Photo Credit: LoL Esports
Samsung Galaxy.
Congratulations to this lineup of Samsung for their first world championship win, with the win being the second for the organization as a whole. Samsung took down defending 2016 world champions, SK Telecom, in a 3-0 sweep to stun the world and take down a legend. After the rebranding of the team after 2014 when the dominant Samsung White team at the time had just won worlds, people had little expectation for the new Samsung roster who dug themselves in the middle of the pack in the LCK. However, with perseverance, this team made it to the Worlds Finals last year to challenge SKT in a thriller 5 game series that ultimately SKT won.
In this series, Samsung executed their impressive macro game and teamwork, prioritizing objectives over kills to win the title. Game 1 was the pinnacle of their style as they took a three thousand gold lead in the first twenty minutes without a single kill across the map. With their superior vision control, they were able to start Baron and despite a steal from SKT, they were able to win the ensuing team fight 4-0. They proceeded to quickly choke SKT out of the game to take a convincing first game. SKT struck first in the second game with Faker grabbing the first kill onto Crown which they used to build themselves a lead. However, a massive ace for Samsung at the cost of only Ambition allowed them to take the Baron and the game soon afterwards. The final game began massively in SKT favor with objectives and kills going over until they built themselves over a 7k gold lead. However several lost team fights, towers, and a Baron later, Samsung took a slight lead. A triple kill from Huni once again turned the favor towards SKT as the defending champions were able to grab Baron and push down another turret. In the end, several small skirmishes allowed Samsung to grab several kills and ultimately win the game, completing one of the biggest comebacks this Worlds.