LCK Top Contenders as tournament resumes

LoL Esports
March 23, 2020
Kieran Lee

Riot Korea has recently announced the LCK would be following in the footsteps of its other leagues around the globe. The LCK is set to resume on the 25th of March through an online format. On top of transitioning to an online format, LCK matches will be held two hours earlier than its regular time. The recent global crisis affected the LCK and other leagues around the world.

The LCK is heading into a “Super Week” to kick off the continuation of the league. After almost three weeks of down-time teams had time to prepare and rethink their approach to the meta. To that end, we are going to re-think our top five picks going forward.

We kick things off, with the most dominant team Korea has ever known.

LCK 2020 Spring Teams

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T1

T1, formerly SK Telecom T1, continue to be a world class team in 2020 despite dropping two core members from their roster. Faker has cemented his position as a pillar for the team, while being a part owner and shareholder of T1. He is also seen going back to his old roots, currently with a 100% win rate on LeBlanc across 4 games. While SKT have so far dropped a couple of winnable games, their victories over Gen.G and DragonX demonstrate their ability to take out the top teams, and potentially contest the trophy once again.

Gen.G

Gen.G were previously regarded as a mid-tier team after failing to secure a top three finish in all seasons to date. However, following some major roster changes later in 2019 which saw more than half their team tossed, Gen.G is back stronger than ever. Aside from losing a set to T1, they have managed to gain decisive victories against every remaining team. They will proabably make playoffs and maybe finally luck out in the postseason.

Afreeca Freecs

The Afreeca Freecs started 2020 strong, finishing first in the KeSPA Cup 2019. The team not only won the tournament, but completely overwhelmed the competition, going 3-0 in both the semi-finals and finals matches against DragonX and SANDBOX Gaming respectively. With a substitute available for every position, it is expected AF will optimize it’s in-game roster, and further improve throughout the year.

DragonX

DragonX is back and much stronger than before. Last year’s Summer season was shocking for the team, placing 7th overall. That was also the lowest position the team has been in the LCK. This led to them rebranding and axing a number of coaching staff and players. The postseason worked out well for DragonX’s. So far they only dropped matches to T1 and Afreeca Freecs. However, in both instances, DragonX brought both match-ups to a third game. With a slight push, DragonX could easily take home the LCK Spring season.

Griffin

Finally, Griffin is the team to never lose track of. While the power of the other four teams is clearly demonstrated. Griffin may be currently at the bottom of the LCK ladder, but we all know what they are capable of. Given their recent poor results, many may underestimate them coming back into the split. However, the roster’s individual strength is no doubt present. If Griffin manages to take down Gen.G in their upcoming match, we can expect the team to perform strongly from here-on and earn a spot in playoffs. They are our “dark horse” top pick among the entire LCK lineup.

Read also: LPL 2020 Spring Split – A super month of competitive League of Legends