Colin Kenitz (7 – 14 – 2016)

Current Actual LCK Standings (as of 7/13/16)

1. Rox Tigers (9 – 3)

1. Samsung Galaxy (9 – 3)

1. SK Telecom T1 (9 – 3)

4. KT Rolster (7 – 5)

5. MVP (6 – 6)

6. Afreeca Freecs (5 – 6)

7 Jin Air Green Wings (5 – 7)

8. ESC Ever (4 – 7)

9. Longzhu Gaming (2 – 9)

9. CJ ENTUS (2 – 9)

The mid-season point in the summer Split has just crested, and we’re now fully on the path towards Worlds, as far away as it may seem. Korea has been the strongest region in the world for years and it’s currently in the middle of one of it’s most competitive Seasons ever. Here is a power ranking and summary of each team in their current state, included in which is where they stand now and how I think they will finish out the season.

The number in parenthesis by each team name represents the value, positive or negative, that I rated them differently from their actual league standing.

1. SKT (0) – SK Telecom has had all of their struggles against mid level teams thus far. They came into the split after a clean MSI victory with their coaches saying, hey, we’re tired, so don’t expect much from us. Whether intentional or not, the downplayed SKT went on to begin the season 5 – 0 until they stumbled a bit towards the end of the first half of the season. Falling to surprising teams such as Jin Air and the Afreeca Freecs. Despite this, they’ve been solid against the teams near and above them in the standings. They’ve found wins over an at the time first place KT Rolster and Rox Tigers. Blank has been fielded most games, but we’ve seen some games from Bengi, albeit -mostly- on his old favorite champions, such as Elise. Blank has been playing more proactive early game junglers such as Gragas, which is a good look for such a mechanically skilled player. Duke has looked good, but seems somewhat stagnant. He’s had some questionable picks like the post-nerf Gangplank where he’s just been shut down. In one such game, ADD of MVP solo killed him three times within minutes. Wolf has looked as good as always, and he’s really picked up the Nami this season, which is a tricky pick that he pulls off very well. Since she’s so squishy, he really has to coordinate his invades and warding missions well with his laners and jungler, which for the most part has been great. While Faker is doing Faker Things, his stage has been stolen. Bang has been the true carry of this team through this Summer Split. He’s consistently been out damaging Faker in these games, but it’s not purely because he’s just playing so good. Faker is actually such a strong presence that teams invest so much to pick him off first in team fights, and thus we’re often seeing team fights completely turned around, concluding with a full HP Bang cleaning up the enemy team. The way SKT plays works for them because their shot calling is amazing, Kkoma is an amazing coach, and finally because each player’s individual talent and skill is so good that they can rely on one another at a level most teams cannot.

2. Rox Tigers (-1) – Rox Tigers have, again, found themselves at the top of the table for the third Split in a row. It’s the same thing we’ve seen before, and maybe again, they’ll finish above SKT in the standings, but the real question is: will they be able to beat SKT in the play offs? Smeb has been looking as dominant as ever. He’s the current league MVP leader with 900 points. He’s been crushing both on carry picks like Irelia and tank picks such as Trundle. Pray has been playing immaculately as well. The best thing is that Pray was playing the Jhin last season before it was meta, but now that he’s in the meta it just looks so good. The catch ability of Jhin along with Peanut’s aggressive jungling style creates picks in all phases of the game. Unfortunately for Peanut, his play style was hit hard this season. With the massively increased value of Elemental Drakes (well, three of the four) Peanut’s aggressive early ganking style has been somewhat nullified. If he shows top to gank and gets a kill, its okay, but then the enemy team is advertised a free Drake. It’s been great to see that he’s been able to still play his style of League whilst adapting to the new meta. For me, unquestionably the best support in the league last season was GorillA. I still feel this way. GorillA was criticized as an Alistar one trick, but he’s never been such. To prove that, Alistar got some pretty heavy nerfs this season but GorillA’s still been playing him excellently, as well as many other supports. One recent performance that displays this is their most recent game against KT where GorillA saved so many team fights for him team by himself with good ultimates and consumes. Rox continue to dominate the teams below them, as they do, but their bane has still proven to be SKT, mainly in the Faker – mid matchup. Rox has the highest kills per minute in the LCK, so their agression hasn’t died away, and you can always rely on their games to be exciting.

3. KT Rolster (+1) – KT has been quite up and down this season. Sitting at 7 – 5 doesn’t look that great, but in a league where three teams are currently tied for first mid way through the season, it’s hard to read into standings at face value. When we look at KT’s wins and how they won, as well as their losses and how they lost, we’re able to see that the other Telecom team is in just as strong of form as last year when they went to worlds. To look back at that, they got through the group stage just fine, but were faced against the then Koo Tigers, where they lost 3 – 1 in a match that was one of the only non 3 – 0 sets of the knockout stage. While the Tigers went on to be runner ups, KT went back to focus on another season in the LCK. In Spring they made it to the third round of play offs, but were destroyed by SKT in the semi-final Telecom War. This Summer they’ve been looking great. Ssumday hasn’t been the raw carry force we’ve seen before, but with the meta shifting towards more carry options in the top lane we’ve seen some pretty incredible performances recently. Fly’s been really good on the Vladimir, and his pocket Aurelion Sol surprises and devastates his opponents, including Faker. Despite being one of the oldest players in the League, Score has been a crux for his team’s success as well. KT’s decision making under their veteran jungler has put them in many strong positions, even coming back from some early deficits. Score isn’t the only veteran on the squad though, as Ssumday, Hachani, and especially Arrow have all been around for a long time. Hachani has been suffering less from being caught out by random, unsafe warding missions, and Arrow’s Ashe is now a meta pick, and he’s used it for some pretty awesome Enchanted Crystal Arrow snipes across the map. KT Rolster is a fantastic team to watch and focus on their map movements and decision making, and they’re on their way to another massively successful season

4. Samsung Galaxy (-3) – Perhaps the biggest surprise of the season. The low end to barely middle of the table team of Spring Split has exploded this Summer. Cuvee has looked much more solid in general this season. He’s been more self reliant, better with teleports, and better on both carry and tank champions in the split push and laning phase. Previously he’s been considered a serious liability for his team, but he has indeed shown up on both types of roles this Split. He’s still struggling against the best of the best in Ssumday and Smeb, but in a region loaded in top lane talent, holding your own against the likes of these players is a feat in itself. Crown has been really similar, as he’s improved quite a bit since last season but he’s still struggled quite badly against the likes of Fly and Faker. The team has suffered some rough losses while fielding Corejj as their substitute support player, but while they have Wraith their shot calling looks clean and concise. The players themselves have said that he plays a large role in shot calling, so although Corejj hasn’t individually faltered necessarily, Wraith’s role in the team is irreplaceable. The true strength of the newly wrought Samsung roster comes from Ambition and Ruler. Ambition, the former mid-laner of CJ Entus, the former jungler of CJ Entus, has really found his footing this split on Samsung. His jungle pathing is intelligent and his mechanical ability and veteran game knowledge has gotten him recognized as one of the strongest junglers. With the addition of Ruler, the new ADC, Wraith and Ambition have been able to ward better and more aggressively, because Ruler is a more map aware player, he reacts very quickly and knows how to play while his team mates sneak their way into enemy territory. Samsung is currently tied for first, but I Think once they play their second round of matches against the teams I’ve ranked above them, they’ll find themselves in play-off position, but simply not at the same caliber to compete at the highest level of the LCK.

5. MVP (0) – Perhaps the other biggest surprise of the season! MVP, a previous power house in Korea, but was only just promoted back into the LCK this split. Although they were dominating so hard in the challenger scene, no one could have said they would even be a middle of the table team. The landscapes between challenger and LCK are so vastly different, but it has been a very pleasant surprise for all of us. ADD looks very strong on several picks, his Trundle and Gnar especially have just been dominant, even against the best top laners in the league. His split pushing presence in the mid – late game is quite impressive for a rookie player. At the beginning of the season Maha, the ADC, was being caught out far too frequently both in lane phase and into the late game, causing the team to lose a lot of games. They’ve remedied this somewhat by putting him on the Jhin a lot, a character that is able to fully influence fights and create picks from quite far a away. Ian has looked especially good on Azir and his Varus has shown some clearly dominating performances. He understands his role well in team fights, whether it be CC or back line threat, and as he finds his place in the LCK he’ll only get better. Max is very preferential to the Bard pick, and it’s easy to see why. There’s been more than one game where he’s saved entire team fights for his team with his bard ultimates, whether used to disengage from enemy picks or to engage for his team. Overall, though, Beyond, the jungler, has been the true MVP of MVP. He’s tied with Faker for the second most MVP points in the league at 700 points, only two MVP’s away from tying Smeb at number one. His early jungle presence carries him against straight up stronger players and teams, and his kill participation is insane at over 78%. Overall MVP has incredible mental fortitude for a team with three rookies on it, and have stayed in and made comebacks in several desperate scenarios. Beyond’s pocket Amumu found a win against the Rox tigers, and while losing to Afreeca, individually he performed well. Maha has stepped up a few times on Ashe as well with really clutch accuracy with her ultimate combining with Max’s bindings for chain CC. Their average of being down 1100 gold at fifteen minutes betrays their skill and win rate, because their late game is simply amazing.

6. Afreeca (0) Afreeca was the biggest surprise of the Spring Split. Previously Rebels Anarchy, they struggled to find more than a few set wins in 2015. Toward the end of Spring, however, they made an impressive run and found themselves in the first round of the playoffs, knocking out several other contenders in a close run that came down to game differential. Mickey has been good this season, but it’s no longer the Mickey Show. This started last season, but it’s been more prevalent in the Summer Split. Sangyoon has been the true carry of this team in many ways this Season. He’s got a 4.2 KDA, which although is not by any means the highest of the league, puts him above PraY at 4.0. He gets a fairly small amount of resources from his team, but his positioning in team fights has been so impressive. He and Snowflower look to have good communication in lane, but it really is in the 5v5 scenarios where he shines. Lira hasn’t been getting caught out as much in the jungle as he had been, however junglers such as Score, Ambition, and Peanut still give him clear trouble. The Freecs have been alternating their top players between Ikssu, their top from last season, and Lindarang. Between the two, its difficult to say which player deserves the primary position. Win percentage wise they are very similar at 44% and 43% respectively. As well, both have positive CS and gold differentials at the ten minute mark. Their main difference lies in kill participation, where Lindarang is about 10% higher than Ikssu. Afreeca seems to be finding their footing, and despite where they sit now, they could potentially make a run for play offs once again this season.

7. Jin Air Greenwings (0) – Jin Air is a cruel temptress to it’s fans. In the Spring they were high up in the rankings through most of the season, but then dipped hard near the end. While they finally ended in play offs, their level of play was simply helpless against the likes of their competition. Again, this Summer Jin Air found themselves at the top of the standings, and again, they have dipped down as the mid season mark approached, and are currently all the way down in seventh place. Trace has been the fearless leader of the Sadplane. His pocket Malzahar has been good – the early push relieves pressure from Winged’s Graves so that he can farm, and it provides a strong, reliable CC throughout the late game. Winged is one of the few junglers still playing Graves. The farm heavy, no CC jungler has somewhat lost it’s place in the current meta. Despite this, Winged has still managed to get a lot of early ganks off with Graves, but this brings up the point stated earlier about he Rox Tigers. Early kills have lost a lot of value in the current elemental drake meta, and it seems Jin Air is struggling to adapt properly. The team has been investing a massive amount of resources into Pilot and he hasn’t been carrying at the level he should be to warrant such investment. Lower economy players are putting out much more outstanding performances, such as Trace, who really has been the veteran leader of this team and performing quite well overall. Early on in the season Jin Air found all of their wins in very long games where they scaled heavily. Despite their win over SKT which stopped their winning streak, I have thought their strength was over estimated since the beginning of the Season. It’s easy to say now, seeing how far they’ve fallen, but it’s really all too obvious. Their team comps are okay, but often lack very important aspects such as reliable engages without flashing on, say, a Ryze. When Winged and Chei play engage and CC champions they have looked much stronger. Winged’s Gragas is phenomenal and despite a meta that is more difficult for melee supports, Chei’s Alistar has looked smart and he makes great decisions in team fights. Similar to Afreeca, Jin Air has a chance to make a small resurgence, however, with the talent pool currently in the LCK they will be hard pressed to make anything past the first round of play-offs, if that.

8. ESC Ever (0) – Ever is well known as the Challenger team that beat SKT after they won worlds. They’re known as the team that made a tear through the IEM circuit, despite not even being an LCK team. What most people don’t know is that in their final challenger season before promotion they actually went through several struggles, mostly against MVP. The two teams are both new to the LCK this season and their current standings reflect their status during the Spring in Challenger. ESC is a good team with good players, but they’ve got their struggles as a team that is fairly inexperienced at the highest level of competition. Destroying competition below you is good for the short term, but long term it can inflate one’s ego. Individually, the team is so strong. Crazy has looked good on a wide range of champions, especially his Shen. Bless has been a dominating force when he gets his hands on Gragas, but in general he’s been there for his team when they need him. In fact, Bless, LokeN and Key all have above 70% Kill participation; an impressive stat for a team. As well, each of these players are fairly low economy, spitting their gold distribution well across the whole team. LokeN is very possibly one of the most gifted mechanical players in the LCK this split which is truly displayed on picks such as lucian. Key’s bard has been feared for some time, and for good reason, because he can chain CC with Bless and LokeN very well. Tempt has been really solid, notably because he’s been almost 30% of his teams damage, which is very high. Ever is a solid team that will find a lot of success in the future. Internationally they looked so strong, but on a strictly Korean landscape they’ve struggled to find themselves on the winning side of most sets, although they almost always take one game back in the struggle. They did beat SKT, so they have that in their pocket, but they simply look outclassed against most teams at the top of the table. They have a much better read on the early game than the late game, which is often the case with fairly new teams with individually gifted players. Despite ranking them at 8th place now, they very well could find their stride and move up to 6th or 7th by the end of the Split.

9. Longzhu Gaming (0) – Okay, I know, it’s getting old, but really, perhaps the other other biggest surprise of the Season – This time in a negative connotation. Longzhu Gaming is a roster stacked with previous super stars. Their placement in the Spring Split was considered surprisingly low, but to their own dismay they’ve only been beaten down lower this season. They finished last season at 7th place with an 8 – 10 record. While only two sets below .500, it’s worse than it seems, since the only two teams below them were Sbenu Sonicboom at 2 – 16 and Kongdoo Monster at 1 – 17. While there was a three way tie for 4th, and CJ entus tied Longzhu for 7th, things were murky, but with a lineup that boasted Coco, Chaser, Flame, and more, it was hard to see this team fail. Chaser has been pretty good this season, but he’s no longer the carry he was on Jin Air a year ago. Coco has also been really good, and then again, so has Frozen, their other mid laner. At the start of the season the team had dropped Flame, looking only to field Expession as their top laner, but recently the team picked Flame back up, despite the fact that Expession hasn’t necessarily been performing poorly. If anything, Longzhu’s main struggles have been with their bottom lane since Spring, but it’s really hard to point that finger. What it comes down to is something isn’t clicking with these players. Perhaps it is a situation like we saw when YellOwStaR went to TSM. Going from an undefeated regular season to an absolute train wreck on a team that looked so good was confusing. It was stated by the players, however, that members on the team simply had a different idea on how to play and win the game, and with no hard feelings, they simply didn’t mesh. YellOwStaR has gone back to Fnatic and is having another hugely successful season, so with this as our best case study, it can only be assumed that something like this is the culprit. I personally love ice cream and I also love barbeque sauce, but sometimes things just shouldn’t mix. Longzhu isn’t out of play-off contention yet, but things look bleak. They have a lot of room to grow as a team unit, and they’ll need the rest of the season to do so.

10. CJ Entus (-1) – Currently tied for Longzhu at the bottom of the standings, CJ Entus has more than struggled this season. They didn’t look amazing in the Spring, but they lost the form they spent all Spring building. They’ve only fielded Bubbling once, their jungler all last Split. Instead, they’ve gone with Haru, who’s been stumbling against just about every other jungler. He’ll go for strange, somewhat random invades when his team isn’t in position and there aren’t sufficient wards, and when he is caught out his team cannot react in time. Recently they’ve been playing Sky in the mid lane, who actually has a 50% win rate in 8 games as opposed to Bdd who has 21% in 19 games. Despite Bdd being praised as a mechanical beast, he’s looked lethargic and confused in the mid lane against just about every opponent he’s faced. Luckily, despite being one of the longest standing players in the league, Madlife has looked really good this split. Kramer has as well, posting a good Damage per minute stat at 525, but he hasn’t been as clutch as he was even last Season. CJ is clearly unsure of what direction they need to take with their roster, as they’ve got substitutes in nearly every role being fielded. Even in the past few weeks they’ve brought Shy out of hiding after most thought he was only on the roster as a formality. Shy’s kill participation has been really low thus far, but his Shen play, as well as his trundle have been huge in helping in CJ’s games. He certainly does look far superior to Untara, and he’s doing so at a very low level of economy share on his team. Having his experience along with Madlife’s voice will likely help guide the younger players on the team, which may be just what they’re looking for as they find their style of game play throughout the second half of the season. As with Longzhu, they’re technically not out of play-off contention yet, but it would take a miracle (or disaster) to get them there. CJ Entus has good infrastructure, and under the guidance of the legends tutoring the younger players, they should utilize the rest of this season to try out new things and practice so that they can avoid relegation. It’s not that they look helpless, but with the current landscape of the LCK they’re simply in over their heads.

This has been one of the best seasons of LCK ever. Three teams have been in first place in the past week. One match loss dropped the Rox Tigers from 1st to 4th place. If you’re not very familiar with Korean League of Legends except for their domination at international events, there is no better time than now to become a fan. With this article you can jump in with your feet wet and see what the best region of the world is up to. I also think that this is one of, if not the best Season for North America. See Emily Rand’s article on it here!

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