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SK Telecom forgoes tank meta and still beats ROX 2-0

Mid laner Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok. Riot Games

SK Telecom T1 seems to be back on track, picking up its second 2-0 sweep of the week with a victory over the ROX Tigers on Friday in Seoul, South Korea to close out Week 8 Day 4 of League of Legends Champions Korea.

SKT still seems a bit slow to adapt to the new tank meta, as it let ROX draft both Maokai and Cho'Gath in Game 1. It didn't really matter in the long run, however, since SKT showed some signs of its old, World Champion self in Game 1. Things got off to a messy start with ROX taking a 3-for-2 teamfight early, which gave way to a fairly even early game. SKT finally broke the game open with a pick that led to a Baron and 3-for-2 fight in its favor, powered by a double kill from mid laner Lee "Faker" Seong-hyu's Cassiopeia. To its credit, ROX didn't simply back down after SKT picked up the Baron buff, prolonging the game for another 10 minutes as best it could. Eventually, though, SKT picked up a second Baron and punched into ROX's base to secure the 39-minute win.

SKT was clearly unafraid of the new meta tank picks of Maokai and Cho'Gath, since it again gave both picks up as it drafted a double AD carry composition for Game 2. While ROX managed to get first blood around eight minutes in, that was about all ROX accomplished for the rest of the game. In the next few minutes, SKT flexed its muscles with a throttling 4-for-0 teamfight win, fueled by a triple kill from SKT AD carry Bae "Bang" Jun-sik's Xayah. At that point, SKT was up by 4,000 gold and there was simply nothing that ROX could do to battle back due to its lack of damage, and the fact that Faker's Lucian and Bang's Xayah were running wild on them. It was a breeze for SKT to pick up the Baron at 28 minutes, once it secured yet another four kills, giving it more than enough momentum to increase its lead. Moving with a purpose and pace that SKT fans have been anxiously waiting for ever since Rift Rivals, SKT sailed along towards a 35-minute victory for a second consecutive 2-0 sweep.