KT Rolster lost its second straight series by reverse-sweep on Thursday, this time falling 2-1 to ROX Tigers in Seoul, South Korea to close out Week 5, Day 3 of League of Legends Champions Korea.
KT wasted little time pulling ahead with its siege composition in Game 1, picking up two kills in the opening minutes for a quick lead. ROX bounced back with some kills of its own to keep it even, but it couldn't stop KT from taking towers, which allowed KT to hold a comfortable gold lead into the mid game. As the game progressed, KT emphasized the skill gap between itself and ROX by mechanically dominating teamfights with outplays. In particular, top laner Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho landed pinpoint Equalizers as Rumble to set up AD carry Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu's Caitlyn, who finished with a sweltering 9/0/5 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) to earn MVP honors. All it took was one final teamfight win from KT to finish off Game 1 and ROX in 32 minutes.
With a ton of momentum coming into Game 2, KT jumped out to a quick lead when jungler Go "Score" Dong-bin roamed all over the map as Rek'Sai, picking up kills left and right. Despite taking the early lead, though, KT got a bit rambunctious and started overextending time and time again. ROX punished KT at every step and starting to get back into the game, eventually pulling ahead by 3,000 gold at the 18-minute mark. Carrying ROX was AD carry Kwon "Sangyoon" Sang-yoon's Kalista and jungler Yoon "SeongHwan" Seong-hwan's Elise, who both combined to lead ROX in the final few teamfights that gave it a 21-minute Baron kill, eventually pushing into KT's base for the commanding 27-minute win.
Game 3 started off with a much slower early game than in the first two contests, with first blood not coming for KT until 10 minutes in. KT quickly picked up two more kills to amass a 3,000-gold lead by the 12-minute mark. While KT tried to set up its splitpushing composition, however, ROX started securing kills with its own teamfighting composition. Two kills at the 24-minute mark led to an easy Baron secure for ROX, giving it full control of the game. More teamfight wins led to a Baron at 33 minutes, giving ROX what it needed to break into KT's base. With KT now on the backfoot, one final 5-for-1 ace from ROX, led by a triple kill from top laner Heo "Lindarang" Man-heung's Shen, allowed ROX to lay waste to KT's Nexus for the upset win.