Arrow's perfectly-timed Jhin snipe is another must-see moment in Korea's 'Telecom Wars'

Few rivalries in eports have been quite as heated as South Korea’s so-called "Telecom Wars." Matches between Korea Telecom (KT) and South Korea Telecom (SKT) have been producing intense games and close competition since the earliest days of Starcraft: Brood War. But, perhaps the most memorable feature of the rivalry, at least in League of Legends, is the incredible individual plays that happen when these teams meet. Back in the 2013 OGN Summer Finals Sang-hyeok "Faker" Lee made one of the most famous plays in League history to secure an SKT victory in game five to complete a reverse sweep after losing the first two games of the series.

So, when KT went two games down to start the LCK 2016 Summer Playoffs Semi-Final, with a potential trip to the 2016 World Championships on the line, game three seemed perfectly poised for a series changing play. That play; a 2 for 0 trade and a tower that would come courtesy of a perfectly timed Curtain Call shot.

Before we get into the flashy part of the play, let’s take a moment to appreciate the setup. The true beginning of the play happens in the river around 10 minutes, when Bard, played by KT’s Support Seung-chan "Hachani" Ha , places a pink ward in the river brush, then collects a few chimes around dragon pit. This gives SKT’s Jun-sik "Bang" Bae and Jae-wan "Wolf" Lee botlane the confidence to advance onto Dong-hyeon "Arrow" No’s Jhin. The second thing that made the play possible was a gank in midlane around 10:20, that forced Faker back to his own tower to clear the minion wave. It was a simple move that created just enough pressure for Rek’Sai and Ekko to move towards the bottom lane.

As for the play itself, it begins with Arrow, who is still being aggressed on by Bang and Wolf, stepping towards the advance of the opposing botlane in order to land an auto and a stun on Bang’s Sivir. This is a bold move that catches SKT off guard - particularly when Hachani runs out of the river brush to land a Cosmic binding after not being in lane for almost a minute. Wolf, in a bid to escape, uses Devour on Bang’s low health Sivir, then attempts to body block the Curtain Call being used by Arrow. Seeing that they have Rek’Sai and Ekko on their way through the jungle, Hachani uses Tempered Fate to hold SKT’s botlane until backup can arrive. The bad news for Bang and Wolf is that they were frozen almost beside each other, rather than with Wolf blocking for Bang.

This is where Arrow’s timing becomes nearly miraculous. He hits Sivir with the final shot of his Curtain Call the instant Tempered Fate expires. It’s hard to overstate just how well-timed this shot was. Sivir had her Spell Shield back up after using it earlier in the fight, and it wouldn’t have taken more than a few steps for Tahm Kench to block the shot, allowing Sivir to escape. Half a second too early or late and the play would have been for nothing. Instead Arrow casts his final shot at the perfect moment to catch the end of Tempered Fate’s 2.5 second stasis giving SKT’s bottom lane duo no time to react.

After the shot takes out Sivir, the rest is basically clean up. Wolf’s Tahm Kench was caught in a quickly closing net as Ekko and Rek’Sai collapse and finish him off, giving all four KT members in the botlane gold for the kill. On the other side of the map, Chan-ho "Ssumday" Kim uses Mega Gnar to ensure that Gangplank can do nothing to help his bot-side allies, allowing Ssumday’s teammates to take the tower. All this pushes KT into an almost 5k gold lead in the 12th minute, putting them in a perfect position to win game 3 and begin their reverse sweep of SKT, advancing to the LCK Summer 2016 Finals.