Power Rankings #1 -- SK Telecom T1

Region: Korea (LCK) Roster: Top: MaRin Jungle: bengi Mid: Faker ADC: Bang Support: Wolf In the chaos of the 2015 preseason, SK Telecom T1 was one of the only teams to emerge more or less unchanged. While other top Korean organizations like KT Rolster and Samsung saw their star players bought out by other teams, SKT T1 only lost their second-string top laner Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong. SKT T1 retained their solid bot lane as well as solo lane hotshots Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-hwan and Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, and were placed in prime position to conquer Korea once more. The Champions preseason went exactly as planned for SKT T1, as they dropped only one game to longtime rivals KT Rolster. With jungler Bae “bengi” Seong-ung regaining his bearings, SKT T1 looked to be the best team in the world bar none. Their victory over NaJin e-mFire in the first match of Champions Spring 2015 only served to prove the point, but the first sign of danger appeared for SKT T1 in their second match against CJ Entus. There was almost nobody who could reasonably predict that the struggling CJ Entus would wipe the floor with SKT T1 in a 2-0 shutout. In the words of CJ Entus top laner Park “Shy” Sang-myeon, “even if [CJ Entus] went 0-2 today, people would have just thought ‘Yep, that’s the expected result.’ Just like our coach said, there was nowhere left to fall to.” What went wrong for SKT T1? The most obvious flaw in their game was their inability to stop or capitalize on Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong’s constant visits to the mid lane. If Faker is to continue playing in ‘Elo Hell’, SKT T1 may well repeat their poor performance in the latter half of 2014. We have placed SKT T1 at #1 for their superb performance up until their match against CJ Entus, but if their defeat was more than just a freak accident, expect to see them slide down soon. Check out the rest of the Power Rankings and stay tuned for more each day as we countdown to the start of the 2015 LCS Season.