After three days of action, the two teams that will join the 2020 LCK season have been decided. How did these teams get there? Which teams were lost? What does this all mean for the upcoming season? Here is a look into the future of some of these teams.
Surely you’ve heard this one before, KaKAO and a bitcoin miner enter a Promotion Tournament…
Courtesy of: Inven Flickr
Despite a 4th place finish in the regular season of Challengers Korea, APK Prince has been on a tear leading up to their 3-1 victory over Jin Air Green Wings and their qualification into the LCK. Their run into the LCK was capped off by amazing performances by veteran jungler Lee “KaKAO” Byung-kwon on Taliyah through their three victories against Jin Air (17/0/19 across the three games). Along with KaKAO turning back time and playing like KT KaKAO with Taliyah, top laner Jeon “Ikssu” Ik-soo pulled out some great performances with unique top lane champions like Illaoi and Volibear.
Heading into the LCK, APK has one key area for improvement, in the mid lane where Kim “Cover” Joo-eon was by far one of the worst players in the whole tournament. If APK wants to avoid returning to the Promotion Tournament, a new mid laner will be their biggest target.
Courtesy of: Inven Flickr
Despite losing their first round matchup to APK Prince, Hanwha Life was able to make the run through the lower bracket and save their spot in the LCK. While APK Prince had key players that carried the team through the tournament, Hanwha was able to make it through thanks to a collective team effort. This was most evident in their 3-0 victory over Jin Air Green Wings, where everyone on the roster were making huge plays to lead the team to victory.
Despite how well the team played throughout the tournament, changes need to be made. After a whole season of terrible results, Hanwha can’t afford to repeat their season. Whether it’s a new jungler or taking a risk with a new bot lane, it’ll be interesting to follow the team during the offseason.
Courtesy of: LCK
One more tragedy for one of the original OGN teams as their 0-3 loss to Hanwha Life Esports has relegated Jin Air Green Wings to Challenger Korea for the start of the 2020 season. While it’s a big loss to the LCK with an iconic team gone to start off the next season, it will provide the team a great chance to rebuild and improve. In that sense, Jin Air is lucky as they have some great players to build around (should they stay) such as ADC Moon “Route” Geom-su, who has already shown that he is on the verge of becoming one of the best ADCs in Korea.
Overall the Promotion tournament has shown that Jin Air should be one of the better teams in Challenger Korea. But for Jin Air the concern becomes whether the team will be able to become a strong enough team to make it back into the LCK for the next Summer Split.
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/category/league-of-legends/.
Featured image courtesy of LCK Flickr.
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