Earlier this week we learn MaRin, Tom and Easyhoon left SKT. As SK Telecom T1 is my favorite team world wide (I was a fan after they won Season 3 worlds and I was still a fan when they wasn't that good in Season 4) I want to give my thoughts on this significant change to the team.
Of the three Easyhoon was the least surprising to me and I'm glad he is gone. That is not to say I dislike Easyhoon or think he is a bad player. Far from it. I did dislike how he played when he was on SKT T1 S. I found his games to be extremely slow, boring, not very good and they put me to sleep. However his games this season on the unified SK Telecom team were spectacular and exciting. One of his plays literally woke me up! The LCK starts around 3 am where I am. I'm usually fine watching most of the first match but then exhaustion sets in. I hate not watching games live as there might be technical problems watching the videos later, I get spoiled on the results or I get so busy I am unable to get around to finish watching it. I tried to watch all the SKT games live and on this particular game exhaustion got the better of me. As I was reaching to paused the video so I could go to bed, Easyhoon perform such an amazing play that I leap out of my seat. And from the sound of the caster, they did too. I believe it was a flash multi man Cassiopeia ult from a bush. I had so much adrenaline in me that I had no problem stay awake for the rest of that game. As great as he was, I did not want to see him play. That is because he shared his position with Faker, the League of Legends greatest player in the world. SKT is much weaker overall without Easyhoon. Not only does Easyhoon and Faker plays the game differently, but how the team works together and how other team react to them are all very different. This allowed SKT to have much deeper strategies than other teams. Nevertheless personally I always want to see Faker playing and now that he is off the team, Easyhoon is now able to leave from being under Faker's shadow and prove how great he is. Being able to see more of Faker and Easyhoon play is a win in my book. I just hope he stays in Korea.
Tom leaving is somewhat surprising but understandable as he did not play much since he joined. I was really excited about him joining because I thought SKT needed new blood at the time. Before Tom join, Bengi play ranged from mediocre to decent. So I figure Tom would be a long term investment, molding a new player to be a great jungler to replace Bengi. But then Bengi started playing like he activated 'Super Bengi Mode!' When he was on, Bengi was the best jungler in Korea. He didn't play this well in ALL his games, but he did in the vast majority of them. It is hard to justify subbing in Tom when Bengi is playing so phenomenal. I don't have much more to say about Tom because he only played 5 or 6 or so games. His early games were decent but he got caught out a lot. He did play in the Spring Finals 3-0 victory against the KOO Tigers but that was more of the entire team doing well. I wish him well and I'm curious to see what he can do on his new team.
Now MaRin leaving is just shocking. Faker is the face of SK Telecom but MaRin has been the heart of the team in my opinion. This year Worlds had a top lane meta and MaRin proved himself to be the best of the best top laners. When Faker plays the other team usually focus as much attention on him as possible which leave MaRin free to be a monster in the game. As the team captain and the shot caller losing MaRin is going to hurt SKT a lot. Trying to find a new top laner that is even near MaRin in quality is nearly impossible as is, SKT need to find a top laner that is also really aggressive if they want a similar team dynamic as they used to have. And there is the problem of who will be the shot caller. I have no knowledge on what the interpersonal relationship in the team was like. Assuming that was not the reason for him leaving, I only see two reason why MaRin would leave. One would be if he wanted to test himself and try to recreate SKT's success on a different team, or another organization offered him a lot of money. I have a feeling it was the second. I would prefer he stayed in Korea but if he does leave the country please let it not be China that he goes to. I wish him well and no matter where he goes I will probably watch him play.
I am worried about SK Telecom T1 in season 6. The last time SKT was on top of the world and had a slight roster change, their performance took a nosedive. I suppose this would make next season more competitive which is a good thing. I just wish Korea becomes more competitive by the other teams stepping up their games as oppose to the top dog just getting weaker. There is a slim chance SKT comes out of this even stronger. I doubt it, at least at first but time will tell.
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