The chaos behind the parity

The crazy race towards LCK Playoffs

Image Credit- LCK Flickr

Two weeks away from the LCK’s last regular season game, the 2019 Summer Split is an exciting mess. The group stage standings are a misleading cover that hides a plethora of winning and losing sprees, with an apparent parity among the league’s top 7 teams keeping the road towards Playoffs a complete mystery.

As the 9th Week of Summer Split kicks off, those 7 teams are separated on account of their recent results. They can be divided into three groups: DAMWON Gaming and SANDBOX Gaming, shaky but still able to keep their top spots; Griffin and Kingzone DragonX, worrisome losing sprees and unimpressive wins; SK Telecom T1, Gen.G and Afreeca Freecs, a resurgence bolstered by strong winning sprees. The narratives cross and intersect with each other in what’s proving to be one of the most competitive seasons the region has ever witnessed.

The New Blood narrative returns

Rift Rivals LCK-LPL-LMS-VCS was an ideal moment to look back at how the Summer Split’s first half in South Korea showed a different region post-MSI. SK Telecom T1 was not even in the League’s top 5 and Kingzone Dragon X had fallen behind the new members of LCK: DAMWON Gaming and SANDBOX Gaming. New blood was rising again, with an impressive Griffin leading the way. Rift Rivals was a great showing from the region that once ruled the World and the narrative only grew stronger as DAMWON Gaming put on a show in the International stage.

Ten days passed and the first week of games after the tournament was a sign of what was to come. Griffin lost twice in a row while SANDBOX GAMING and DAMWON Gaming suffered a loss each and SK Telecom T1 and Gen.G started their road to redemption with a clean 2–0 week.

The tides turn

One month later, the LCK standings look unrecognizable. There’s an evident parity in the Top 7 teams, with a 4 way tie for first place, a tie between the 5th and 6th and the 7th place squad being a single game behind.

After such a dominant start from Griffin, SANDBOX Gaming and DAMWON Gaming (7W/1L, 7W/1L and 6W/2L respectively), this amount of balance in the match records was very unlikely, but made possible by the top teams faltering while the bottom ones (in the top 7) fought back. The New blood took them by surprise, but the veterans know how to show up when it matters most.

Unexpected Downfalls

Griffin was on their way to another impressively dominant split with a single loss in 8 games, but the Rift Rivals break completely changed its trajectory. Of the last 6 games (weeks 5 to 8) they lost 4 and one of their wins was against KT Rolster. The whole team looked hesitant and Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong, previously hailed as one of the best junglers in the game, seemed non-existent.

Kingzone Dragon X were not among the most dominant teams in the LCK, but they were having a decent split and seemed to hit peak performance during Rift Rivals. After three shaky 2–1 wins the team started a rapid descent to 7th place by having a 4 game losing spree against top 7 squads. The recent matches for both of these teams do not bode well for their future performances, but their schedules are not too demanding.

Griffin will go against Gen-G, Kingzone, Jin Air Green Wings and Hanwha Life, while Kingzone Dragon X will face Jin Air Green Wings, Griffin and KT Rolster. Two key matches might decide the final standings for both: Griffin needs to take down Gen.G, the team who started their losing spree, to have a relatively easy path towards a top finish; Kingzone Dragon X have Griffin as the only dangerous opponent in their road to an 11/7 final record. These past few weeks haven’t been the best either team, but their future is theirs to mold.

A matter of experience

Three teams represented South Korea in the 2018 World Championship: KT Rolster, Gen.G and Afreeca Freecs. In week 4 of the LCK Summer Split they were the 8th, 6th and 5th teams in the League, respectively. KT Rolster never came back from their disappointing performances, but the two other representatives have not given up on their road to Worlds.

Afreeca Freecs lost two games in the last seven, boasting wins over the likes of Griffin, Kingzone Dragon X and DAMWON they asserted themselves as a true Playoffs contender. Kim “Kiin” Gi-in is back to top form and Lee “Dread” Jin-hyeok is looking like an extremely dangerous Jungler. The team sits at 9W/6L, one loss behind the 10W/5L score that ties 4 teams for first place.

Gen.G is part of that tie after an impressive run of 6 wins and a single loss in the past 4 weeks. They beat both Griffin and SANDBOX Gaming 2–0 and their change to comfort picks seems to fit them quite well. Lee “Cuvee” Seong-jin and Song “Fly” Yong-Jun play whatever they feel like and Han “Peanut” Wang-ho appears to have finally clicked with the team.

These two squads have had a resurgence that would’ve been the main talking point of the League, if not for the existence of the squad that beat them both in the middle of their winning sprees: SK Telecom T1, South Korea’s dynastic ruler.

The team who disappointed their region with a weak MSI performance seemed to be on a slump again, going into Rift Rivals with a 3W/5L score in LCK after being 1W/5L at the start of the split. Their performance against LPL teams wasn’t especially impressive, but what they’ve been doing in their domestic league afterwards has been incredible to watch.

SK Telecom T1 has won 9 matches in a row while dropping a single game against Griffin. They’ve beaten every single team of the Top 7 except DAMWON Gaming and SANDBOX Gaming. Those are the last two opponents they’ll face. The whole team looks crisper, cleaner and more dangerous with Lee “Effort” Sang-ho in the lineup. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has found an interesting pick in his AP Neeko, Kim “Khan” Dong-ha has showed up when he needed to, Kim “Clid” Tae-min has been dominant in most jungle matchups and their Bot lane is consistently good.

The strength of schedule isn’t as pleasant to these three resurgent teams though. SK Telecom T1 will face Hanwha Life, DAMWON Gaming and SANDBOX Gaming; Afreeca Freecs goes against SANDBOX Gaming, GEN.G and Hanwha Life; GEN.G has Griffin, Afreeca Freecs and DAMWON Gaming in their way. SK Telecom T1 is a favorite in their matches due to their recent form, but has arguably the hardest schedule of any team. Afreeca Freecs and Gen.G aren’t as safe in the standings and will probably be fighting for the 5th and final playoff spot with Kingzone Dragon X. Due to the one game disadvantage, the Afreeca Freecs might be out of the race if they lose to Peanut and company.

Time to strike

Two weeks is what’s left for all of these teams to decide their fate. Winning sprees can give you confidence boosts and losing sprees can do the opposite, but what counts is the final standings. The parity that keeps the squads close to each other is a reset, a second chance for those who have been faltering and the crucial moment for the teams on the rise to pounce on their prey. The final race towards playoffs is on and anyone can win it.