KT marks its 2018 KeSPA Cup debut with a sweep over GC Busan, while Gen.G’s perfect run continues with a 2-0 victory over Kingzone
The first day of the 2018 KeSPA Cup quarterfinals marked the debut for LCK‘s KT Rolster and Kingzone Dragon X. While KT, featuring a new roster and showing off some of its new signings, easily swept Challenger Series team GC Busan. Kingzone faces an early exit from the competition after a 2-0 loss to LCK rivals Gen.G.
KT Rolster sweeps GC Busan, teases new starting lineup
For the past two years, KT Rolster had what many considered to be the most talented roster in the entire LCK. However, the team’s limited domestic success, with only one title to their name (Summer 2018) and an early exit at the World Championship led to a change for 2019. With only top laner Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho and jungler Go “Score” Dong-bin returning.
Game 1: KT overcomes an early deficit to open the score
While GC Busan’s Kai’sa-Alistar bottom lane duo managed to get the push priority, jungler Lee “Ryan” Jun-seok took the opportunity to secure an Ocean drake. This in turn created enough space for KT to execute a three-men play on the top side. Eom “UmTi” Seong-hyeon and Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong joined Smeb to take out Lee “SoaR” Gang-pyo’s Irelia and grab the first blood. Both teams went for a swap, with Busan moving three players to the top side in order to eliminate Smeb and grab a turret. While KT decided to force things down bottom and secure the bonus gold for destroying the game’s first turret.
Busan
Busan got an early lead by taking down three of KT’s turrets. However, he has a bad engage attempt in the mid lane which gave their opponents enough space to go for a Cloud drake,. He had to take down the turret and take down three of GC Busan’s members during a second fight. The defending LCK champions grabbed the opportunity and went for the Baron, but GC was able to contest the call. This forced both teams to reset their maps. It stayed like this for some time, with the two teams trying to secure vision around the pit. Up until Bdd found a perfect engage on Ryan’s Kha’zix, quickly bursting down the jungler. With GC Busan caught in a bad spot and spread around the jungle, KT also secured kills on AD Carry Lim “Moo” Mu-heon and support Yang “Minit” Hyeon-min. With an uncontested Baron buff in hand, KT wiped out Busan’s base and took down the Nexus at the 25 minutes mark.
Game 2: KT stomps its way to a sweep
While Busan had a better start in game 1, KT didn’t let that happen again. With Bdd’s Galio pushing the lane early on and pressing Lee “reM” Hyeon-seo’s Yasuo under the turret. UmTi took the opportunity to go for the dive only three minutes in to draw first blood.
While KT held a four to one advantage on the kills score, it was Busan that went for the first turret. He made good use of its Ezreal-Tahm Kench bottom lane pairing. With a better fighting potential then GC’s composition, KT Rolster slowly turned that kill advantage into a lead. After an “unofficial ace” and a clean road to the Baron, the defending LCK champions secured the buff and put it to good use, leaving GC Busan’s base down to its two Nexus turrets. With huge waves of minions coming from all three sides, KT went for a final fight. This was to close out the series and advance to the KeSPA Cup semifinals.
Gen.G on a roll, sweeps Kingzone
Gen.G’s disappointing early exit at Worlds seems to be a distant memory. The team’s new lineup, making its debut during the KeSPA Cup, has yet to drop a single map. The highly successful and somewhat surprising run continued in the quarterfinals with a sweep over LCK rivals Kingzone Dragon X.
Game 1: An easy win for Gen.G to open the series
Gen.G drew first blood with a three-men play on Heo “PawN” Won-seok’s Malzahar. Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin’s Akali secured the kill. With a strong early push from a bot lane consisting of Ezreal and Tahm Kench, Kingzone’s new duo Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu Park “TusiN” Jong-ik held Gen.G’s Kai’sa and Alistar under the turret. Having collected the Rift Herald, KZ’s jungler Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan released it to help Deft and TusiN secure some more gold from the turret plating. It worked well, and the first turret went to the team not long after that.
Gen.G then used its mid lane priority to set up inside Kingzone’s jungle. The play handed another two kills to Gen.G’s side, keeping the gold difference relatively close while also securing three elemental buffs (Infernal, Mountain and Cloud). Another team fight win, this time on the top side of the map. This allowed Gen.G’s scaling composition to actually build up a sizable gold lead. AD Carry Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk played it to perfection, positioning his Kai’sa to clear Kingzone’s champions. With a much better vision control around the map, Gen.G set up an easy Baron call. This secured an uncontested buff. With a second Infernal drake to their side and already well ahead of Kingzone’s snowball-based composition, Gen.G had little trouble to close out game 1 in just over 30 minutes.
Game 2: Gen.G fights its way to a series sweep
Both teams tried to repeat their compositions from the first game. With the major difference coming from the top side of the map, which saw Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee and CuVee mirror their Akali-Urgot matchup. And Rascal made good use of the reversal by securing the first blood following a gank by Cuzz’s Gragas. Gen.G responded with a perfect engage from Life’s Alistar on Deft’s Ezreal. With Peanut joining the fight to help Ruler’s Kai’sa secure two kills. Despite this blip on the side of Kingzone’s bottom lane duo, it still managed to collect the first turret’s gold.
Kingzone relied on split pushing with PawN’s Yasuo and Rascal’s Akali to build a lead in turrets. But the team failed to execute on its win condition, while Gen.G did a better job on that front. Relying on team fights to slowly reduce KZ’s gold lead, with another impressive showing by Ruler on his Kai’sa, the team found a perfect fight at the 29 minute mark, grabbing four kills and a Baron buff. Kingzone’s three thousand gold lead quickly turned into a three thousand deficit, and Gen.G had little trouble to clean out another team fight in order to get inside KZ’s base and destroy the Nexus 31 minutes in.
The 2018 edition of the League of Legends KeSPA Cup continues through the weekend, with the finals set for December 31.
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