OGN 3rd place match: SKT T1 S vs Samsung White; a turtle goes up against a juggernaut

The OGN Champions Summer 2014 comes back for one more set of matches before going on a ten-day-long hiatus before the grand finals. The battle for third place will feature SK Telecom T1 S (SKT T1 S) and Samsung Galaxy White (SGW), with the latter considered to be a decisive favorite.

It looks like a lot of fans look at this match as nothing more but a battle for the third palce, however there is also the second isde of the medal. SKT T1 S’s sister team, SK Telecom T1 K (SKT T1 K), won the semi-finals of Korea’s secondary league: NiceGameTV League of Legends Battle (NLB). The Season 3 world champion will face Najin Black Sword (NBS) as its final opponent. If SKT T1 K wins this set, it will gain itself 75 points from NLB, which would round up the team’s circuit points to 525.

(See: OGN Round of 8: SKT T1 K vs Samsung White; former glory and heated rivalry!)

Even if SGW win the third-place match, the team would still have to play a tiebreaker against SKT T1 K to decide which team would go to the Season 4 World Championship as the second seed, as both teams would be sitting on a 525 point mark.

However, if SKT T1 S were to pull off a win against SGW, it would instantly result in SKT T1 K going to the World Championship as the second seed team, due to Samsung White getting only a total of 475 points. This would put it behind by at least 35 points with no way to gather more. Therefore, T1 S plays not only for its pride, but also for the hopes of its sister team securing a spot at World Championship.

SKT T1 S rely on its late game team compositions and abiltiy to stall out games through picking champions with ridiculous wave clear, especially for its midlaner: Easyhoon, who is extremely proficient at Ziggs. It’s a playstyle taken straight out of Season 2, and if there was to be a team able to play the game like this and under such circumstances, it would definitely be SKT T1 S. It is the playstyle that the team feels the best at and it’s also what has carried T1 S so far in the last and current splits. However, I’m afraid it’s not going to be enough against an early-game juggernaut like Samsung Galaxy White.

The members of SGW are all renowned for having impressive mechanics, even by Korean standards. The team is also feared for its ability to create plays from every single lane, a lot of the times without the help of its jungler. Such prowess allows Dandy to beat the enemy jungler in a one-on-one most of the time. If that fails, he usually counter-jungles as much as possible, given that he doesn’t have to worry about his teammates as far as the laning phase is concerned. However, SGW is also famous for its inability to handle losses and it seems like the team is still unable to deal with this problem.