We have seen a lot of great play at the KeSPA Cup thus far. The competition has taken on added meaning this year given the poor performance of Korea on the international scene, and every team is out to prove itself. Many of the top teams in the region made major moves this offseason, and those teams are using this competition to hone their chemistry. On Thursday, three of the best teams in the region and a strong newcomer will take the stage.
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2018 League of Legends KeSPA Cup Quarterfinals Day 2 Betting
Griffin: -275
Afreeca Freecs: +200
We have yet to see either Griffin or Afreeca Freecs in action as both teams qualified for the playoffs without playing through the elimination or qualifying rounds based on their performance in the Summer Split.
Griffin was the best story of the Summer Split. No team had ever come up from Challenger to win the Summer Split before, but they nearly pulled it off. They took KT Rolster to five games in a thrilling series, and they fell just short. That disappointment was doubled when they couldn’t qualify for Worlds, yet they have to be thrilled that they were able to keep the team together.
All of Griffin’s starters are back from Summer, and they will look to take the next step now that they have had some seasoning. Lehends is one of the best Supports in Korea already, and Chovy is the type of aggressive mid laner that teams covet now. Tarzan, Sword, and Viper are solid players too, and the improvement that Viper showed over the course of the season was impressive.
Afreeca Freecs will be going into this series with some new faces. Mid laner Kuro and bottom laner Kramer left for the LPL, support TusiN joined Kingzone DragonX, and jungler Mowgli decided to take his talents to Europe. The Freecs were able to get a pretty good mid laner when they signed Ucal off of KT Rolster, but there are questions around the jungle and support positions.
Jelly has been the team’s back-up support player for over a year, but he has seen little action. Meanwhile, a lot of Afreeca’s success last year revolved around interchanging junglers Spirit and Mowgli constantly, and not having half of that duo is something to watch.
Afreeca do have a fantastic top laner in Kiin to steady the ship, but it won’t be enough to pull off the upset.
SK Telecom T1: -700
DAMWON Gaming: +400
Everyone is raving about SK Telecom T1’s new dream team. After the most disappointing season in the franchise’s history, drastic changes needed to be made, and that’s exactly what happened. Only three players from last year’s team returned, and only Faker returned in a starting role.
SKT was not shy in free agency. They acquired one of the best support players in the world when they signed Mata, and they paired him up with Teddy in the bottom lane. Teddy has long been seen as one of the best scaling AD Carries around, and he has shown he can win in the early game too at the KeSPA Cup.
Adding arguably the best top laner in Korea in Khan and grabbing Clid and Haru to use in the jungle made this team significantly better too. Two of SKT’s major problems last year were passive junglers and a top laner that couldn’t carry, and those should be solved now.
SKT had a perfect game against BBQ Olivers in the qualifying round yesterday, but they nearly lost the next game in the series. DAMWON Gaming are a better team than BBQ, and if SKT struggles again, DAMWON will capitalize.
It’s unlikely DAMWON pulls off the upset, but if they do, it will likely be through Nuclear in the bottom lane. He has popped off a few times at the KeSPA Cup, and he was great during the Summer Promotion tournament that got DAMWON into the LCK too.
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