As one of the last leagues to begin, ahead of only Japan’s LJL, the time has finally come for fans to once again witness some of the best League of Legends in the world through Korea’s LCK. With two great matches to start off the 2020 season, the opening day of the LCK should provide a good snapshot of what to expect for fans going forward. With that being said, it’s time to take a look at the first two matches of the first day of the 2020 LCK season.
Courtesy of: Inven Flickr
This will be an interesting matchup to start off the season. While DAMWON took the regular-season series 2-0 during the 2019 Summer Split, T1 decimated the team 3-0 in the playoffs. As the opening match for the season, it’ll be a battle of the solo laners as T1’s Kim “Canna” Chang-dong will look to prove that he can hold his own against one of the region’s best top laners in Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon. Meanwhile, the mid lane will feature what should be an amazing matchup between Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Heo “ShowMaker” Su. While the matchup in the bot lane is in T1’s favor, the tandem of Sin “Nuclear” Jeong-hyeon and Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee have shown that they’re more than capable of holding their own.
With both teams looking to start off the season right, they’ll both be looking for a big win that will likely have future playoff seeding implications. While both teams looked shaky during the KeSPA Cup, DAMWON should hold the edge. As long as they play an aggressive and proactive early game, T1 will likely crumble and fall too far behind, much like they did against SANDBOX Gaming. Overall it’ll still be a fairly close series but the first victory of the season will be going to DAMWON by a score of 2-1.
Courtesy of: Inven Flickr
This should be a fairly entertaining match to watch despite the clear advantage on paper for Gen.G. With a super team assembled around ADC Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, Gen.G will be looking to become the top team in Korea. Looking to spoil the start of their quest for the top will be a KT Rolster team that is also hoping to establish themselves as a top team. For KT, they do have a mostly solid roster on paper, but a clear weakness in the jungle with the options of Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong or Kim “bonO” Gi-beom. If either of these junglers can show up and show some level of improvement then KT should be a strong team that will compete for a playoff spot.
Meanwhile, for Gen.G, the main concern as seen at KeSPA Cup will be consistency. If key players like jungler Kim “Clid” Tae-min have an off game as he did against T1, then it may be a bit harder to win. Overall, Gen.G as a team should be fine in the long run even if they trip up at the start of the season.
In terms of this series, it’ll still be going in favor of Gen.G by a score of 2-0. With that being said, KT can still be a very underrated team and could prove to be a threat to some team’s playoff dreams.
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Featured image courtesy of y.w kim (Kenzi) Flickr.
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