After a quick break for the Lunar New Year the players of LCK come back refreshed and ready for more action. With it comes another week of the OP 5 to acknowledge some of the players that had an amazing week. While there’s some returning faces once again (*cough* Chovy *cough*), there are still a few new faces to the OP 5.
With that being said, let’s take a look at which players are week 4’s OP 5. As always, if you missed last week’s OP 5, you can check it out here.
Top: Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk (Hanwha Life Esports)
While his performance was somewhat outshined by mid laner Kang “Tempt” Myung-gu for MVP honors, there’s no denying that Thal had an amazing Week 4. With some great play on Vladimir throughout the week, Thal played a huge role in Hanwha’s 2-0 week. While he did face weaker teams this week, Thal’s consistent performance throughout each week has rewarded him with a spot in the OP 5.
With the season nearing the halfway point, Thal continues to make good on his resolution to not repeat his time on SK Telecom T1. As long as he continues to improve, don’t be surprised to see Thal in the OP 5 more and maybe even in the conversation for best top in Korea.
Jungle: Son “Punch” Min-hyuk (DAMWON Gaming)
After watching from the sidelines to start the season, Punch finally got his chance to play League of Legends. It’s safe to say that Punch made the most of the opportunity as he picked up two MVP honors in the three game he played. He started things off with a clean performance on Lee Sin against Afreeca to receive his first MVP honor of the season. That great performance was followed up with two solid games on Olaf against Jin Air Green Wings, with game 2 rewarding him with the second MVP honor.
While Punch rarely sees any playtime due to the play of Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu, he makes the most of it and reminds fans that he is a LCK level jungler. While he could make quite a few teams better, he’ll remain on DAMWON for now, and take the honor of being the OP jungler for Week 4.
Mid: Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (Griffin)
Another week. Four more champions played by Chovy. With another 2-0 week for Chovy and the rest of Griffin, he was able to dominate once again with a variety of champions, dying only three times across the four games. While his KDA isn’t in the triple digits anymore, he still has an incredible KDA of 30.8 and added four more MVP honors this week (8 MVPs total).
At this point, there’s not much to say about Chovy and his amazing play as he receives the OP mid honor for the third week in a row.
ADC: Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun (SANDBOX Gaming)
“As long as he can maintain his level of play, don’t be surprised if you see Ghost back in the OP 5.” This was used last week when Ghost was the OP ADC for Week 3. Turns out he made his return into the OP 5 a lot sooner than later. With another solid week on champions like Viktor and Sivir, Ghost was able to pick up two more MVP honors raise his total to seven on his way to a 2-0 week with SANDBOX.
With another fairly easy week coming up for SANDBOX, Ghost could find himself in the OP 5 for a while longer with Chovy.
Support: Kim “key” Han-gi (Hanwha Life Esports)
With a deceptively quiet week key makes his debut in the OP 5 as the OP support for Week 4. While it’s not hard to look good on Tahm Kench, key played a fairly big role in Hanwha’s 2-0 week. His play with ADC Gwon “Sangyoon” Sang-yun continues to be impressive as they become the duo that has played together for the longest time in Korea.
With a big matchup in the coming week against DAMWON Gaming, key will play a big role in Hanwha’s chances to win the game. If he can lead the team to a victory over DAMWON with Sangyoon, don’t be surprised if he makes a return to the OP 5 with his ADC this time.
Honorable Mentions:
As always, with all the great players, it’s hard to fit everyone in. Here are some honorable mentions for the fourth week of action:
Let’s start with a returning member of the honorable mentions in mid laner Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong (KT Rolster). With how great Chovy has been playing, it’s hard for other mid laners to take the spot of OP mid. Such is the case for Bdd, who continues to have amazing performances for KT Rolster, as such he remains an honorable mention.
The second honorable mention is yet another mid laner in Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (SK Telecom T1). Now that Faker is off tank duties, he was able to remind viewers why he is considered the best player in the world as he simply dominated his opponents this week. If Faker is able to continue to play at this level, he too could find himself as the OP mid. For now he’ll take the 2-0 week and look ahead to another telecom wars matchup.
The last honorable mention goes not to a player but a build, as Frostmancy (Riot Games) was enabled in LCK for Week 4. Luckily, Kingzone DragonX was able to show how far the build could be taken against SK Telecom T1 with three champions running the build in game 1. In the end, Frostmancy’s life was short but it was the most degenerate build that went against so much of what Riot wants.
From their nerfing of vision control and uninteractive lanes, to the recent bounty system and their efforts to prevent support item abuse, Frostmancy was a perfect act of resistance to Riot. For that Frostmancy will be missed by some (namely, this author) as it is slowly laid to rest in the Riot patch graveyard.
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.
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