It’s the head-to-head matchup everyone is talking about, the Top lane showdown between SK Telecom T1’s MaRin and the KOO Tigers’ Smeb. Here’s an overview of how the two players stack up statistically.
All stats based on 2015 World Championships, including group stage, Quarterfinals, and Semifinals, unless otherwise specified.
KP: Kill participation. D%: Death share. GD@10: Gold diff at 10 minutes. Continue reading MaRin vs. Smeb: Head to Head Stats
Only four teams remain. SK Telecom T1 takes on Origen on Saturday, October 24, and Fnatic faces off against the KOO Tigers on Sunday, October 25.
Here are some overviews of each team’s strengths and win conditions, and my predictions for the results, to help you get ready for what are sure to be some awesome games.
SK Telecom T1 arrived at MSI as gods and left as mere mortals. Somehow, unexpectedly, a European squad full of rookies and a supposedly inferior Chinese team were able to prove that the Koreans were less than immortal, that they could, in fact, bleed.
Coming into MSI, SKT’s skin seemed impenetrable. They had captured the LCK crown handily, with a 3-0 sweep of the GE Tigers. The followed that with a 5-0 Round Robin, leading SKT’s Faker to state that he was “eager to get [a] clean sweep”. That didn’t seem like an unrealistic goal, especially after SKT had beaten EDward Gaming so convincingly in their Round Robin matchup.
But when the dust settled after Game 5 of the MSI Finals, EDG stood victorious. And along the way, European underdogs Fnatic had also, very unexpectedly, managed to push SKT to a fifth game.
How did SKT’s LCK and MSI playoff opponents manage to take seven games and the MSI championship away from them? The statistics below explore three keys to victory over SKT:
Get That Snowball Rolling
Push the Pace
Keep it Messy
