The rise and fall of legendary LoL team, SKT T1 K

It has been several years since major League of Legends tournaments were fisrt held. As we seek through the past, there were a lot of teams rising and falling. From the first generation European and North American teams to Southeast Asian and Latin American teams, there are just numerous teams that are willing to compete against others and demonstrate their ability.

Team logos of 2014 LCS (Major ones only)

Team logos of 2014 OGN (Major ones only) 

But, because teams from Korea had put a lot of influence on the field of League of Legends in a few recent years and had been listed their name in top tier teams, it is pretty right to say that LoL teams could be classified as Korean or Non-Korean teams. (It actually was true!) (But, not now I think!)

Today, I want to talk briefly about the team that was the legend that established an unbeatable reputation and records, SKT T1 K.

The rise of a legend

It all started in 2013, when coach KkOma tried to make a secondary team of the one that have been sponsored by SKT Telecom, one of the 'big three' of Korean telecom providers. He tried to get a list of 5 out of Korean top rank 50 amateurs, who were evaluated by an ELO system (based on the win/loss in the game).

With all the expectations and wonders on the back, 5 selected players, consist of 3 amateur rookie players Bengi, Faker, and Piglet, as well as OGN veterans PoohMandu and Impact, started to dominate League of Legends Champions, a Korean pro-level LoL competitive league, consist of top 8 teams in Korea.

From the left: Impact, Piglet, Poohmandu, Faker, and Bengi.

The dominance

Making the fact that they are a newcomers to the pro scene colorless, they got 3rd place in their very first tournament. They then managed to win the Summer tournament of that year and even won their Winter tournament without losing any games out of 12, which is the one that I consider the best record of the whole League of Legends tournaments worldwide. (By the way, the opening video of the final match of the tournament is my most favorite video in the universe; it made my body to tremble at the first watch. It also let me know who Imagine Dragons are!)

Following through, not only being a champion of LoL Champs in Korea, SKT T1 K spreaded their ambition to become more globally outstanding. In 2013, they won the Season 3 World Championship held at the Staples Center. Competing against 13 other teams, SKT T1 K was absolutely demolishing, letting the foreign teams to get only a single win against them (it was the Chinese team called OMG).


Here is a montage of SKT T1 K when they're at the best!

The fall

SKT T1 K's Season 3 World Championship team profile picture

However, maintaining the seat of a king forever is a pretty unreachable thing for everything. Despite of their absolute dominance in their abilities to win, reputation, and amazing records, SKT T1 K started to fall after losing the Season 4 World Championship qualifiers(the game that decides which team in which region would go to S4 World Championship). The post season champion being absent in another championship was a pretty awkward thing, and indeed, a new champion, Samsung Galaxy Blue, had arised.

The main specific reason of a fall of the champion is, in my opinion, is a change of meta. Normal people who are playing League for fun would never know, but I still want to present some advanced knowledges.

A mere, however a still important changes of several champions- mostly called "Nerfing a champion", would change a playstyle of competitive games hugely. Since there is a 'tailing back' relationships between several commonly used team compositions (such as AOE comp > Bruiser comp > Poking comp > AOE comp), even a bit of change on a champion would intimidate a balance.

There is also a meta in each lanes; the main thing that I wanted to say is that the main reason of a fall is the change of meta in mid-lane. Faker, who's mostly called God (somehow an Unkillable Demon King), is great at playing every champion, but especially Assassin types. Since Riot Games nerfed most Assassins that he used in Season 3 World Championship, such as Ahri, Fizz, and Zed, the meta had slightly changed to Poking types, such as Ziggs and Xerath.

SKT T1 K was dominant in all lanes, but the most outstanding carry was Faker, the mid-laner. Since his power and dominance had lowered and other lanes were also dominated by other newcomers, it was evident that they will soon fall down. (Online games are extremely sensitive to ages, so the one that dominate are usually youngs.)


Something else to say...

The games that were played at their peak are pretty jaw-dropping. They were absolutely dominant on every single part of the game, from lane phase to strategies. Since they are dominating in all three lanes, it is much harder for the opponents to actually win the game- they are carrying disadvantages gained during lane phase to teamfight phase, and SKT T1 is better at teamfight too!

I mean, how can this happen in the "World Championship"?
7.3k gold lead in 16 minutes and already 2-0.

This post is more like a reminiscence than an introduction, but really, as a Korean studying abroad in America who plays, watches, analyzes, studies, and loves League of Legends, the proudness that I felt was, immense. I continued playing and develop my League knowledge because of the motivation that a legendary pro team had given to me, just like any other soccer kids getting inspired by FC Barcelona. I really want to see, since definitely not a small amount of people are interested in this subject, this kinds of games should be respected as sports, but an electronic sports, an e-Sports.



Since the expression and the point of rise/fall is extremely based on my opinion, feel free to tackle on any of the context. Comments are welcomed at all times. Thanks for reading and have a good day!