Welcome to the LCK Griffin! The most impressive team to ever come out of Challengers Korea has now qualified for the LCK Summer Split with their victory over MVP. After dropping the first game, Griffin was barely tested over the next three in order to win the series. With the loss, MVP will now be playing Kongdoo Monster on Sunday for the final spot in the LCK Summer Split. Before the match, Griffin was a -296 favorite to advance according to online sportsbook BetDSI.
B_N K_I’S_
Everyone but MVP seemed to know the answer to this puzzle. Griffin was more than happy to keep taking Kai’Sa early in the pick and ban, and MVP never was able to come up with a good response to Kai’Sa’s power in the mid game. Even after seeing the new champion dominate Games 2 and 3, MVP foolishly refused to use a ban on the champion with their backs against the wall in Game 4. The response to this error was swift. Shoutcaster Achilios immediately took off his headset and walked out of the booth in frustration, while the Twitch chat exploded with memes. After Kai’Sa once again took over past the 20-minute mark, everyone but MVP’s coaching staff saw their opinions validated.
It was eerily similar to what we saw between Afreeca Freecs and Kingzone DragonX in the LCK Spring Split Finals, right down to the game score. Afreeca kept refusing to ban the champion, while Kingzone kept prioritizing her and leaning on her to win team fights in the mid and late game. Afterwards, Afreeca tried to explain their reasoning for not banning Kai’Sa, and MVP will likely say much of the same.
Other problems with MVP’s draft
Refusing to ban Kai’Sa will be one of the big stories of the match, but MVP can also be questioned for the champions they decided to prioritize. In Game 3, the team decided to first pick Zac and they followed that up by first picking Alistar in the decisive Game 4. Both of those selections were rather curious with the number of options on the board and were criticized after they failed to deliver any real value.
Congratulations to Griffin
Although it’s pretty easy to criticize MVP for their strategy, Griffin capitalized on the mistakes like good teams do. There was a lot of hype surrounding Griffin coming into the Summer Promotion tournament and they lived up to the billing. Lehends has proven to be a very good support, while Tarzan continually outplayed Beyond in the jungle. Even the more unheralded players like Viper, Rather, and Sword had their moments as well. Some have speculated that this team could make it to the Summer Split Playoffs although none of their players have ever played in the LCK before. They will be the talk of the offseason and we will find out just how good they are relatively soon.
