SK Telecom T1's jungler Peanut recently claimed in an interview that he believed his Lee Sin was the best in the world. Indeed, his performance so far at MSI during the group stages was impressive. But what makes his Lee Sin so good? This article attempts to look at why Peanut believes himself to be the best Lee Sin, and whether or not the claim is warranted. We’ll examine two games from the MSI Group Stages, SKT vs Team Solomid (TSM) on Day 2, and SKT vs Gigabyte Marines (GAM) on Day 3.

SKT vs TSM: Day 2

Let’s start by looking at his early jungle path.

Raptors → Enemy Blue buff → Blue Buff → First blood (assist)
Wolves → Red buff → Krugs → Recall

The path itself seems relatively standard. Raptors start to a buff is the basic path for any jungler. If there was no invade like we’ll talk about next, it seems like Peanut would have just gone for his own Red buff, cleared his camps and helped Faker in the mid lane.

However, Peanut responded to early vision secured by SKT to go for a safe Blue buff steal. Peanut took this invade one step further by rushing back to his own Blue buff knowing that Svenskeren would likely go for his own steal. The brilliance of Peanut’s Lee Sin is showcased during that skirmish.

Peanut lands a perfect Sonic Wave from the get go, and expertly waits until the last second before casting Resonating Strike. The brilliance of this was that it accomplished 2 things. It just barely baits out the Kha’Zix jump, which meant that Peanut’s Lee Sin followed him, rather than having to waste a Flash to catch up. Additionally, it gave both Faker and Huni the time and ability to roam down to clean up the first blood. Who better to give double buffs and first blood to than Faker himself?

Not two minutes later, Peanut’s intelligence shows in his counter-gank in mid. Peanut knows that double buff Faker, who has been pushing heavily forward will be a big target for a gank from Svenskeren. Peanut ran to the mid lane, and patiently waited for Svenskeren to show first before appearing. This led to an easy clean up and kill for Peanut.

The strength in Peanut’s Lee Sin seems to rest on his knowledge and sense of where he needs to be at the right time. Peanut was able to match Svenskeren again for a counter-gank in the top lane leading to a double kill at 12 minutes. Peanut’s double kill also saved Huni’s Rumble from dying. Peanut expertly dealt with the Shen first with his ultimate followed by his Q as the TSM top and jungle were split on opposite sides of the bush for a few seconds. Even while doing so, he ensured that Huni did not get isolated so that Kha’Zix doesn’t get his full damage off.

Classic Q → R → Q

Throughout the mid game, Peanut was able to secure pressure for Faker. Unfortunately, he does end up dying after being baited by a Shen Ultimate once, but this seems to be one of his only blunders. He responds quickly by getting a kill on an overextended Varus with the Tahm Kench Ultimate.

We usually think that good Lee Sins are the ones who can make the best flashy plays. The Insec and Ward Jumps epitomize the image of a great Lee Sin player. However, in the game against TSM, we don’t see too many of these plays. Let’s be clear, Peanut obviously has the mechanical prowess to pull these plays off, but doesn’t feel the need to. We can see small glimpses of these mechanics in several moments. Around 23 minutes, in a teamfight in the mid lane, Peanut landed a max range Q on Svenskeren. Svenskeren was again unable to jump away, as Peanut’s Resonating Strike followed Kha’Zix over the wall. This was followed up by an immediate ultimate which instantly removed Kha’Zix from the fight.

We can also see his mechanics shown off during the first Baron by SKT. Peanut does miss the Smite on Baron (it was instead secured by Faker), but Peanut redeemed himself by landing an extremely difficult Q onto Bjergsen’s Syndra which killed him. On top of this, Peanut had the state of mind to kick Biofrost’s Braum into the rest of his team which knocked up Varus. There's no doubt Peanut’s mechanics are there.

How can he land that Q?

Yet, in the TSM game, the bulk of Peanut’s strength on Lee Sin came from his ability to pressure the entire map. Helping Faker secure early double buffs ensured that the somewhat “even” mid lane match up would go heavily in Faker’s favor. Huni was able to push constantly without fear of Svenskeren and get to Rumble’s powerful midgame. Svenskeren was severely outclassed throughout the entire game. Peanut stayed ahead in farm for the entire game, and was able to secure more buffs on both sides of the map. Peanut was involved in first blood, which is often a sign of good jungle presence, as well as being involved in 13 out of 22 kills.

SKT vs GAM: Day 3

This game was an entirely different story. If anything, we see Peanut’s mechanics shine throughout this game.

It’s interesting to note that SKT’s team composition is exactly the same as their team comp during their game against TSM a day earlier. Obviously, the team composition incorporates Peanut’s Lee Sin which makes the comp extremely powerful. Similarly, Faker is extremely good at Orianna and it is his most played champion. SKT as a whole then, seem to be very comfortable with this type of composition.

Let’s look at the stats first. In this 27 minute game, Peanut had an absurd 15-2-5 score line which netted him participation in 20 out of the 35 kills, or roughly 57%.

The first instance of Peanut’s mechanics comes in at around 4 and a half minutes. GAM just 3 man dove Huni in the top lane, who had just Teleported back to lane. They get the kill, but Bard takes an extra turret shot and Peanut’s timely counter gank nets him the first kill. Still in a 2v1, Peanut landed yet another Q, Flashed the Graves Q and got out alive. But it’s not over yet, after missing one Q, he swoops around to the side landing his 3rd kill in this play by sniping Slay’s Ziggs with a Resonating Strike.

But it looks so easy...

In what should have been a “good” (the game itself was quickly devolving into a fiesta) play for GAM, Peanut was able to turn it on its head. Peanut, at 5 minutes into the game, has 5 out of his team’s 6 kills and 5 out of 9 total kills in the game.

Peanut goes on to break the record for most kills under 15 minutes at MSI getting up to 11 and 0 before 10 minutes. That’s another 5 kills in under 5 minutes. You will have to watch the game itself, or some highlights at the very least, to see how powerful Peanut gets by this point in the game. Peanut skillfully transfers his early (extremely large) lead into more and more kills. To be fair, two of the kills were handed to him on a silver platter when two members of GAM take an extremely precarious portal near the top lane tower. Even so, Peanut was able to land some insane Qs to secure him 9 more kills.

The next display of skill comes in at 11 minutes in the bot lane. SKT's bottom lane was just double killed by Levi’s Graves. Now in a 1 vs 4, Peanut first takes out Kennen with a standard Q → R → Q → E. Peanut is so far ahead that this combo alone without any auto attacks kills Kennen. Peanut then has to fight of a 1 vs 3 against Ziggs, Bard and Graves under turret. Peanut first kills off Graves with a ward hop → Q → Q → Auto attack and Thunderlord's proc. What’s impressive about this play is that first, Peanut knows that he can instantly get the kill and get out even without his Safeguard. Secondly, Peanut knows that even though his tower goes down, he simply has to wait out the minion wave to get the space to land the Q. Peanut was even able to secure a kill on to Bard after being hit by Bard’s Ultimate, simply by landing a Q as Bard entered his Magical Journey.

The game settled down from there, and SKT were easily able to close out the game by securing Baron.

Conclusion

In these two games alone, Peanut’s score was a whopping 24-3-9. Not only did he secure 24 kills, he only died 3 times. These scores are obviously impressive, but perhaps what made Peanut’s Lee Sin in particular so powerful, was his movement around the map. Mechanics aside, Peanut was seemingly at the right place at the right time almost all the time. In the game against TSM, his early game dominance gave his solo laners strong pressure which allowed them to pull ahead. This was only enabled by Peanut’s ability to effectively shut down Svenskeren, predicting his movements and following up to counter-gank. Even in the hectic game against GAM, Peanut was moving around the map well and securing kills everywhere. It's difficult to see exactly how Peanut was moving around the map, so take a look at the games to understand fully how good he is on that champion.

Like always, it would be interesting to see what others have to say about his Lee Sin. Why is it so good? Why does he make it so hard to play again? Why can't I be that good at Lee Sin? I hope we'll continue seeing his Lee Sin throughout the season!

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