League of Legends Worlds 2017: Samsung Galaxy beat Team World Elite in the semifinal to set up a repeat of last ...
- Samsung Galaxy defeated Team World Elite 3-1 in second semifinal match today
- The Samsung Galaxy team will take on fellow Koreans SK Telecom T1 in the final
- This is a rematch of last year's Worlds Grand Final, which SK Telecom T1 won 3-2
History has been made a number of times at Worlds 2017 so far, and next week, we'll see the first ever Grand Final rematch.
Samsung Galaxy overcame Team World Elite in the second semifinal of the esports tournament today, and they will go on to face SK Telecom T1 in the Grand Final next week.
SSG will have the chance to gain revenge over SKT, who they lost to in the final last year.
Today's semifinal was a match between Korea's Samsung Galaxy and China's Team World Elite
Samsung Galaxy are Korea's third seed, however they've been having an excellent tournament
Team World Elite came through the Worlds Play-In, but were the only remaining Chinese team
Samsung Galaxy have had a monster tournament after coming in as Korea's third seed.
Longzhu Gaming and SKT ranked above them as favourites, but with SKT dropping a number of games, and after SSG dumped Longzhu out of the tournament, things could be different.
It could be the first time SK Telecom T1 have gone into a Worlds match as underdogs, however, you can never count the three time world champions out.
Game 1
Of course, the local fans in Shanghai were rooting for China's Team World Elite today, and they had something to cheer about in game one.
Jin 'Mystic' Sung-jun took first blood on Xayah, and Ke '957' Changyu was later able to pick up a couple of kills of his own on Shen.
By the 25th minute, World Elite were over 10k gold ahead, and Samsung hadn't even achieved one kill.
WE broke open Samsung's base, and a couple of minutes later the nexus fell. Samsung just had one consolation kill on the support Nam 'Ben' Dong Hyun to their name.
The local Chinese fans in Shanghai cheered on their team as World Elite took to the Rift today
Team World Elite won game one in quick fashion, and the Chinese audience got their hopes up
Game 2
Game two is where it started to go wrong for the Chinese team.
Kills and gold remained ostensibly even for much of the early game, yet Samsung were slowly taking a hold of the game.
Whenever it seemed like World Elite had a good engage with their Jarvan VI and Galio combo, Samsung had the answer, and would often turn it around with kills of their own.
The persistent split push and team fighting ability from Lee 'CuVee' Seong-jin on Gnar was too much to handle too, and although WE had a lead in kills, they were far behind in objectives and gold.
In a desperate attempt to save their base, WE dove in again in the 28th minute, but they barely made a dent in Samsung before losing the game a few moments later.
Samsung Galaxy took control over the match in game two though, and never looked like losing
Game 3
The third game in the series may have been 'boring' in terms of action, but it was a beautiful display of objective and map control from Samsung Galaxy.
The Koreans began taking towers and dragons, and knew they didn't technically need kills to gain an advantage.
First blood didn't come until the 22nd minute, where Park 'Ruler' Jae-hyuk grabbed a kill on Varus before SSG took the first mid lane tower.
WE couldn't get control over the lanes, and were forced into defending when they weren't equipped to do so.
SSG then won a fight near the Baron pit, and grabbed the buff. The kill score was only 4-1, but they had a 5k gold lead.
Samsung are the masters of controlling a glacially paced game, and then bursting into action exactly when necessary.
It took them 37 minutes and a slow build up, but Samsung forced their way through Team World Elite, and set them on the bring of exiting the tournament.
Team World Elite didn't have an answer to Samsung's incredibly slow, objective based play
Game 4
The Chinese fans roared to life at the start of game four, as a fight in the top lane ended with three kills going over to World Elite.
Plus, an odd decision by Kang 'Ambition' Chan-yong to keep fighting the dragon while a fight was going on in the bottom lane ended up costing a number of deaths, including his own, and the dragon objective.
However, Samsung regained their composure and brought it back in terms of both kills and gold.
It didn't take long for the kill count to exceed that of the third game, but things calmed down after Samsung returned to their objective based control style.
Team WE had trouble finding team fights, and couldn't break the vice grip Samsung had over the entire map.
Much like in the two previous games, SSG got the lead, held it, and slowly converted it into a win.
Samsung Galaxy will now play against SK Telecom T1 in the Final, a rematch of last year's bout
The way Samsung Galaxy forced World Elite out of their comfort zone and avoided fights unless absolutely necessary throughout the series frustrated the Chinese players and fans alike.
The thousands in attendance were driven to silence as their Korean opponents took the match.
It will now be Samsung Galaxy vs SK Telecom T1 in the Worlds 2017 Grand Final, which takes place in Beijing on November 4.
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