Week three of the LCK began the shuffle of middle-team standings. Teams like MVP that looked strong at the beginning of the new meta are now under-preforming. Other teams like kt Rolster are learning what works for them, winning a series against first place Griffin.
End of week three LCK Standings from lolesports.com
Griffin lost their first series 0-2 to kt Rolster, a team known for winning games they shouldn’t while simultaneously losing games they shouldn’t. kt Rolster ended spring split in third, and if they keep up their recent performance they could end up at the top side of the bracket again.
Afreeca Freecs, a seemingly middle-tier team, preformed extremely well this week. They gave Gen.G their second loss of the split and their victories against MVP displayed control over the meta. Any game with less than five collective deaths is a clear victory in such a fast-moving meta.
As teams move around in standings, the meta changes constantly around the globe. Regions like NA and some of the EU LCS teams have reverted to more traditional bot lane strategies and avoidance of gold-funneling. However, LCK teams pilot League at the highest level and still value picks like Mordekaiser and Yasuo bot.
The last four games played by Afreeca Freecs in week three of the LCK. Shen appears in 3/4 of the games.
One pick you see very often in LCK that does rather poorly in other regions is Shen. Shen support’s use and value correlates with well-planned macro game, something Korea executes effectively. Global ultimates in general provide constant pressure all over the map. This is why Shen is usually a desired pick in any level of gameplay, from collegiate to LCK.
Xayah is another champion that has reappeared in the meta. After the patch that changed many marksman items like Infinity Edge and Essence Reaver, crit-based ADCs were thought to be gone from the meta. Lucian, Kai’sa and Ezreal were seen as the only worthy marksmen left.
However, Xayah found her way alongside Rakan back into the meta. Together or apart, both champions are seeing play in the LCK due to their powerful kits. Xayah’s ultimate allows her to stay alive long enough in a fight to put out consistent damage while avoiding burst from brusiers and mages in the bot lane.
Kt Rolster surprises viewers every time that they play. The team is consistently dominant one week then shaky the next. However, winning 2-0 over Griffin is surprising even with kt Rolster’s reputation of inconsistency. The second game in the series was difficult for kt Rolster to close out.
Even with strong early game advantages, kt Rolster’s difficulty to close games is to be expected at times with the team compositions that they run. Mordekaiser relies heavily on dragons in order to siege. This small window of extreme power must be used correctly or else the team will find themselves stalled out too long.
Week four might bring more interesting shake-ups into the current LCK standings. With Afreeca’s perfect week, they may be able to defeat first place Griffin. bbq Olivers and Jin Air are facing each other to break the tie between both 0-8 teams. Who will come out on top? Come back for more LCK wrap-ups to get your weekly results!
Featured Image courtesy of Riot Games.
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