KT Rolster set their sights on Origen after destroying LGD Gaming
Even KT Rolster was surprised at how lopsided their win over LGD Gaming was on Day 3 of the 2015 World Championship.
"I thought in Group D, LGD is the strongest team and then us second," said KT Rolster support Jong-Beom "Piccaboo" Lee. But as it would turn out, KT proved their superiority with an absolute rout of the Chinese squad.
Throughout the early stages of the tournament, we've seen a priority bans on many of the "overpowered" champions like Elise, Gangplank, and Mordekaiser. But in this match KT gave up many of the OPs over to LGD -- if they wanted. "We gave them the OP champions, because it didn't really matter. We would have beat them either way." LGD didn't bite on Mordekaiser, and he went undrafted in champion select completely. As it turns out, LGD could have used his AP damage in the game.
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"When they showed us triple AD, we picked Malphite."
Given that LGD's own Cheon-ju "Acorn" Choi played Malphite in their first game against Origen, you would have thought it would be a warning sign for LGD not to overlook the Bronze 5 staple. But LGD picked a triple AD composition, with their only AP source being Yong-Quan "TBQ" Zhu's jungle Elise. The trap was set, and KT counterpicked LGD's strategy with the rock of the top lane.
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LGD's only hope for the game was to get out to a good start and snowball the mid game using their good poke composition. But KT found the lead after a very early bottom lane team fight. "[Arrow getting hooked] was kind of on purpose -- 50/50. We knew that they were going to TP on us," Piccaboo said, "So we told Arrow to go die! We knew what would happen, because we had double TP."
Despite Seung-bin "Imp" Gu's CS lead up until that point, the team fight started an avalanche that LGD couldn't escape.
Piccaboo believes the Chinese teams' troubles are rooted in communication. "Chinese teams have two Korean players -- I think their communication isn't very good compared to KR teams who have five people speaking in Korean." Only time will tell if LGD and their fellow Chinese teams can recover in time to salvage the Group Stage.
As for Origen and European teams, Piccaboo has a lot of admiration. "After I saw LGD vs. Origen, I thought… maybe we could beat LGD and Origen too. We just need to beat [Origen] tomorrow."
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"I don't think NA is that good, but I think EU is really good," Piccaboo continues. "I'm really proud of Fnatic and Origen."
After the win, KT goes up 2-0 in Group D, while LGD drops to 0-2. With only one opponent left in Group D, KT Rolster will look to finish the perfect 3-0.
Find out if they can Sunday October 4 at 3pm Central European Summer Time.
Frank Fields is a Senior Editor for Riot Games Esports Web Content team. Talk to him on Twitter about ordered lists, where your comments will be assimilated into the Matrix. You can also find him in Solo Queue in the Diamond 5 retirement home.
