It’s been an exciting first week of LCK, filled with surprising results and great play all around. With those surprising results come quite a bit of movement in the power rankings. So let’s see where the teams rank this week. If you missed the preseason power rankings, you can find them here and here!
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
It’s going to be a long season for Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu and the rest of Kingzone DragonX. After a rough 0-2 start to the season, reality has begun setting in for fans of the team. For them it’s now clear that the leftovers of the previous roster in top laner Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee and jungler Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan, while capable, simply can’t match up to the top players in the region. On top of that, the gamble in the mid lane has already failed as Heo “PawN” Won-seok has performed poorly and has already been swapped out for Yoo “Naehyun” Nae-hyun. While the bot lane of Deft and Park “TusiN” Jong-ik are able to hold their own and even beat out other bot lanes, it’s simply not enough for this team.
While there’s plenty of League of Legends left, Kingzone’s fate is becoming clear. Unless Rascal and Cuzz can quickly improve a lot more, or the gamble in the mid lane can work out, the season might already be over for Kingzone. For now they sit at the bottom of the power rankings, but will it get worse before it gets better?
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
Jin Air came into the LCK widely considered the worst team in the league. However, despite their 0-2 start, there may still be some potential for this team to improve. While Jin Air may have lost all-star ADC Park “Teddy” Jin-seong, the young core of the roster is slowly stepping up to fill the void. Jungler Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong has been a proactive and aggressive jungler, making solid plays across the map. Meanwhile in the mid lane, Lee “Grace” Chan-ju has shown some potential in the matches that he has played in thus far.
Along with veteran players like top laner Heo “Lindarang” Man-heung the team has shown flashes of being a decent team. With an easier week 2 schedule ahead of them, Jin Air could be picking up a win sooner rather than later. While they might not be good enough to make the playoffs, Jin Air could prove to be a mid tier team and avoid the dreaded relegation that seemed like their fate before the start of the season.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
After a promising KeSPA Cup, Gen.G has been struggling in their first week on LCK. While ADC Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk has been playing fairly well, the rest of the team has been very underwhelming. Jungler Han “Peanut” Wang-ho has yet to live up to his big free agency signing, as he was out-shined by the enemy jungler in both series. Along with Peanut’s under-performance, both top laners in Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin and Kim “Roach” Kang-hui have been struggling to keep up against opposing top laners as well.
Apart from players’ individual issues, the team as a whole has a few issues as well. In general the team seems to lack cohesion and seems lost at various stages in the game; players are caught out, causing the team to give up objectives, often for free. On top of that, the draft has been suspect at times, most notably in putting Peanut on a tank for a majority of the games. In general the team has a lot to work on and fix in the coming weeks. With a fairly easy schedule going into week 2, a win might be able to instill some confidence into the team once again and turn everything around for them. However, for now they take a steep fall and end up 8th in the power rankings.
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Along with fellow Worlds participant Gen.G and KT Rolster, Afreeca Freecs start the 2019 LCK season with a 0-2 week. While top laner Kim “Kiin” Gi-in and mid laner Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon have been playing well, their weak bot lane has been a glaring issue. On top of that, the team has been struggling to keep up with the fast meta that has developed since, an issue that was already apparent at Worlds. A part of this issue stems from the jungle. While Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon has been a more consistent and steady jungler for Afreeca, Lee “Dread” Jin-hyeok is a much better fit for the fast meta. However Dread is still fairly inconsistent as a young jungler, making a lot more noticeable mistakes throughout the game.
For Afreeca, the talent is there to become a top team, it’s now a case of whether they’ll be able to adapt to the meta or not. If they’re unable to adapt, another season as a middling team with no chance of success awaits them. However, a quick adaptation to the meta could see the team return into the playoffs as a top team.
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The defending champions are off to a rough start, but there is some optimism to be had from their matches. While the team went 0-2, they did show some solid play as a team, especially led by the decision-making of jungler Go “Score” Dong-bin. More importantly, the team has been mostly proactive in the early game, as seen in their game 1 win against Hanwha. However, issues with the draft (picking Rumble into a Tahm Kench game 3 against Hanwha) continues to be KT’s kryptonite. On top of that, KT continue to seemingly fall apart at various stages in the game as their decision-making falls apart.
While mid laner Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong hasn’t been able to carry the team to victory, a very easy week 2 against Kingzone and Jin Air should help the team figure out their issues. While KT might not be a top team this season, they should still have a solid chance to make the playoffs and fight to defend their throne. But for now, an 0-2 start to the season and falling to 6th on the power rankings will be their fate.
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One of the bigger surprises from the first week has been SANDBOX Gaming. A team that was seen as one of the weaker teams in the LCK start off their season with a 2-0 week. Jungler Kim “OnFleek” Jang-gyeom has been amazing, completely controlling the pace of the early game. It’ll be interesting to see him go up against other top-tier junglers in the league like Griffin’s Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong to figure out if he’s truly a top-tier jungler in Korea. Along with him, ADC Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun has been surprisingly solid in his first two series, showing great performances on a variety of different champions and picking up the player of the game award in both games against Gen.G.
The issue for SANDBOX going forward is their decision-making. This was most evident in their game 1 victory over Gen.G, in which the team struggled to take Baron due to proper set up, which stalled out the game. While this is normal for a fairly young roster, it’ll be something they need to fix quickly as they’re set to face SK Telecom T1 and Hanwha Life Esports in the next week. It’s been a good start for the newly promoted team, but will they build on this success and make a sand castle? Or will the waves come in and bring it all crumbling down?
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Despite solid upgrades to their roster, most people had Hanwha Life Esports fairly low in their rankings (myself included). But a 2-0 week shows that Hanwha is a lot better than we might have expected. Through this week, the whole team has looked amazing. The bot lane tandem of Gwon “Sangyoon” Sang-yun and Kim “key” Han-gi are slowly building a case as a top-tier bot lane in the LCK with their great play through the week. Meanwhile top laner Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk and jungler Kim “bonO” Gi-beom have been showing that they’re able to keep up against top-tier players in their role in the likes of Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho and Go “Score” Dong-bin. But the most impressive player thus far has been mid laner Kim “Lava” Tae-hoon, who has been improving even more, and is slowly putting himself into the top-tier of mid laners.
Despite a great start to the season, their real test will come in week 2 as the team is set to face off against Griffin and SANDBOX Gaming. Even if the team loses against Griffin, if they show that they’re able to hold their own, it might just be enough to show that Hanwha’s stay near the top will last for a while. Will they be able stay there though? Or will they return to being a middling team? Only time will tell.
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There’s not much to be said for DAMWON Gaming, as they had a dominating 2-0 start to the season. Top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon has been making a strong case for being the best top laner in Korea at the moment as he completely dominated his opponents. Meanwhile ADC Sin “Nuclear” Jeong-hyeon continues to tear it up in the bot lane. While various players on the team can be too greedy at times, the team’s ability to just pull the trigger and make a play has been great to watch as it showcases the amazing skills of every player.
While a 2-0 start was great, DAMWON will have a very difficult week ahead of them. They’re set to face both SK Telecom T1 and Griffin, the only two teams above them in the power rankings. Next week will be a great chance for DAMWON to jump to the top of the power rankings, but it’ll be a hard road to get there. Will they be able to do it? We’ll find out soon enough, for now they sit at 3rd in the power rankings.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
The super team has come out swinging. An easy 2-0 week isn’t much for SK Telecom T1, especially considering who they faced. But it was definitely reassuring for them to pick up those first couple victories. So far the highlight of the team has been jungler Kim “Clid” Tae-min and ADC Park “Teddy” Jin-seong who have shared the player of the game honors in both series. While the rest of the team has been putting on great performances as well, Clid and Teddy have simply been amazing, pulling off great plays every game. While Faker will always be the face of SKT, right now the team has been the Clid and Teddy show.
With that being said, SKT will have a harder week ahead of them as they’re set to face SANDBOX Gaming and DAMWON Gaming. While they’re still the favorites for both matches, it will provide a better challenge for the squad to show what they’re truly capable of. But for now it’s clear, the super team is no joke, and the rest of the region should be scared.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
After a dominating performance at KeSPA Cup, Griffin hasn’t stopped yet as they completely destroyed their opponents in the first week of LCK on their way to a 2-0 start. While the obvious player to talk about is jungler Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong, who picked up all four player of the game honors and is slowly building a case as best player in the world, it’s better to simply talk about the team as a whole. The entire team has been playing amazing and has been absolutely outclassing their opposition. Along with that, each player continues to show picks that they’re deadly on, adding to the long list of champions that needs to be banned against this team.
Griffin may have missed out on Worlds last season, but if they continue to play like this, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they represented the region at every international event this season. For now, they’ll sit at the top of the power rankings, but expect more dominance from this team.
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