Game of the Day: SK Gaming versus Elements (EU LCS Spring Split - Week 6 Day 2)

By Helmight

            Today’s game between front-runner SK Gaming and Summer Split champions Elements was supposed to be a good one. Elements had been struggling to find their stride in a league full of good contenders, but had finally broken their losing streak with a win yesterday over Meet Your Makers. Meanwhile, SK Gaming had been on a slide, losing 3 straight games after Fnatic handed them their first loss of the season. Both teams desperately needed a win here today- but only one could have it. As it turns out, the game wasn’t even close – SK Gaming fixed their mistakes from previous matches and annihilated Elements in a one-sided, 32-minute contest.

            SK was solidly in the lead of this game from square one. Though they were running a similar midgame-oriented team like the Copenhagen Wolves from yesterday’s article, they actually managed to make it work. FORGIVENGRE’s Graves was always an item and a half ahead of Rekkles’s Jinx and absolutely annihilated Elements in teamfights. On top of that, SK Gaming had finally learned from their mistakes in earlier games and were much better about playing the vision game. Though Elements still outwarded SK, it was by a much lower margin than normal and SK certainly played with more confidence thanks to their increased vision.

            With the vision advantage and a better team in the midgame, SK was able to shut Elements down out of almost every objective and keep their team alive through teamfights. It was a low-kill game, but that was because Elements wasn’t able to contest any of SK’s moves. On top of that, Elements squandered two to three ults on nRated multiple times throughout the early game in the hopes of getting picks, only to find their hopes dashed when nRated simply walked out of the fire – or when Svenskeren and Fox showed up to take a kill of their own. With Elements out of sorts and out of time, it was easy for SK to close out the game.

            The addition of Krepo looked to be a solid move on the part of Elements during yesterday’s game, but the LoL veteran wasn’t able to help his new team pull it out this time. Elements had picked and itemized solely for the lategame, leaving itself absolutely helpless against SK through the early- and midgame. Only two players on Elements managed to pick up kills throughout the game, and they looked weaker than they ever had before against the league leaders. One thing is for sure – something has to change within the team if they want to have a chance at making Worlds this year.

SK Gaming (W)					Elements (L)
Kills	Turrets		Gold		Kills	Turrets			Gold
11	8		57.9k		2	1			42.7k
Lineup
Position	Player		Champion	K/D/A	Position		Player			Champion	K/D/A
Top	fredy122		Morgana	2/1/6	Top	Kev1n				Maokai	0/2/1
Jungle	Svenskeren		Rengar	1/0/6	Jungle	Shook				Lee Sin	1/2/1
Mid	Fox		Zed	2/0/6	Mid	Froggen				Orianna	0/2/2
ADC	FORGIVENGRE		Graves	3/0/6	ADC	Rekkles				Jinx	0/2/1
Support	nRated		Annie	3/1/5	Support	Krepo				Thresh	1/3/1
Bans
Kassadin		Lissandra	Ahri		Nidalee			Lulu	Rek’Sai

For stats, builds, and other information, check out the match history. In the meantime, let us know what you thought of the game below!