In a clash of bottom of the table teams, ROX Tigers was able to outperform MVP in an exciting 2-0 sweep on Week 4, Day 3 in League of Legends Champions Korea in Seoul.
Early in Game 1 MVP looked like it was well prepared to end its cold streak as an early top lane gank gave Guenmo "ADD" Kang first blood on Fiora. ROX bounced back as a return gank netted a kill for Manheung "Lindarang" Hed's Gragas. While MVP was able to hold onto a slight lead into late game, it ultimately returned to its paltry Summer 2017 ways, as a 3-for-1 trade wasn't even enough to give the team any lasting pressure. ROX eventually regained control of the tempo and started a Baron in view of MVP. After bungling the Ssmite and allowing MVP's Kyuseok "Beyond" Kim's Elise to come up with the steal, ROX was able punish the aggression by killing four MVP members. From there it had a virtually uninterrupted path to breaking the MVP Nexus to secure the 48-minute win.
Although ROX had all of the momentum at the conclusion of Game 1, it got off to a very slow start in Game 2. At the 20-minute mark, ROX was down nine kills to three, down three turrets, and had yet to secure a dragon to MVP's two. In this position of power and with a straightforward path to victory, MVP's inability to close out a game once again made an appearance. ROX completed the turnaround due to vastly superior macro play, with Lindarang's excellent split pushing on Fiora being the main catalyst. Time and again MVP was caught doing nothing in the middle of the map trying to decide whether to contest Fiora in bottom lane, or go for the Baron in the top side river. Additionally, ROX support Hangi "Key" Kim displayed the power of Bard using extremely intelligent ult's to zone during teamfights. In the end, ROX was able to deliver too much match pressure for MVP to keep up and broke the Nexus after a prolonged siege that resulted in a decisive teamfight victory.
MVP's next chance to break its losing streak is next Thursday at 4 a.m. ET versus bbq-OLIVERS. ROX will try to string together two wins in a row as they challenge KT Rolster later that day at 7 a.m. ET.