Bae “Bang” Jun-sik dealt more damage to champions than the entirety of I MAY’s five man squad. Also impressive was Blank’s performance on Nidalee, a champion who he’s struggled on in the past. Although the champion alone is a power pick in the current meta, Blank created an uncharacteristic amount of pressure in the early game, albeit a team-wide stomp.  

While analysts and fans alike will look carefully on SKT’s jungler choice, their top laner showed confidence in himself and his team to make both options work. When ESH asked Duke about measures taken to keep Bengi and Blank up to par, he responded simply, “There wasn’t much of a pep-talk [...] When laners perform in games, junglers perform better.”

That’s all good in theory, but after SKT’s final game and only loss of the weekend, Blank could be in need of more than just a pep talk. The jungler was all but checked out during his team’s bout with the Korean slaying Flash Wolves. Unlike his play just a day before, Blank auto-piloted through the majority of the game while his lanes fell around him at the hands of FW jungler Hung “Karsa” Hau-Hsuan. Karsa exhibited an impressive early game influence on Lee Sin that has been shown by several other junglers at the tournament, notable INTZ’s Gabriel “Revolta” Henud, and TSM’s Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen.

SKT’s loss to Flash Wolves paints a perfect picture of their limitations. The two mismatched like a puzzle piece on the final day of the weekend with FW showing a gank heavy early pressure that has long been lacking from SKT’s repertoire. Interestingly enough, the battle stalled on the edge of a knife in the mid game where SKT would be expected to excel. The Flash Wolves slowed to a crawl and trudged through, taking no action and in turn giving no mistakes for SKT to exploit as they’ve become famous for. Sk Telecom managed to stall through two separate Barons before the game seriously fell away from them- partially of their own ability, and partially due to Flash Wolves needlessly passive play through the mid and late game. In the end, a poor team fight following a FW Elder Drake would seal the loss for SKT.

While some will find comfort in Flash Wolves drawing the blood of god, it’s important to note that this was Blank’s first ever competitive game on Olaf, and even with his poor performance, it could have easily gone in SKT’s favor. The team has historically been able to push through their often weak jungle matchup, and Blank himself displayed a strong performance on Nidalee who most consider the best jungle pick of the tournament- not to mention The Jungle himself Bengi is still on deck.

SKT will protect these small pressure points as the tournament progresses, and disrespecting the titans out of Korea is something the rest of Group C already knows not to do. Their loss to FW is a small bump in a road that could very well be on track for a third World Championship. While remnants of their season’s struggles do remain, there’s no doubting their contention for the cup. The same roster played very poorly (by T1 standards) in the group stages of MSI and came back to win it all- this time around at Worlds, they’ve already dominated half their group. After a weekend of crazy upsets, under and over performances, and the total massacre of pick ‘em predictions, I like to hold onto something that is certain, and SK Telecom T1 being a threat to every single team at the World Championships is something that is certain.    

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Images courtesy of Lol Esports Flickr.