With three teams still sitting at 2-0, the race to see who remains undefeated the longest begins. Unfortunately for the Afreeca Freecs and DragonX, their match in the upcoming week means that one of them will more than likely be the first team to drop out of the race. With the series between these two teams highlighting the schedule for the second week of LCK action, who will take the victory? 

Afreeca Freecs: No Longer a One-Man Show

It feels like it has been a while since Afreeca was a top team in the LCK. But after an amazing run through the KeSPA Cup, Afreeca’s momentum continues into the second week of the LCK. During their convincing victories against Griffin and Hanwha Life Esports in Week 1, the looked and operated as one would expect the roster to operate. 

With their talented roster, the responsibility of being the number one option to carry the game is shared by top laner Kim “Kiin” Gi-in as expected by the Afreeca faithfuls and new ADC Jin “Mystic” Seong-jun as expected by the Team WE faithfuls that watched him in China. Along with mid laner Song “Fly” Yong-jun excelling in his role as the secondary carry for the team, support  Son “Jelly” Ho-gyeong making huge improvements since last season and jungler Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon turning back time and having great performances so far, the team looks nearly unstoppable. 

For Afreeca, the issue is simply a case of “ifs” and “whens” as in “what if Fly and Spirit begins to struggle?” much like their series against APK Prince. This leads to “when that happens, will Afreeca still be able to dominate off the play of Mystic and Kiin alone?”.  If Afreeca can avoid this issue, they’re easily the strongest team in the LCK. If not, they could begin struggling fairly soon.

DragonX: Team of Youth

DragonX may be a lot closer to their peak than expected. While many were expecting the team to slowly get better with two rookies in jungler Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon and support prodigy Ryu “Keria” Min-seok. Along with the still fairly inexperienced top laner Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon, a lot was expected for the team, just not this soon. Instead, DragonX has been mostly dominant in their first week of LCK action. With 2-1 victories over KT Rolster and SANDBOX Gaming, both Keria and Pyosik had a chance to shine. For Doran, his chance will come as he missed the first series due to a ban handed out before the start of the season. 

Overall, the lack of an audience at LoL Park may be helping out the young team of DragonX more than anything. This will give the roster a chance to grow comfortable with playing on stage so that when the audience returns, nerves may not be an issue. 

For DragonX going forward, their biggest issue will likely be the inexperience of the roster. While ADC Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu and mid laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon have been in a lot of high-pressure situations in their career, the rest of the roster lacks as much experience. So while everyone has been performing very well so far, how well will they do in a high-pressure situation?

Prediction:

This will be an entertaining series no matter who wins. In the end, it’ll come down to the jungle matchup. This series will heavily depend on whether Spirit or Pyosik can get the early advantage and snowball a lead for their laners especially given the talent that is on both teams. In the end, Pyosik and the rest of DragonX have looked a lot better recently and should be the better team going into their matchup. As such DragonX should take the series 2-1.

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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