The SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters 2014 tournament returns with the match between Samsung Galaxy and Jin Air Green Wings.
Going into their first match of LoL Masters, the Samsung Galaxy organization like many other Korean esports organizations have changed up their roster going into a new season and a new year after the conclusion of OGN Winter. PawN and Dade, the two mid laners for both Samsung teams, have swapped places which puts PawN as the mid laner for Ozone and Dade as the mid laner for Blue. This decision to swap mid laners might be so that Blue would have a more experienced member on the team while at the same time Ozone will be getting an arguably more potent mid laner with PawN playing on the team.
With Jin Air going 1-2 against CJ Entus, they are looking for their redemption against Samsung. For those who are just tuning into LoL Masters, Jin Air has also underwent quite a few roster changes most notably picking up Cpt Jack on the Stealths roster and the Falcons picked up two former CJ Entus team members in Ganked By Mom and Kkinsh. Rumor has it that Ganked By Mom will be playing tonight for the Falcons.
The stream begins at Midnight EST, 9 PM PST, and 6 AM CET.
Tune in at http://www.twitch.tv/ongamenet
Game 1: Ozone vs. Stealths
Despite losing in a really embarrassing fashion in the OGN Winter Grand Finals, Samsung Ozone is not to be underestimated as they are still a top team in Korea. With the entrance of PawN on the team in the mid lane, that adds a lot more fear for their opponents with a very potent mid laner who has defeated Faker 1v1 in mid lane without any jungle support back in the WCG Qualifiers soon after the Season 3 World Championships.
Ozone has had a decent amount of time in the off season after the Grand Finals to get acclimated with a new mid laner in their roster is still strong as usual on paper. Looper is very comfortable on the in-meta tanks and has some of the best teleport senses among Korean top laners. DanDy is still very dangerous especially on his trademark Elise in the early game and he really gets the ball rolling for Ozone. And of course, Imp and Mata is still one of the best duo lanes in Korea and with PoohManDu taking a break from professional League of Legends, Imp and Mata now have their bid to contest the title of best duo lane in Korea with SK Telecom T1 K’s new duo lane.
The Stealths had a pretty strong showing against the new CJ Entus Frost roster with Cpt Jack leading the way. TrAce brought out a very interesting Aatrox pick against Frost and despite somewhat less decisive shotcalling compared to other OGN Teams, they are not to be underestimated and they show that they can compete with the best in Korea when they make the decisions happen. While they often run team compositions centered around Cpt Jack to a certain extent, TrAce and Fly are potential threats if a team tunnel-visions onto just taking out Cpt Jack.
Between these two teams, Ozone is the stronger team of the two and the favorite to win this match. The spotlight will be on the mid and duo lanes with PawN’s debut on the Ozone roster as well as the OGN Spring 2013 Grand Finals rematch between the two marksmen in Imp and Cpt Jack.
Game 2: Blue vs. Falcons
Although they were first in the path of destruction left by SK Telecom T1 K in the OGN Winter playoffs, Samsung Blue has also had plenty of time in the offseason to practice and improve as a team. With Dade going over to Blue, that could be bringing some veteran experience to the very talented roster in Samsung Blue. As a team, Blue is still a very potent team and they were able to break out of the so-called “Group of Death” last OGN Winter when they got into the playoffs beating out Najin Black Sword and Incredible Miracle #2.
The Falcons did not have the best of times playing against CJ Blaze and fell short in the early game despite having a really strong team composition against Blaze with the Vi-Yasuo combination. However, Blaze was able to capitalize in their early game strength with the Kha’zix and Renekton with a Karthus Requiem to snowball the solo lanes while Emperor and Lustboy had their way with the Falcons’ bot lane. Ganked By Mom did have somewhat of a promising performance on the Yasuo, but could not one man hard-carry his team against Blaze.
Even though Blue is probably not quite at the same level as Blaze, Blue is my pick to win this match because they are overall better in terms of individual skill as well as decision making. Blue has shown to have great rotations and map movements in their games so it will be on the Falcons to make the plays happen better than they did when they played Blaze.
Game 3: Samsung Galaxy vs. Jin Air Green Wings
I predict that Ozone and Stealths will be the two teams that will be fielded for this third masters match as those two rosters are the stronger of the two teams in each organization. Going along with previous predictions, Samsung Galaxy should be able to close out this series in a 3-0 fashion to move up the rankings to tie SK Telecom.
