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SKT brings down CLG to become 2016 MSI champions

Finally, something at the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational went as expected. SK Telecom T1 has defeated Counter Logic Gaming in the MSI finals.

The 3-0 victory means that mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok can now include every single Riot sponsored tournament in his trophy case. This was the only victory that had evaded him, one snatched away last year at MSI, with Chinese squad EDG taking it away from him in now infamous fashion.

As is SKT’s style in final best-of-five series, they found a way to win and stuck to it. When Ryze wasn’t available for Faker, he picked Azir - and won, twice. When Ryze was left up in Game 3, he nabbed his current favorite champion and dominated.

Meanwhile, in the bottom lane, SKT support Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan seemed to look at Aphromoo’s unorthodox Sona pick from the semifinals and say, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” He grabbed himself the equally weird Nami for all three games of the series, landing clutch bubbles and ults to take teamfight victories.

But in the end, it wasn’t any individual player that beat CLG. it was SKT’s superior macro game that ground down the North Americans. CLG put up a fight all the way into the mid game, but SKT’s rotational play and decisive objective control proved to be too much for them.

At the center of it all, as alway, was Faker. His list of championships grows. Two times at Worlds. Five domestically. Once at IEM. An All-Stars victory. And now, one at MSI.

Faker has nothing left to win. And for the greatest player of all time, that feels right.

Taylor Cocke would have loved to see a more competitive finals, but seeing Faker hoist the final trophy that had evaded him was a cool moment. Follow him on Twitter @taylorcocke.