DAY 4 RECAP

KT Rolster Bullets have survived the gauntlet: a 3-0 record over both CJ Entus Frost and Blaze is already a feat unto itself, but to have done it back to back a mere half-week after a devastating, razor-thin loss to SKT T1 speaks for itself. They are a world-class team, even if they weren’t yet on the plane to Los Angeles.

But as they metaphorically stood upon the summit, there was one last thing they had to do: in order to validate all of their hard work up until now, they needed to once again face the Summer victors. SKT T1 stood in the way of a storybook victory, relaxed and ready to prove once again their dominance of the Korean circuit.

BLOOD IN THE WATER

The Bullets responded appropriately: a roaring defiance. The two teams danced as their duo laners and mid lane aces swapped positions twice over to try and find a favorable matchup. SKT T1 had a first-mover’s advantage as Score and Mafa finally stuck to bot lane against Piglet and PoohManDu, only to find that their opposite numbers were now a level and significant farm ahead. The same story applied to Faker and Impact: like a week ago, SKT T1 was once again starting off on the stronger foot.

But Ryu wasn’t going to let it be easy for them. Their incremental gains faltered and slipped as the Bullets forced a steal at SKT T1’s Ancient Golems, then took Dragon unopposed. SKT T1 sent their duo laners topside to keep InSec under-farmed, only for PoohManDu to suffer a terrible fate as InSec hit him with Shadow Dash and fed him to Ryu’s Fizz. Faker was the next victim, his Gragas eating an unhealthy amount of seafood as Ryu tag-teamed with KaKAO to lock him down with Assault & Battery and Chum The Waters — though Faker being who he is, it was not without dying at least once as Faker demonstrated Gragas’s deceptive agility.

The Bullets might have had a rough start, but the game was effectively over when Ryu acquired both Lich Bane and Zhonya’s Hourglass. SKT T1 was forced to give up fight after fight as he assassinated their most crucial players, leaving only paltry resistance as they steamrolled to the nexus.

TANTALUS

Was it just a dream? Did they not drown SKT T1’s hope last game, after a grueling gauntlet against two of the most formidable Korean teams of Season 2? The dawning of Game 2 was like waking up to a brutal and merciless reality for KT Rolster Bullets. Or perhaps it was SKT T1 that were sleeping, and in their rush to climb to the top of the Korean Regionals tournament, the Bullets stirred a slumbering giant, far beyond what they were ready to face.

Fizz’s playful tricks were like getting dunked in cold water: shocking, and leaves you wakeful and wary after every attack. PoohManDu’s Nami was more akin to being tossed off the boat in a turbulent storm. Even if they saw Aqua Prison or Tidal Wave coming, there was little they could do but anticipate it after getting hit by Charm, Cocoon, Cataclysm or Condemn, and get washed away to a Game 2 defeat.

Losing Game 2 after a powerful Game 1 could have been borne, but Faker’s Shockwaves in Game 3 were outright demoralizing. His graceful sidesteps of KaKAO’s Cocoons were tough enough to swallow, but for him to dodge, speed himself, up, and land a Shockwave double-kill as one fluid motion was a sharp reminder why he is often considered a class unto himself among the world’s mid laners. Though they weren’t always lethal, they were always impacting, chasing Ryu and InSec out of their respective lanes to allow SKT T1 free access to their turrets.

It was bad enough that KT Bullets found themselves surrendering Game 3 after seeing that SKT T1 had picked up Baron Nashor. Game 4 was painful to watch. They’ve stopped Bengi’s Jungle Nunu from invading before. They’ve stalled out Impact with 2v1 lanes in previous matches. But they weren’t prepared for Bengi to primarily sit bot lane, pelting Score with snowballs to slow down the Bullets’ bot lane push, while freeing up Impact to make life miserable for Ryu.

Even in their champion choices, it was clear that KT Bullets were feeling the pressure, resorting to using Renekton and Syndra to disrupt SKT T1’s consistently dominant laning phase. But the pressure exerted by SKT T1, in comparison, had more to do with their unbelievably high caliber of play than the individual skills of the champions they ran. As KT Rolster Bullets waved the white flag just 21 minutes into their very last professional match of Season 3, it was made quite clear: Faker, Piglet, and the rest of SKT T1 will stop for nothing short of a world title.

DAY 3 RECAP

Honor was at stake for both sides. CJ Entus Frost’s judo-like defeat of KT Rolster Bullets, turning a weak Game 1 defeat into a two-game rout, had knocked the latter team all the way down to the bottom of the ladder towards the Regionals title, and they stood yet again in the Bullets’ way. But for Frost, it wasn’t just a matter of keeping a defeated team down; the Bullets had defeated the entire CJ Entus organization just weeks ago during the OnGameNet Champions Summer elimination rounds, and their merciless 3-0 execution of CJ Entus Blaze yesterday threatened a dishonorable repeat for the organization that once held the League of Legends international scene in thrall.

It was personal for both sides. The old guard stood in the way of the new, and only one could survive to face summer champions SKT T1.

HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES

The change to Patch 3.10a was a boon to Bullets AD carry Score. His signature champions, Ezreal and Corki, had been hit hard with Trinity Force’s drop-off throughout the season (though the recent surge in the Bullets’ early-game aggression nonetheless had him stand toe-to-toe with some of the Korean scene’s best gunslingers). But with 3.10a’s buffs to Trinity Force, especially the increase to Sheen’s triggered damage bonuses, a formidable carry’s transformed into something absolutely terrifying.

It helped that for Game 1, the team thoroughly banned out Madlife. With Blitzcrank, Sona and Zyra locked down, Frost was forced to choose between giving Madlife Thresh or Ryu Zed, and the thought of Zed’s carry potential outweighed Madlife’s comforts. But that may have proven a mistake: Madlife’s Lulu wasn’t as dominant a lane presence; Space was quickly overwhelmed by a shower of Mystic Shots, and — worst of all — Shy’s Zed simply wasn’t having enough of an impact to compensate.

Unlike Blaze, Frost’s games against KT Rolster Bullets weren’t total fiascos. There were great plays made across the map by both teams, notably Madlife’s quick-witted Wild Growth to fatally knock InSec out of Dark Passage, and CloudTemplar’s uncharacteristically aggressive Vi game. Madlife was able to dominate the 2v2 lane in Game 2 as well, poking Score and Mafa dangerously low with Sona’s Hymn of Valor while denying Mafa’s Crowstorms with well-timed Crescendos. But winning the lane wasn’t enough: Score’s Trueshot Barrages were prescient, slashing down Space’s Caitlyn twice over as he attempted to flee losing fights, as well as stealing the Ancient Golem buff from under Ganked By Mom’s nose.

STRIKE AND SLICE

As pressing a concern as Score’s trickshot antics were, Frost were nonetheless facing more immediate threats as the rest of KT Bullets were stepping up to the challenge both strategically and individually. Early wards were used to keep track of Frost’s initial movements, allowing Ryu to keep lock-step with Shy. The information was crucial: Zed was by far the safest 1v1 matchup for Ryu’s Fizz, and while InSec’s Renekton was heavily punished by Ganked By Mom’s Ahri as a result, Fizz’s greater gold reliance was crucial to the team’s overall strategy. Ryu and Shy were left alone down at bot lane long enough for him to acquire Lich Bane — and from there, it was shark season for CJ Entus Frost.

And InSec wasn’t willing to totally relinquish the spotlight. The spotlight was directed to top lane as he pulled out Renekton again, but this time against Shy’s legendarily dominant Jax. Jax, too, had been bolstered by Trinity Force’s buffs, playing a crucial role in Ssumday’s hands during the Bullets’ one victory against Frost two days ago. But even in Shy’s hands, nobody was taking this game away from InSec: the double-dash on Slice and Dice did everything from forcing a farm advantage to escaping ganks by the veneer of his scales. Most impressively, his 1v2 takedown of the outer bot lane turret seemed suicidal at first glance, but two dashes, a Dark Passage, and a Flash over Enchanted Crystal Arrow ensured total profit for KT Bullets.

He turned that gold into impenetrable armor against Frost’s predominantly Attack Damage-based champions, surviving a Paranoia and Death Mark combo with more than two-thirds of his life in a contest over Dragon. Renekton’s unstoppable rage proved far too much for Frost to handle as InSec singlehandedly zoned the entire enemy team away from their own base turrets, allowing KT Bullets to win the final game and ensure a 6-0 playoffs record against the entire CJ Entus organization.

Only SKT T1 is left, standing in their way from absolute victory.

DAY 2 RECAP

It’s a long-hard slough for the Bullets this week as they face off against CJ Entus Blaze. Though InSec’s been brought back in for the crucial elimination stages, the burden on the team is immense. Not only did they lose against CJ Entus Frost yesterday, but doing so has forced them onto the hardest possible path towards the World Championship, fighting a potential three best-of-five sets against Korea’s top teams.

ASSAULT AND BATTERY

With an aggressive Doran’s Ring start on Singed, Flame was looking to pressure InSec immediately out of the gates. For the most part, the strategy worked exactly as intended: though Shen has formidable map control with Stand United, he crucially has no answers to Singed’s early-game pressure. Even a Shadow Dash under the turret failed to deter Flame from proxy-farming between enemy turrets while InSec was kept preoccupied by unceasing wave of enemy creeps.

But where Flame was succeeding, the rest of CJ Entus Blaze was struggling. Ambition was steadily losing ground to Ryu, and Score was racking up a considerable lead over Hermes. Blaze was able to pull back into the game by abusing KT Bullets’ overeager aggression, sniping them down one-by-one as the Bullets tried to save an over-extended InSec top lane, but their gains were steadily eroded as the Bullets abused crucial weaknesses in Blaze’s map vision.

Though Vi is rarely played in the competitive circuit, KaKAO was singlehandedly demonstrating her overall potential. Not only was Vault Breaker allowing him to sneak through the gaps in Blaze’s coverage to take out Dragon, but the percent-health bonus on Denting Blows allowed Bullets to take a fast, game-winning Baron long before Blaze suspected anything.

The game one loss was more than disappointing for Blaze — it seemed to have shaken their confidence to the core. Not only was Helios slain early on in Game 2, handing a crucial red buff advantage onto Score, but KaKAO was putting on an encore performance on Vi. The moment Blaze saw that Baron Nashor had yet again been stolen from them unawares, long before the 25 minute mark, they surrendered the match.

GUTTERING OUT

To put the third game in context, it’s worth pointing out that KT Rolster Bullets have, for two weeks running, lost important matches with seemingly unstoppable starts. They went 2-0 versus SKT T1 in the OGN Champions Grand Finals, only to lose the next three matches, then they lost to Frost yesterday despite leading with a crushing victory in Game 1.

Their apparent answer to this inability to close out sets: put InSec back on the champion that made his name. Though InSec’s top lane Lee Sin wasn’t quite as much of a terror as it was back in his jungling days, as opponents can actually see and gank him now, he nonetheless showed glimmers of his prior dominance with roaming ganks and Dragon’s Rages that sent enemy players hurtling into the rest of the Bullets’ line of fire.

But the game was really, again, about Kakao’s map control. Blaze had seemingly given up all hope of taking Dragon down, nor of successfully keeping Ryu’s Fizz from split-pushing their every turret. Though they were once former OnGameNet Champions victors, and had dominated the prior season’s group stages, CJ Entus Blaze ends their Season 3 career with an ignoble 0-3 record.

But it’s far too soon for KT Rolster Bullets to begin celebrations. Though their victory over Blaze wiill surely be a psychological weight off their shoulders, especially after the disappointing losses to SKT T1 and CJ Entus Frost, their week’s only begun. For Bullets to win a ticket to the world championship, they must press on through the gauntlet, and will be forced to face a well-rested Frost once again tomorrow.

DAY 1 RECAP

With both teams tied in Season 3 circuit points, CJ Entus Frost and KT Rolster Bullets now faced off to secure the 4th Place seed in the Korea Regional Finals. The gauntlet-style format of the tournament prizes year-long consistency, putting the lower-seed teams through as many as 15 games to secure the third and final spot in Korea’s bid for their first World Championship title.

For the Bullets, the road they sought to travel was especially arduous, starting less than a week after their defeat in the hands of SKT T1. Ace top laner InSec had decided to pull out, citing emotional difficulty after the OGN Hot6ix Champion summer finals, and was replaced with Ssumday for the game against Frost.

KICK DOWN THE DOOR

Though it would be tough for any player to live under InSec’s shadows, Ssumday apparently felt no pressure stepping into such high-profile shoes. His decisive invasion into Frost’s red-side Elder Lizard camp set the pace for the entirety of the game: not only was Shy forced to play cautiously against a red-buffed Jax, but KaKAO’s follow-through assault on CloudTemplar near the wraith camp forced Frost’s jungler back early, keeping him behind on gold and experience.

But Frost’s beaten back advantageous starts before. What really demoralized them was repetition: over the course of fifteen minutes, CloudTemplar was denied access to a full half of his jungle, chased out by both KaKAO and Ssumday every time he went in to farm. Ssumday’s near-permanent monopoly on the Elder Lizard buff turned a snowball into something more akin to an avalanche, leading the charge to victory after a quick 25 minutes.

THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE

If there was any team known for their long-term resilience, Frost definitely fits the bill. Though many teams have caught up to their skill level since the early days of OGN, few have surpassed their ability to take victory when it matters most, winning the most blind pick games of any team in the Korean league and taking down Europe’s Evil Geniuses, formerly CLG.EU, in last year’s summer finals from a 0-2 deficit.

Frost was now wary and ready in game two, repulsing an early attempt at their blue buff. Though KaKAO got the drop on Ganked By Mom as the latter held a risky 1v2 bot lane, CloudTemplar’s timely assistance got the revenge kill and at least ensured that both junglers were on rough parity. The Bullets found their first real sign of trouble when Frost successfully shoved Ryu and Mafa out of mid lane and took Dragon in their absence. That small window let in a slowly growing blizzard: Ryu was ambushed upon his return, feeding Score a kill, and CloudTemplar took a small measure of revenge for game one with a theft of the enemy blue buff. Though they kept it close with their own Dragon and a turret with every lapse of Frost’s pressure, the Bullets’ defenses were ultimately ground down, forcing the teams into a Blind Pick tiebreaker game to decide the outcome of the tiebreaker match.

It was deja vu for KT Rolster Bullets, or perhaps “PTSD flashback” would be even more appropriate. Yet again they were facing a Shen vs Shen and Zed vs Zed mirror match game — and yet again they were proven disastrously unprepared for the mirror. Not only was Madlife finally allowed on his signature champion again, notably threading the needle between minions to snare Ssumday with Death Sentence for a 3v1 kill, but Ryu yet again couldn’t pull it off against an opposing Zed. This time, it was Ganked By Mom’s Sword of the Divine that proved the crucial edge, providing critical hit damage to yield victory over the Bullets’ mid laner by the thinnest possible margin.

KT Bullets surrendered the fight. Tomorrow, they face off against CJ Entus Blaze in hopes of retaining their World Championship dream – tune in on lolesports.com at 3AM PDT / 12:00 CEST to watch live.