Griffin (+119, +1.5 @ -161)
@ Over/Under 36:00, Total Kills 18.5
KT Roslter (-152, -1.5 @ +125)
Before diving into this finals match I'd like to take a moment to mention the end of an era and pay homage to OGN. Other writers have done a far better job than I have at highlighting just how critical OGN's commitment to bringing a professional broadcast in both Korean and English of the top League of Legends domestic league in the world was to the developments League of Legends esports. Here is a link to Emily Rand's incredibly well written thank you to OGN for the memories.
OGN was not only my introduction to Korean League of Legends but what inspired me to view the game with a more critical eye. It inspired me to drastically improve my own play, organize and play as a team not just as an individual player, coach individually and full teams, begin tracking my results, blogging, and, perhaps most importantly, discussing and analyzing the game on a higher level. I I will be forever grateful for the literal hundreds of hours of work that it made easier to get through but what started off as something to pass the time quickly turned into passion. I likely would not be here today attempting to more critically analyze the game without OGN's outstanding production and casters like Montecristo and DoA, who, for my money, are one of the two best casting duos in esports history. The full OGN package quite literally ignited my fire for professional League of Legends and while I'm sad to see they will no longer be carrying the broadcasts I'm incredibly thankful for all the memories. Countless days started in the wee hours of morning with Korean League of Legends and OGN is responsible for that. It's been a great run but I'm looking forward to whichever direction the LCK broadcast goes.
And now on to the finals…
I wouldn't have OGN's final broadcast and any other way. New kids on the block Griffin looking to spike in LCK final on their first try with five rookies, a seemingly impossible feat in the most competitive domestic league in the world and KT Rolster a superteam that is been damned to always being the bridesmaid but never the bride. This one ought to be a slobber knocker folks!
Let's first take a look at Griffin. After starting off their debut season with six consecutive match wins KT Rolster where there to stop their momentum with 2-0 win to knock the rookies back down to earth. Like truly elite teams do to newcomers they gave them a reality check. Was this just a hot start or are Griffin the real deal? They then went on to defeat Afreeca and Gen.G moving to an 8 and 1 match record. To this point Griffin had looked great but people were still little bit skeptical space myself included. They did go on to lose four more matches including another to KT Rolster, this time in much closer fashion, but if it weren't for a tiebreaker they would've ended the season number one in their debut season which would have been a momentous achievement. For those of you that are into traditional sports, Griffin remind me a lot of the New England Patriots. They have no ego, complete confidence, and attack opposing teams weaknesses. They don't stick to one style or one player but rather do what they feel is the correct game plan against the specific opponents they are facing. As a matter fact, perhaps the most impressive part about the run besides defeating a number of the best teams on the planet, is that they did so in a style completely different from what they did in Challenger. They're extremely well coached, adapt well, and most of all are not stubborn.
KT Rolster looks like the same players but a completely new team to me. The reason I say this is because they're doing new strategies for change their identity but because they were no longer the "KT Rollercoaster." Historically, KT Rolster, with this particular roster, had a tendency to play up to their competition and down to their competition. They would utterly smash the best teams in the world and would routinely lose to the bottom of the table teams sometimes in back to back matches. This team was different. To me you could only point to a couple of individual game losses there were sloppy or lazy and almost all of the good teams had a few of those. KT Rolster didn't drop matches to MVP or BBQ like they would had in previous seasons. They look like a team on a mission a mission to break the curse and prove to everybody that the superteam is exactly that. Unlike previous iterations of KT Rolster, this version wasn't particularly stubborn in the way they approach the game. If they could run you over early they would. If they saw an opportunity to scale to the late game they would as well. Often times their star power was enough to just completely dominate lane phase even against similarly talented teams. Toward the end of the LCK regular-season I actually predicted that KT Rolster would end up in first place through tiebreaker system because this team felt different to me.
So where does that leave us in this matchup? Both teams have superstars, both are versatile, both are extremely confident, and both are very well coached. So why am I leaning toward KT Rolster? This is going to sound like a simple answer, but I think KT Rolster are a little bit more versatile and have better individual players overall. As good as Tarzan, Chovy, and Viper are I feel they are matched by Score, UCal, and Deft. Chovy, in particular, has benefited a lot being able to play Zoe quite often, something that I think KT Rolster will either have a plan for or will take off the board altogether. I'll admit that Sword and Lehends over performed even my optimistic expectations but Smeb and Mata get my edge. They are two of the best players of all time and while it's dangerous to assume that they are better just because of that, Smeb and Mata continue to perform at the highest level.
Call it destiny, call it fandom, call it whatever you like but I think people like a Cinderella story just a little bit too much. To me, KT Rolster are the better team, not by much but by enough for me to put six units on the money line and one unit on the handicap. I think the most likely outcome for this series is a 3 to 2 KT Rolster victory, the second most likely outcome is a KT 3 to 1 victory, and the third most likely is a Griffin 3 to 2 victory. This also be a great series and I'm looking forward to it but I said it more than a month ago that I would be riding KT Rolster rather heavily. This is a different version of this team, they aren't going to choke in a big spot, and while it's exciting to see the Cinderella story the Griffin that brought us I think it comes to an end here. After all, wouldn't it be the most KT Rolster thing ever to smash a good foe in spectacular fashion? I'm not sure that'll happen but it honestly wouldn't surprise me. KT have had Griffin's number this season. I hope Griffin get through the gauntlet and we can see them at Worlds because they completely deserve to be there based on this Summer split performance
Moneyline: KT Rolster -152 (6 units)
Handicapped: KT Rolster -1.5 @ +125 (1 unit)
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I'll be putting the rest of my picks on Twitter. For those of you that don't know I'm going through some health problems so sitting for extended periods is really painful but I needed to put something down to LCK Finals. Waiting on surgery. It's nothing to severe but that, as well as limited action are why I've been a bit quiet recently. I'll likely do a really long stats breakdown post before Worlds starts as well and update all of those.
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