SK telecom T1 vs Royal Never Give Up Worlds 2017 semifinal recap

Royal Never Give Up suffer World Championship heartbreak once again at the hands of SK telecom T1 who take RNG down in the semifinals in a tense 3-2 series.

The earliest moments of the series seemed well within RNG’s control and saw the team looking as cool, calm and collected as they did during the rest of the tournament so far. However, as the series wore on, the pressure seemed to get to the Chinese side as SKT started slowing games down and forcing Royal Never Give Up to play safer and safer. Eventually, SKT’s game of patience paid off in both games four and five as RNG made massive mistakes that cost them both the games and their dreams of going to the 2017 Finals in Beijing.

The win in this series means that SK telecom T1 will advance to the World Championship Finals for the fourth time in their history. They have won all four. In the Finals, SKT will face the winner of tomorrow’s Samsung Galaxy vs Team WE next weekend in Beijing.

Game One

Winner: Royal Never Give Up

RNG were absolutely dominant in the first game of the series. SKT tried a variety of new strategies, including playing the Blitzcrank that proved a stumbling block for them in quarterfinals, but RNG were always in control at every stage of the game, including pick and ban where they proved that Tristana and Galio weren’t going to provide SKT with free wins in this series.

Game Two

Winner: SK telecom T1

This time it was SKT’s turn to dominate a game as they started with a strong early game and grew their lead from there. SK telecom once again picked Galio mid, trusting that the pick wouldn’t let them down twice in a row, and this time they were rewarded with incredible map presence and perfect counter engage, that left RNG without any path back into the game after they fell behind.

Game Three

Winner: Royal Never Give Up

There are few compositions possible in this meta that are riskier than the one RNG drafted in this game. Laning phase had to go long, and the rest of the game had to go short, and they played it perfectly. The team’s only real power spike was between the 15 and 25 minute marks and that’s when they took control pushing into SKT’s base and finishing the Nexus in just 23 minutes, leaving the defending World Champions stunned.

Game Four

Winner: SK telecom T1

This was the complete opposite of last game. Where RNG went risky in their composition for game three, SKT went safe for game four, picking a protect the Kog’Maw composition and simply letting it work, pushing lanes and forcing teamfights with their seemingly invincible AD Carry. This let SKT easily push through RNG’s base and close the game.

Game Five

Winner: SK telecom T1

Both teams picked fairly safe compositions, but RNG simply couldn’t use theirs well enough to mean anything, as Lee Sin couldn’t help the team get ahead early, and despite having more late game damage than SKT, the game never quite made it late enough for that to matter. For SKT’s part in the match, they played their composition around Caitlyn and did it well keeping pressure high and never letting RNG bully them or control the pace of the game. Ultimately, this resulted in a fairly easy game for SKT as they barely managed to progress on to their fourth World Championship ever.