With the final week of the Spring Split coming to a close, the playoff picture has cleared up as we now know which teams will face off in the first round. Along with that comes the final power rankings for the Spring Split, with very little movement, it is time to see where teams finished in the week 10 edition of the LCK power rankings. As always if you missed last week’s power rankings, you can find them here!
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
To the surprise of no one, Jin Air Green Wings remain at last place in the lower rankings. Now they await relegation where one of APK Prince or ES Sharks awaits them in the first round. Luckily for Jin Air, neither team are quite at the level of Griffin or DAMWON Gaming at the time of their promotion tournament. However, they still appear to be in a better state than Jin Air at the moment.
While Jin Air’s fall into relegation was a given from the start of the season, the state of the team and roster was worst than what most people expected. While players like jungler Kim “Seize” Chan-hee and ADC Moon “Route” Geom-su were expected to make huge leaps in their development to give a team a chance to win, the reality was that this team is simply too weak at every part of the map. With all that being said, this may have been the last week fans will see Jin Air in the LCK for a long time.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
Despite still having a chance to avoid relegation in the final week of the regular season, KT would once again fall short and lose both their matches. As such, the team remains at 9th in both the power rankings and the standings. Luckily for KT, they still have a solid chance of surviving relegation. Mid laner Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong should out-class all the mid laners from Challenger Series, meanwhile their weakest link in ADC Byun “Gango” Se-hoon or Jeon “Zenit” Tae-gwon should have a better time in their matchups.
With that being said, if KT is able to avoid relegation, there will hopefully be roster changes going forward. As previously mentioned, KT does have a very weak bot lane and an upgrade in the ADC position could be a huge help. But for now, KT needs to look ahead to a new challenge as they face relegation for the first time in the organization’s history.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
A rough end to the season for Gen.G as they lost both matches. Luckily for the team, they were able to avoid relegation thanks to KT Rolster also lost both their matches. Now the team will have a small break while waiting for the Summer Split to begin.
During that break, Gen.G will have a lot to look at as upgrades across the roster are needed. With some up and coming players in Challenger and a few free agents around the world, Gen.G will need to take some risks. If they decide to maintain the same roster, they won’t be as lucky and will likely risk relegation in the Summer Split.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
Much like Gen.G, Afreeca was luckily able to avoid relegation as KT also dropped their matches in the final week of action. With that being said, Afreeca finds themselves in a much better place than Gen.G.
While Gen.G will need to make huge roster changes to make any huge improvements in the standings next split, Afreeca could theoretically stick with the same roster. Although it was late into the Spring Split, once Afreeca decided on a main starting roster, the team was able to slowly improve. With more time together, this Afreeca roster could make enough improvements to make the playoffs in the Summer. Considering all the talent on their roster, it may be the best way going forward.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
While Hanwha was able to end the Spring Split on a high note with a victory, their overall season was yet another disappointing one their hopes of a playoff appearance falls short yet again. As a result, they’ll head into a long break once again with a chance to look back at what went wrong and how they could have fixed it.
One of the biggest issues that became apparent as the regular season went on is their management of the roster. Notably the use (or lack of it in this case) of jungler Kim “Moojin” Moo-jin and top laner Kim “SoHwan” Jun-yeong when the team began struggling. While it’s understandable as to why Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk and Kim “bonO” Gi-beom would remain the starters while the team was finding success at the start of the regular season, their decision to keep them in once the team began struggling was questionable – especially when you consider that SoHwan and Moojin should be the stronger players on paper. If these issues were fixed, there may have been a chance for Hanwha to make the playoffs instead, they are going to be watching from home once again.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
Although DAMWON will start in the wildcard round of the playoffs, they will be going in on a positive with a 2-0 week to finish the regular season. Despite the rocky start to the season, the team could still make a deep run into the playoffs.
For them to find success in the playoffs, they will need to make perfect use of top laners Lee “Flame” Ho-jong and Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon. If their management of the roster is done poorly, DAMWON will likely be the first team to exit the playoffs. In general, this has been a great first split for a rookie team and the future will be bright.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
Despite a slightly rocky finish with a 2-1 victory over Gen.G to end the season, SANDBOX head into playoffs looking good. Key players like jungler Kim “OnFleek” Jang-gyeom and ADC Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun continue to make huge plays across the map as the team barely missed out on a bye into the quarterfinals.
Despite all the positives for the team heading into the playoffs, a lot of the same issues remain. Their decision making as the game advances into the later stages continues to appear questionable at times and as a whole, they can look lost at times. However, like DAMWON, the team can feel good about their great showing in their first split in the LCK and look to further improve for the Summer Split. For now, they sit at 4th in the standings and the power rankings.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
With a 2-0 victory over Griffin, Kingzone was able to lock in a bye into the quarterfinals. A huge reason for their success throughout the split continues to be ADC Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu, however there, were a few other players that managed to step up big time.
The first of which was jungler Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan, who made a strong argument near the end of the regular season to being the best jungler in Korea. On top of that, mid laner Heo “PawN” Won-seok had a return to his old level of play.
Altogether, the team are a dark horse this split to win it all as they have already exceeded all expectations with a 3rd place finish in the regular season.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
Although SKT were unable to steal away first place from Griffin, their performance in the final week of the regular season continued to be impressive. With exceptional play from the whole roster, SKT remains a favorite to win it all this season. With expectations high, the super team will start off the playoffs in the semifinals and will likely have an easy time making the finals.
Once they make the finals, they will have their best chance yet to defeat Griffin, who has not been performing at the same level as before. Will SKT win it all? Only time will tell.
Courtesy of: LCK Flickr
The current kings of Korea tripped past the finish like as they ended the last week of the regular season with a 1-1 record. Despite this, they will still find themselves in the finals as they await their opponent.
While controversy surrounds the team over Chovy’s MVP selection in game 2 against Jin Air Green Wings, the team will look ahead to a bigger prize. They failed last season at this point, will it be different this year? It will all depend on which Griffin shows up. Will it be the Griffin that dominated the first half of the regular season or the Griffin that dropped games to Afreeca Freecs and Gen.G? The answer will be revealed soon enough.
To watch League of Legends tournaments, visit watch.na.lolesports.com. For more information on the Split, teams, standings, and players, visit www.lolesports.com. Recaps of former weeks and other LoL content can be found at https://thegamehaus.com/league-of-legends/.
Featured image courtesy of LCK flickr.
You can like The Game Haus on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles
Follow Rui on Twitter @ruixu38
From Our Haus to Yours.
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
