With the LPL still under a hiatus, we again look to the LCK, LCS, and LEC to bring us the good stuff day in and day out. This week we, yet again, have three out of the four premier LoL Esports leagues pulling out all of the stops, with highlights from each of them reminding us why we follow competitive League of Legends to begin with.

Let’s break down the plays that broke our hearts – or made us heart eyes emoji – around this Valentine’s Day.

10. Slam Dunk 2.0

Sett is insanely fun to watch – and I guess play. Razork’s Ekko couldn’t have asked for much more from his toplaner as his Parallel Convergence promptly had Martin “Wunder” Nordahl Hansen delivered into it, securing both the stun and subsequent kill for the Misfits side.

9. Supportal Kombat

While the rest of Hanwha Life Esports were cleaning up the Sandbox Gaming team’s base after a clean ace, former Griffin superstar Son “Lehends” Si-woo ran interference on the enemy Rakan. Preventing the support from recalling and potentially delaying the inevitable, HLE’s support – with help from the Ocean Dragon Soul – ran circles around his counterpart, applying damage and some very bad mannered dance moves in a 1v1. Not the most insane displays of mechanical talent, but certainly one of the most entertaining.

8. Vsta breaking windows

When Hanwha Life Esports and Sandbox Gaming took to a bloodbath of a dragon contest to really set the pace for the outcome of the game, it seemed like the rising stars of SBX had all but won the skirmish and were ready to mount their series comeback. However, quick thinking from newly roleswapped marksman Oh “Vsta” Hyo-seong (who said support players don’t have mechanics?) saw the Aphelios aggressively Flash forward.

This wouldn’t be impressive in and of itself if it wasn’t immediately following a clean Scatter the Weak from Syndra that would have all but secured a teamfight win and eventual Baron stake for SBX, so HLE have a lot to thank their new marksman for.

7. Keria breaking HLE

Did I mention supports and mechanics? This time around we saw two of the League’s finest solo queue players, Lehends and DragonX’s very own Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, match wits in the bottom lane. A good disengage from the HLE side should’ve been the end of any sort of gank attempt from DRX’s jungler, but Keria flashed at the end of his Pyke stun’s wind-up – securing two stuns, three Summoners, and one very crucial kill for his team thanks to his fancy footwork.

6. Aphelios turnarounds are lowkey kind of gross

What started as a disastrous fight for the Golden Guardians – with crucial members being picked off by Henrik “Froggen” Hansen’s Orianna Shockwave – was immediately turned around by upstart marksman Victor “FBI” Huang reminding everyone that he’s more than worth the import slot he takes up. Lining up the perfect shot – or, rather, multiple of them from guns of various descriptions – FBI turns the fight around with confidence to rival even the top teams.

5. Ssumday my prince will come

Some teams have players that just make the game unfair. Whether that was 2013 SK Telecom T1 with star midlaner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok standing head and shoulders above the rest, or 2018 Invictus Gaming with Song “Rookie” Eui-jin, certain star players always shine even when given comparatively less resources than their counterparts. For 100 Thieves, that player is Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho.

Establishing his dominance over his counterparts since coming to NA, the former champion of Korea cleaned up a teamfight and secured a surefire win for an otherwise struggling 100T squad. When Ssumday’s ahead, there’s no stopping him, as evidenced by his Aatrox running rampant through the enemy team here.

4. Rogue make MAD dunks

The start of this clip – and fight – was largely uninspiring. Veteran support Oskar “Vander” Bogdan was immediately caught out and killed by a threatening MAD Lions team around the Rift Herald.

However, Vander’s interference – sacrifice, if you would – bought time for the solo laners of RGE to reposition around the fight. A beautiful wombo combo then followed, with a clean Sett Show Stopper coming from Finn “Finn” Wiestål leading into Cataclysms, Whirling Deaths, and Frozen Tombs galore.

3. Xmithie and Hakuho welcome Broxah to North America

For Team Liquid to have made roster changes, despite being the best team North America has ever assembled by far, the upgrade must’ve been simply insane on paper. Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen certainly has his ups, but he had big shoes to fill coming in for jungle stalwart Jake “Xmithie” Puchero. Xmithie, in tandem with Immortals’ Nick “Hakuho” Surgent, welcomed his jetlagged replacement with open arms as TL’s new piece made his way in for an invade.

The read, and subsequent execution, was flawless enough that Broxah had no chance to even respond – immediately set behind for the rest of the game as Xmithie led an Immortals who looked heavily disadvantaged in the head-to-head prior to this jungling masterclass.

If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

2. Coffee is for Closer and kicks are for Doublelift

An understated moment from Golden Guardians’ already infamous toppling of Team Liquid, Can “Closer” Çelik reminded everyone why he was hyped up as a top tier jungler heading into the split despite never competing in a major region. Having gone toe to toe with jungling giants from other teams while the rest of his squad struggled, Closer really came into his own this game with a game-winning Lee Sin kick to secure a kill on Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng.

1. Razork to the rescue

Coming into the 2020 season, no one expected anything out of Misfits Gaming. However, a stunning victory over G2 Esports was closely followed by another upset – their dominant victory over Origen. What common denominator did these two games share?

Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz showing the hell up.

Showcasing himself as the best jungle Ekko the West has ever seen versus a then-undefeated G2, Razork took to the more conventional Gragas versus Origen and came out of the fog of war like a dark horse in order to answer an OG collapse on the toplane. Flash Body Slams, Casks of varying sizes, and kills galore came the Spaniard’s way, and he established himself as a firm favorite for Rookie of the Split.