Photo Credit: gosugamers.net
Undoubtedly, the most successful team in League of Legends and one of the most famous has got to be SK Telecom T1. This team made history last year by being the only team so far to win two world championships and has shown themselves to be one of the most dominant teams in Korea and the world.
Photo Credit: liquidlegends.net
Season 3
The roster of Season 3 SKT T1 was:
Top-Impact
Jungle-Bengi
Mid-Faker
ADC-Piglet
Support-PoohManDu
Originally, this team was designated as the “second” SKT team because during that time, SKT had another team which was supposed to be the better team. However this team, then called SKT T1 K showed themselves to be the stronger lineup, taking the second seed of the LCK (Korea) region for Worlds. In the group stages of the Season 3 World Championships, SKT would top their group, tying with Chinese superteam, OMG, at a 7-1 record. Their quarterfinals match was against the Taiwanese team, Gamania Bears, and although Gamania played SKT relatively close, the Koreans would go on to close out the match 2-0. Their second match would be against the winners of the Korean Circuit and also the heavy favorites of Worlds, Najin Black Sword. In an exciting match that went all the way to the full 5 games, SKT managed to out-touch their countrymen winning 3 maps to Najin’s 2. The final team that stood between SKT and the Summoner’s Cup was Royal Club, the team that cleaned up both OMG and Fnatic, two of the strongest teams in the tournament. SKT would find no trouble dealing with the Chinese team, easily sweeping the series 3-0 and going on to make history as the first Korean team to win a world championship.
Post Season 3 and Season 4
The momentum of the world championship would continue as SKT returned home to Korea. They would go on a dominant spree during the Winter Season not dropping a single game throughout. The mid-laner and superstar of the team, Faker, would receive the MVP award for that season. Unfortunately for SKT, their dominating performance would not continue for the next season. Support player PoohManDu announced that he would take a break from playing professionally, and the results were seen immediately. The team did not manage to place even in the top 4 for that season and even PoohManDu’s return at the playoff stage did not revitalize the team. The team would continue to struggle throughout 2014, even failing to qualify for Worlds, being forced to accept a meager 4th place finish in the Summer Season.
Photo Credit: hoangbody.wordpress.com
Season 5
The roster of Season 5 SKT T1 was:
Top-Marin
Jungle-Bengi
Mid-Faker
ADC-Bang
Support-Wolf
After the unsuccessful results of Season 4, the team underwent several roster changes, fiddling around with each role except the mid-lane. A new rule only allowing 1 team per organization forced SKT to merge their two rosters. Impact and Piglet would look for new opportunities across the Pacific in the North American LCS. PoohManDu would hang up his keyboard and mouse, retiring from competitive League of Legends but later returning as a coach for SKT. The new roster would struggle at first, but then go on to rival Season 3 SKT’s performance, taking first place in both the 2015 Spring and Summer Season. This allowed them to go into the Season 5 World Championships as the first seed from Korea.
Season 5 World Championships
SKT was put into Group C with Edward Gaming from China, H2K Gaming from Europe, and Bangkok Titans from the LMS. EDG was built up as the strongest team from China and the team that had the potential to beat SKT. SKT would quickly disprove this train of thought, dominating their group with a perfect 6-0 record. The quarterfinals against ahq and the semifinals against Origen would again prove little trouble for the Koreans, who swept both series 3-0. The finals would be against fellow Koreans, KOO Tigers, who were SKT’s biggest rivals back in Korea. SKT would take the first 2 games but KOO would respond by winning the 3rd game. The 4th game was simply SKT outclassing KOO, with 13 kills to 1 kill, easily cleaning up the game and winning their second world championship.
SKT Today
SKT is now synonymous to success and winning in the League of Legends community. Mid-laner, Faker, is one of the most famous players of all time. With the Season 6 World Championship coming up in the summer, will SKT be able to defend their title as the best team in the world?
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