At the start of the season no one really gave Jin Air Greenwings or Samsung Galaxy a fighting chance. Many predicted a clear top 4 with SK Telecom T1, ROX Tigers, Longzhu and KT Rolster and Afreeca Freecs and SBENU Sonicboom bringing up the rear in 5th and 6th. In reality, we’ve seen both JAG and SSG take games off of ‘top 4 elite’ LCK teams while SSB and AFs rot at the bottom of the League.

Despite what the standings may tell you, both JAG and SSG have had almost mirror results. JAG beat SKT and lost to LZ while SSG beat LZ and lost to SKT, with both coming out victorious over e-mFire and AFs. It’s perfectly logical to expect these two team’s results to perfectly mirror each other by the end of week 7, excluding their match against each other.

With the LCK playoff qualification cut off being 5th place, a win here is the best chance for JAG or SSG to secure their own playoff place and remain in control of their own future.

JAG: TrAce/SoHwan - Winged - Kuzan/Blanc - Pilot - Chei/Sweet

SSG: CuVee/Helper - Ambition - Crown - CoreJJ/Stitch - Wraith

Highly unlikely for SoHwan, Blanc, Sweet or Helper play in this series so I’m not gonna discuss them.

Toplane

Yeo “TrAce” Chang-dong is currently the MVP leader with 300 more points than ROX jungler Peanut, something that speaks volume to his importance and role on JAG. Considering TrAce was a low economy and overly cautious toplaner who limited himself to Maokai and Rumble for an entire split, this is an extremely drastic change. Today’s TrAce has played 9 different champions in a variety of playstyles. It’s his toplane Graves that has really set him apart, something that’s rippled throughout the rest of the world.

Due to Lee "CuVee" Seong-jin having no real strengths last Summer, his improvement is much more general and all encompassing. CuVee is now making plays and coordinating around his team well, even his teleports are pretty good now. So far playing 7 different champions, CuVee really acts as more of an enabler and protector for his carries than TrAce.

Interestingly there’s little champion overlap with these players, with CuVee preferring Poppy, Olaf and Lissandra. Of these champions, TrAce has only played Lissandra once. I give TrAce the advantage in this match but if CuVee can simply contain TrAce then JAG’s win conditions become extremely limited due to TrAce being the main carry of JAG.

Jungle

Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong is a lot more stable than Park "Winged" Tae-jin, but Winged’s highs are much more pronounced than Ambition’s. Ambition is a mediocre jungler that the Samsung players have publicly attributed their significantly cleaner midgame to. I mean anyone who watches Cloud 9 can appreciate the value of a player with this kind of veteran leadership and shot-calling, even if his individual play is generally underwhelming. Ambition does look better than he did on CJ Entus but given just how bad he did look that’s really hard.

So far Winged has only really impressed me in JAG’s game 2 win over SKT, the rest of the time he looks on the same level as Ambition. While Winged’s teamfighting isn’t as good as Ambition’s, if Winged can repeat his form against SKT then he would be the deciding factor. While I think jungle bans are overall unlikely, expect heavy contesting and trading between Rek’Sai and Elise.

Midlane

Lee "Crown" Min-ho is an extremely promising and talented midlaner who has displayed a tendency to lose team fights due positional mistakes caused by over-aggression. When you watch Crown play it’s obvious he wants to carry games and that he wants to be a star player, but he doesn’t always manage this.

While Lee "GBM" Chang-seok was a lane focused and largely passive player who’d rely on pushing small advantages with opportunistic play making, Lee "Kuzan" Seong-hyeok is a roam heavy and aggressive player who tries to snowball his side lanes. The difference between Crown and Kuzan is relative to the difference TrAce and CuVee, but Crown is an easier to contain player than TrAce. As long as Kuzan doesn’t try to duel Crown over in an unfavourable matchup he should be fine, especially considering Kuzan’s stability.

Kuzan and Crown’s champion pools are virtually identical, with both even having brought out the pocket Cassiopeia pick before. Expect standard prioritisation on Corki, Lulu and Viktor as you’ve come to expect from LCK midlaners.

ADC

Na "Pilot" Woo-Hyung is a player I’ve been long talking about as one of those players that could suddenly become one of the best in the world at his position. He has these weird flashes of brilliance in games, akin to Deft in many ways. Sadly it hasn’t happened and Pilot is still nothing more a promising ADC who underperforms.

SSG currently rotate between Jo "Core JJ" Yong-in, formerly of the NALCS, and Lee "Stitch" Seung-ju, formerly of the LMS. Stitch has a better winrate with SSG but CoreJJ is statistically better. Watching them both Stitch looked better on the eye test but there wasn’t really a lot in it, I can see where the SSG coaches’ conundrum comes from.

Champion pools for these players are all relatively similar and in line with the meta; Kalista, Lucian and a negative win loss on Tristana for all 3 players. CoreJJ has historically played Kalista but has yet to play it in LCK, what he has played is Corki in 2 losses.

Support

Kwon "Wraith" Ji-min, formerly known as Casper when he was on SKT and Ice Bear when he was on JAG, is objectively the best player on SSG. Strong in teamfights, Wraith takes calculated risks and constantly showcases high level mechanics and decision making.

Choi "Chei" Sun-ho is traditionally a role player rather than a star but has had breakout some games in 2016. A rather well rounded player with no obvious weakness, Wraith vs. Chei is actually a fairly high level support showdown. Wraith has the individual advantage but the difference is almost negligible.

Both players almost entirely Alistar, Thresh and Trundle, pretty standard meta picks. I can’t see any heavy focus on supports in the ban phase, just because that’s all any LCK support players at the moment.

Prediction

2 - 1 to JAG

This match is more difficult to call than SKT vs. ROX was because these teams do match up really well. JAG match up better with the meta right now and have more advantages in the draft phase, plus Winged can only really do well in this series in a way that Ambition really can’t.

The author focuses primarily on LCK and various satirical content. If you enjoyed this, see more by following him at @Gosickboy_.

Images courtesy of Daily esports & Inven.