2020 will be the most important year for Korea, as the LCK looks to reclaim former glory and retake the Summoner’s Cup. Narratives have shifted over the last three years as the Korean dynasty has fallen from grace and now sits in the shadow of the LPL and LEC.







After 5 years of international domination, the League Champions Korea has failed to send a team to the World Final for 2 years in a row. With no Korean team landing in the top 4 in 2018. This failure to produce a top 2 finish since 2017 has left many questions for the long-time kings of League of Legends. Has the game truly shifted too far away from the 2013-2017 meta for Korea to catch up to the LEC and LPL? Or were 2018 and 2019 off-years for the old powerhouse region?







2018

In 2018, CaptainFlowers left us with a chilling quote to signal the fall of Korean dominance. “And the crownless are finally king” seemed almost poetic as out-of-nowhere LPL 3rd seed Invictus Gaming completed their clean sweep of Fnatic in front of a Korean crowd. This signaled the official rise of the LPL, as the LPL would produce another world champion in 2019; FunPlus Phoenix. Looking back to earlier in the 2018 World Championship to a match that had NA fans hopeful; AFS v C9. The final North American team in the tournament faced off against the final Korean team, after the fall of KT Rolster in quarterfinals to iG, and Gen.G bombing out in groups; the first Korean team to do so in the history of the region since Samsung Ozone in 2013. This failure to reach the World Finals for the first time in Korea’s history, on top of failing to send any team to the top 4 pushed a narrative very quickly. The narrative; the LCK is now behind LCS, LEC, and LPL. While the last two may remain true, 2019 would bring some rude awakenings to LCS fans.

2019

Coming into 2019, LCK fans found a comforting truth behind the LCK’s failure in 2018. Neither SKT, nor Griffin, two of the supposed top teams in the LCK that year, managed to attend the World Championship. This meant, to many, that Korea’s power wasn’t properly represented at the tournament in 2018, and that there would be a resurgence in 2019. While Korean teams battled for a shot at MSI, Western fans had their eyes on a brand new G2, with mid-laner Perkz role swapping to bot lane, and Fnatic mid-laner Caps taking his place, as well as North American super-team Team Liquid looking to take their 3rd consecutive LCS title. Back in Korea, a new SKT roster, as well as the returning Griffin roster battled it out for a spot at MSI, with SKT reigning supreme and attending MSI where they would fall in the Semifinals to G2 3-2. G2 would go on to 3-0 Team Liquid in the MSI finals. With an EU vs NA international final, a narrative push moved towards the rise of the west and the fall of Korea.





To recap, Korea has now gone 3 international tournaments in a row with a second-place finish or lower. For Korean fans, this was a terrible drought that needed to be broken. Luckily for LCK fans, the World Championship was on its way and the three Korean teams that would attend looked impressive going into the tournament. SKT, Griffin and Damwon Gaming all looked like contenders at the start of the tournament. However, with Damwon and Griffin falling in the quarterfinals and SKT falling once again to G2 in the semifinals, people are beginning to herald this as the end of the Korean Era in League of Legends and the dawn of the China v Europe race for first.

As a result of the last 4 international tournaments, Korea has seemingly begun to lag behind the other major regions. Because of this, 2020 will be the most important year for the LCK, as it has one more shot to prove that the dynasty isn’t over. If the LCK fails to win MSI or reach World Finals again in 2020, the LPL and LEC will be the undisputed top two regions in League of Legends currently, and the age of Korean dominance will officially be over.







Thanks for reading! If you’re in the market for a gaming phone this holiday season or know someone who’s been wanting one for a while, check out our article on the top and most affordable gaming phones of this year!