After a tough day in the Global Challenge Cologne yesterday, the SK Gaming League of Legends team were feeling a little blue. Today they had to play the ESL Major Series Grand Final against Team SoloMid who had gone 3-0 in their games yesterday.

The first match got under way cautiously, both teams began steadily with nobody wanting to make the first mistakes.

TSM took a hold of the game with a lead of between 3-5 kills at all times, however the teams had very different compositions.

While SK were behind in teamfights, they had far superior poke and sustainability.

SK ran with Nidalee, Caitlyn and Soraka, TSM had Janna as support so while SK just launched spears and Caits Q and R with Soraka and Nidalee just healing the team up.

This poke led to SK being able to whittle towers down with TSM having to try for full engagement teamfights. SK did their best to avoid these and in the end some strong gameplay from both sides but you would have to say that SK outpicked TSM.

With their split pushing ability SK just patiently poked and hit towers, by the end of the game TSM could do nothing to hold their base and SK took round 1 of the BO3.



Game 2

SK went into game 2 full of confidence, we finally got to see Mike 'Wickd' Petersen playing Irelia, the champion he is famous for dominating with.

With that virtually ensuring that top lane would hold we were free to build as needed around the rest.

The game started amazingly for SK, Carlos 'ocelote' Rodríguez Santiago was playing mid lane as Cassiopeia. TSM went for a jungle gank on him at level 3, with him being ganked by Gangplank and Brand it didn't look good for SK, however Oce dodged Brand's W brilliantly and killed Brand with his skills and ignite. He then turned to Gangplank who was poisoned and a level below him and finished him off with his E.

This drew a massive roar from Oce who was joined by applause from the crowd.

This gave Oce a 2-0 advantage over Brand which allowed him to buy 2 x Doran's rings and pots, this advantage then gave him another kill on Brand making him 3-0.

With morale sky high, SK took the driving seat. Top lane was evenly matched as was bottom. Oce began roaming which meant TSM's bottom lane had to play more cautiously.

Adrian 'Candy Panda' Wübbelmann had been forced onto Ezreal with TSM banning AD Carries and first picking theirs. Candy supported by Patrick 'Nyph' Funke did a good job of farming up as well as picking up a kill.

By this time SK had massive momentum and were fully in the driving seat. Candy continued to farm and SK were able to take drake to keep their grip on the game.

By the end of the game it was all SK, with a lead of 10+ kills the game was all theres.

TSM tried to defend but the gap in experience and gold was too large and SK were able to seal the victory and their second consecutive ESL Major Series title.

ESL Major Series winners - SK Gaming