Even after winning the spring split of the LCK, SKT wasn't really considered the best team in the world. While it is true that Faker and Bang could still easily be contenders as the best in their roles, SKT was simply missing a piece in their puzzle that lead them to not making it to the Summer 2016 Finals. Despite not continuing their monopoly over the league, this iteration of SKT is by no means a weak squad. Also, SKT is not just the first team to win 2 World Championships, but is also the first team to appear the next year and defend their title.

Top - Lee “Duke” Ho-seong

A powerful laner if you've ever seen one, Duke has demonstrated why he managed to win MVP of the regular season last year in summer despite his team, Najin emfire, not doing so well entirely. Whenever the discussion was brought up about MaRin, Smeb and Ssumday being the best top laners in KR, fans of the region knew that Duke was going to be in that discussion. Yes, he is that good, but more so as an individual player, rather than a good teammate. Duke’s power lies in how well he can control his lane for himself. He understands pressure and how far he can push without getting punished for it.

As an individual player, Duke is definitely an upgrade to what MaRin used to be for SKT in 2015, but much weaker as a team player. Duke has mistimed teleports, recalled at bad times and simply not grouped when it was necessary for his team. The initial shock of not having that shot caller from the top laner in MaRin seemed to drop SKT’s level to a basic win lane/ win game mentality. As of right now, it’s perfectly possible that Duke’s weaknesses mean nothing if he manages to gain a large enough lead in his lane.

Jungle - Kang “Blank” Sun-gu  /  Bae “bengi” Seong-woong

Quite possibly the strongest hinderence to SKT at the moment has to come from the jungle role. Both Blank and Bengi haven't shown much worth during the summer split, barring perhaps Blank’s teamfighting -- which he is still pretty good at. The problem lies in simply not being able to read the map or the enemy team’s jungler’s movements -- and having 3 laners who are very good at exerting pressure and pushing forward, keeping tabs on the enemy jungler is crucial.

The transition to a standard lane system may cover some of the jungle’s flaws when it comes to presence. With the focus on lanes and ganking instead of pathing, Blank can simply farm up the early game, even if it costs SKT some early game pressure.

It’s easy to get caught up in Blank’s issues as a jungler, but that’s mostly during the early game. When you talk about Blank’s late game and teamfighting, it’s a completely different story. SKT’s jungler has shown he understands his champion limits very well, his positioning and initiations have been on point and have allowed Bang to do his thing.

Mid - Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok

If we were to compare Faker to other midlaners to try to determine whether or not Faker is playing up to those standards, we would always come to the conclusion that Faker is undoubtedly the best mid laner… yet when we compare Faker to what he's made us expect from him after so many months of domination, we can see a clear decline in performance. The most intriguing part is that it’s not entirely because of Faker’s actions. You see, Faker is still as aggressive and as much of a lane bully as he’s ever been, but over the summer, the meta has shifted to heavily ganking mid. Faker’s relentless forward play has costed him deaths to the opposing mid and has made him lose pressure.

Also -- and I don’t want to hate on Blank more than I should -- but it’s crucial to how Faker plays that he has a jungler that understands how forward the unkillable demon king will play. Faker needs support from behind him while he plays forward. If he doesn’t, he himself will give open opportunities for the enemy jungler to jump into his lane and kill him.

AD Carry - Bae “Bang” Jun-sik

Even after a full year, Bang still sits as a strong contender to be the best AD Carry in the world. Despite SKT not having the best split during summer, Bang has remained as a reliable carry, often being the necessary damage where Duke or Faker couldn’t contribute. Most of SKT’s wins stem from Faker and Duke dragging attention away from Bang to allow SKT’s AD Carry to do as much damage as possible.

There really isn’t much to add about Bang that hasn’t been said already. He’s self sufficient -- allowing Wolf to roam when deemed appropriate -- he’s a good laner, he’s a versatile carry and is capable of being the team player when necessary. SKT have learned to play around Bang quite effectively, especially Faker. When Lulu or Karma’s popularity was high, SKT used their mid lane role to empower their AD Carry, knowing full well they could rely on Bang to carry them to victory.

Support - Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan

Just like his laning partner, Bang, SKT’s support is also consistent with his performances and hasn’t been a low point on the team this time around. While he has been overrated by fans who do not regularly watch LCK, it’s easy to fall into that trap because he isn’t bad. He’s just above average and used to be a good roamer.

If there is anything negative to say about Wolf, it’s about how him and Blank simply do not work well as a unit. With the jungle/support synergy being high, Wolf does not aid Blank when SKT’s jungler attempts to invade the enemy jungle in an attempt to place wards. Without that back up, Blank tends to get caught and die unnecessarily.

Final Thoughts:

To think SKT has any less of a chance to win Worlds because they didn’t win LCK Summer would simply be undermining the talent this roster has. As much as fans are hoping for newer faces to win worlds, Faker, Duke, and Bang especially, are capable of turning around any game on it’s head if given enough space to do so. SKT has demonstrated that even when being 10k gold behind, they’re capable of almost winning teamfights just based on how well they play with each other.

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