The first half of the qualifying matches have already previewed (pst, click here!) so now, let’s finish it up with the last two matches. All four teams come into their qualifying matches with some hype surrounding them. How will each team do against each other? Who will keep the hype going? Let’s find out right now.
Seoul vs DAMWON Gaming
The two teams have a decent amount of hype surrounding them. Seoul comes into the match after a 2-1 victory against Hanwha Life Esports. While Hanwha didn’t use their main roster players like jungler Kim “Moojin” Moo-jin, the victory made viewers excited to watch more of this amateur team. Meanwhile, DAMWON came into the tournament with a ton of hype surrounding them based on rumors of their amazing scrim results. Luckily, DAMWON didn’t disappoint as their main starting roster made quick work of Brion Blade in game two on route to complete the 2-0 victory.
For Seoul, winning KeSPA Cup is an unlikely dream. But with talented players including SKT trainees Choi “Ellim” El-lim and Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, these matches will be a chance to showcase their talents for all the teams in attendance. Now that they face a main roster squad in DAMWON Gaming, the lack of a coach could become a more apparent issue for the team without a source of strategic guidance. While this could potentially be the end of their tournament, the future is clearly very bright for these players.
DAMWON come into this match with a lot of expectation. The hype has been gradually building for the newly promoted team as some analysts has put them all the way up as the second best team in the LCK. With amazing players like top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon and mid laner Heo “ShowMaker” Su leading the way it’s easy to see why. As long as they maintain the clean performance of game 2 against Brion Blade, expect a lot more out of this team in the coming matches.
Prediction:
This match will go to DAMWON by a score of 2-0. While this prediction shouldn’t be a huge surprise, the matches will be pretty competitive and close. But in the end, the lack of a coach will likely be the downfall of Seoul and be the difference maker for DAMWON.
SK Telecom T1 vs bbq Olivers
A matchup between the two most interesting rosters in the LCK and CK respectively, the showdown between SKT and bbq will be entertaining for fans to watch. While this match won’t have a huge effect on the coming season, it’ll be a good chance to see these two teams in action again beforehand.
SKT definitely gave the fans what they wanted to see so far with their initial 2-0 victory over APK Prince. With a talent filled roster, the player that stood out the most was by far ADC Park “Teddy” Jin-seong. After a rough season on Jin Air, the incredible ADC was able to show that his performance level won’t be dropping anytime soon as he dominated game 2 on Lucian. That’s not to say the rest of the team weren’t impressive too, with so much talent it’s hard to mention it all. One other player that does deserve praise is the former JD Gaming jungler Kim “Clid” Tae-min, who was great with his proactive and aggressive play in the jungle. Regardless of if they win this tournament, this team will only get better with time.
Meanwhile, on the side of bbq, the experiment has been working so far. Coach Nick “LS” De Cesare has brought some interesting comps in the way of Xin Zhao top and Karthus jungle. Import Swedish jungler Sebastian “Malice” Edholm was impressive in his first match against ES Sharks. While bbq had some nice plays, especially from top laner Heo “HeoKong” Seong-joo against ES Sharks, It wasn’t an entirely clean series from the team, which is expected as they have only practiced together for a short time so far. While bbq were just demoted, if this roster can continue to improve, their time in challenger may be shorter than expected.
Prediction:
While bbq has been fairly impressive thus far, but it is hard to bet against SKT. Ultimately this series will go to SKT 2-0, but I could see bbq stealing a win off some creative play. Regardless of the final score, this will be a very fun game to watch for fans.
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Featured image courtesy of KeSPA.
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