SK Telecom T1 vs Team Liquid

We have a fairly exciting clash to open up the last day of the group stage, and it is a fight between the Korean champions SKT T1, the most successful and revered League organization in the world, and the North American champions Team Liquid -- a team that failed to get out of groups in all of their international showings.

This is, by all means, a very interesting match-up. It is also a fight between two teams that are right next to one another in the standings. On one hand, we have Liquid who have quite frankly showed nothing throughout the first five days of play. They're out of sync, they're meek and scared, completely reactive and passive throughout the game -- regardless of the opponent. Even when they do manage to win, they don't look as good as they should.

What's to blame (or who) doesn't really matter at this point. They're where they are, and while things are looking grim, they at least have a chance to reach the Knockout stage -- not that commendable given their current power level, but it's at least something, especially when compared to their prior success on the international stage. Or lack thereof, rather.

They absolutely have to get a win this time around and quite frankly, there's no easy opponent lined up for tomorrow. They have both SKT T1 as well as G2 Esports. It's really hard to determine who's a bigger challenge, especially to a rather underwhelming Liquid line-up. If they don't end up winning a game, they're going to be tied with the Flash Wolves (given the the LMS champions beat Phong Vu Buffalo), and will have to play a tie-breaker in order to advance further into the tournament.

That, for any North American spectator, is the worst possible scenario. It doesn't necessarily mean Liquid will lose the eventual tie-breaker, but the odds definitely aren't in their favor, especially when factoring in their overall international record.

SKT T1, on the other hand, are currently tied with G2 Esports, and they really don't want to be third. There's no benefit to having such an underwhelming spot in the rankings, so they're looking to perhaps pull off a Hail Mary maneuver and take second place -- even though it's going to incredibly hard (perhaps even impossible if G2 play as well as they can), but they at least have a goal in sight.

It's not that SKT are weak per se -- they're not. In fact, they're pretty darn solid, and they're getting better as the tournament progresses. But they're far weaker than we thought, and they're just not able to tango with the likes of Invictus Gaming or G2 Esports. It seems like they need a bit more time before reaching their full potential.

Fortunately, Liquid isn't a team that will push them to their limits.

In the end, we simply have to side with SKT T1. There's just no reason why we shouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt, and even though they're far from a powerhouse, they're still more than capable at taking Liquid down in relatively easy fashion. Then again, it might not be as one-sided as most people expect. Sure, Liquid failed to show much throughout the tournament, but they have the talent within their ranks -- of that we are sure. They could, in theory, make this into one heck of scrap. They have the right tools at their disposal in order to take the fight to SKT, but the odds of it actually happening are rather slim, to say the least.

We're going with the LCK champions on this one. Their play might not instill the most confidence at this point, but they're still one of the best and most dangerous teams in the world, and even though they're not adept at playing in the current carnivorous, hectic meta, they will have an easy time against Liquid's more standard, "mini LCK" style of play.