There can only be one: The fight for 2nd place in the LCK

Riot·Aug 4, 2015·1 votes·8,448 views

T-minus one and a half weeks. The Summer Split Playoffs are looming in the horizon, and teams are turning up the heat.

With the 1st place spot firmly in the grasp of SKT (sorry, contenders), the rest of the league is scrambling to get the next best thing: 2nd place. Why does it matter, you ask? Well, for starters, the higher your ranking, the fewer Best of 5s you have to play in the Playoffs. Considering that the 5th place team needs to play four Best of 5s to get to the Finals, teams are scrambling to get any possible edge that they can.

Championship Points are also awarded to the teams in order of placement, as follows:

Summer Split Championship Points
1st - Auto Qualification for World Championship
2nd - 90 Points
3rd - 70 Points
4th - 40 Points
5th-6th - 20 Points
7th-10th - 0 Points

Since the 2nd seed to Worlds will be decided by how many Championship Points teams have accrued over the 2015 season, it's even more incentive for them to finish in the highest rank possible. And of course, any teams that miss out during Playoffs also have the chance to partake in the Regional Finals, where seeding is based on the final standings after Playoffs.

With all that said, how are the teams currently faring?

Too Close for Comfort

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KT Rolster - Set Score 11-5, Game Score 24-14

Remaining Opponents: Longzhu Incredible Miracle, Rebels Anarchy

A big match against the KOO Tigers in Week 11 ended up in KT's favor, and they've snapped up the coveted 2nd place spot -- for now. To keep this placement, they'll need to take 2-0 sets against both Longzhu Incredible Miracle and Rebels Anarchy.

Even though both CJ Entus and KT Rolster are tied in set score, CJ has two more game losses than KT. That means KT has to finish their Split with a 4-0 record to hold off CJ and KOO. Anything less than that, they're vulnerable.

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CJ Entus - Set Score 11-5, Game Score 24-16

Remaining Opponents: Longzhu Incredible Miracle, Samsung

CJ Entus was able to make the gods bleed. With an upset 2-1 win over SKTelecom T1, they've been able to regain their footing after shaky performances earlier in Round 2. CJ's remaining schedule remains relatively easy, with bottom tier teams Longzhu IM and Samsung being their final two matches. The caveat? They need to end with at least 4-1 and hope that KT drops three games in their Best of 3s to take that 2nd place spot.

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KOO Tigers - Set Score 10-6, Game Score 23-14

Remaining Opponents: Jin Air Green Wings, Sbenu SonicBoom

What happened to you, KOO? Despite high expectations, NaJin and KT were both able to snag the victories away from the ferocious Tigers. To reclaim their spot, KOO will need to get 4-2 or higher in the remaining matches against Jin Air and Sbenu and both CJ and KT will have to go at least 3-3.

Due to Sbenu and their sudden win (their first this season!) against Jin Air, they can't be dismissed as an easy opponent. As for Jin Air, they're still one of the better teams in the LCK. This match will be the most important out of the other matchups. KOO's pressured to go for a perfect Best of 3 score, and Jin Air will be fighting hard to overtake NaJin for that 5th place spot. Both teams have a lot at stake.

New Challenger Approaching!

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NaJin e-mFire - Set Score 10-6, Game Score 23-17

Remaining Opponents: Sbenu SonicBoom, SKTelecom T1

NaJin is doing it again. It's time for Worlds, after all. They're currently on a three set win streak, but it's going to be a rough road to leapfrog over KOO or CJ. SKT will likely foil their plans for Worlds domination, but crazier things than Najin taking the win have happened.

What does NaJin need to catapult up the standings? KT needs to go at least 2-3, CJ needs to go at most 3-2, while KOO needs to get 3-3 or below -- while NaJin needs to get a 4-0. The chances of all these things happening are slim, but not impossible.

Hanging by a Thread

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Jin Air Green Wings - Set Score 9-7, Game Score 20-17

Remaining Opponents: Rebels Anarchy, KOO Tigers

Jin Air can still qualify for Playoffs, but it'd take a perfect 4-0 score and NaJin getting at most a 1-4 game score for it to happen. Week 11 has been somewhat of a turbulent ride on flight Jin Air, as they ended the week with a 1-2 loss to Sbenu SonicBoom -- a win that they desperately needed to catch up in points. They're going to have to jet their way through the remaining matches to get back into Playoffs contention.

Bye Bye Bye

As for Samsung, Anarchy, IM and Sbenu, they won't be able to make the Playoffs. All there is to do now for these teams is to close out the Season on a high note. Or, if they have more devious intentions, make it difficult for the higher ranked teams in their battles for the next available top slot.

Keep up with the jam-packed last weeks of Champions Summer as the teams give their all to conclude the Summer Season! As always, everything is available right here on Lolesports when Playoffs begin August 16th.

13 Comments

Straw Hat LokiAug 4, 20154 votes

Remaining Opponents: Longzhu Incredible Miracle, Rebels Anarchy

A big match against the KOO Tigers in Week 11 ended up in KT's favor, and they've snapped up the coveted 2nd place spot -- for now. To keep this placement, they'll need to take 2-0 sets against both Jin Air and Sbenu.

Their opponents are LIM and RA; then what is it talking about w/ the "need to take [...] sets against JAG and Sbenu"?

I think this is a mistake.

RiotTayTay BotAug 4, 20153 votes

It was a mistake! Fixed now.

Straw Hat LokiAug 5, 20151 votes

I thought perhaps I was losing it. Haha.

PrestigeAug 4, 20153 votes

Whoops, nice eagle eyes! Will be fixed :)

Straw Hat LokiAug 5, 20154 votes

Lol I follow LCK a lot so I was waiting for article like this which would break it down for playoff seeds so it caught my eye that's all :3

mericrAug 4, 20152 votes

This article's stats make almost zero sense. This is not LPL with BO2. LCK is BO3. No team is going to go 3-1 in the final two matches. 3-1 isn't two complete matches. I like that the writer tried to break down the scenarios in which each team can get higher playoff spot but trying to say how each team needs to fare as far as game W/L record was not even close to being correct. Sorry but keep your regions straight.

KrakdantagolAug 4, 20151 votes

I thought the same after I started reading... The stats are completely off. And it starts even before the 3-1/1-3 nonsense: it says KT has 2 fewer game losses than CJ, and thus they need to 2-0 their two Bo3s to be safe, while even if they CJ goes 2-0 twice, then KT can go 2-0 and 2-1 and still have one game loss less, or go 2-1 twice and get tied (but then the article goes to claim that if CJ goes perfect and KT has one game loss, then CJ is in front...).

Just nonsense all the way, I can't even imagine how one can get to such a shitty result, even not knowing a thing about LCK you couldn't get so off!

RiotTayTay BotAug 4, 20151 votes

Fixed up!

KrakdantagolAug 5, 20151 votes

Only partially fixed. Sure, the 3-1/1-3 impossibilities have been fixed, but the numbers are still off. It still claims that KT needs to go perfect 2-0/2-0 to be safe and they are vulnerable otherwise, while they are vulnerable only if they either don't win both Bo3s, or win them both by 2-1; in the later case, they would tie (matches and games score) with CJ if CJ goes perfect 2-0/2-0, and considering they are 1-1 in matches and 3-3 in games, there would probably then be a tie-breaker.

TL;DR: KT is 100% safe is the win both Bo3s while losing at most 1 game.

Then in the paragraph about CJ, it says they need KT to lose at least 3 games to get the second place, while if they go 2-0/2-0 and KT goes 2-1/2-1, they will be tied in every possible ways (maches and games gobally and in direct confrontation) and will have to play a tie-breaker for 2nd place.

Glancing at the other paragraphs, they seem to suffer some errors as well. If we consider the Jin Air paragraph, it says that to clinch playoff they need a perfect an Najin to go at most 1-4, while they can still make it with Najin going perfect as well (well not counting the games played since then). They were 9-7 with KOO being 10-6: winning their 2 Bo3s with KOO losing both would have resulted in Jin Air going to playoff, even with Najin going perfect. It seems you jumped to conclusions there and globally about everywhere. Eck, with Jin Air having lost 0-2 today vs Anarchy, they are 9-8 (20-19) with Najin 10-6 (23-17) and can still end up in front of them if Najin loses both Bo3s (they can't if Najin wins one because then Najin will have more games wins which I think takes precedence over head-to-head record in case of matches ties, with Jin Air being 2-0 (4-1) for that head-to-head), and the paragraph was claiming that both the conditions "Jin Air goes perfect" and "Najin loses both Bo3 while winning only one game" was required for Jin Air to be on top.

An article about "what these teams need to get to playoff" with so much factual mistakes is more or less pointless at best.