As the Regular season inches closer to its end, players have begun stepping up their play. With quite a few important matches remaining, it’s time to find out who made the OP 5 for week 9. As always, if you missed last week’s OP 5, you can check it out here!
Top: Choi “Sword” Sung-won (Griffin)
Sword had a solid performance this week as he makes his return as the OP top laner of the week (last appearance was in week 3). With some great play on carry top laners like Jax, Sword was able to show that he’s more than capable of playing carry top laners. While he has struggled in the past in that role, his slow improvement makes Griffin an even stronger team.
With not much to fight for in the final week, it’ll be likely that Griffin will stick to normal picks in order to hide strategies. As a result, Sword will likely be back on tank duty yet again. Despite that, at least fans were able to witness Sword on carries one last time before playoffs.
Jungle: Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong (Griffin)
After a disappointing week 8, Tarzan came back with some of his best games of the season. Across week 9, Tarzan dominated the game, especially on Jarvan IV. Tarzan was simply unstoppable this week as he only died three times in total with a monstrous KDA of 17.3.
His great play this week is a testament how much stronger Griffin looks as a team when Tarzan is able to dominate the early game. If Tarzan can continue this level of play, the road to winning a LCK title will be much easier than expected.
Mid: Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (Griffin)
Like Tarzan, Chovy came back in week 9 with amazing performances. With great play on the likes of Ryze and Lissandra, Chovy reminded the league once again why he’s considered the best mid laner at the moment. Along with that, Chovy’s KDA continues to rise as he didn’t die at all this week.
While Griffin as a team won’t be playing for anything on the line, Chovy will have an important fight remaining. Currently Chovy is tied with Kingzone DragonX’s ADC Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu for the most MVP points at 1200. As a result, the MVP race will come down to the last week. Luckily for Griffin, they’ll have two games on schedule, one of which is against Kingzone. Will Chovy win the MVP award? Only time will tell.
ADC: Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (Gen.G)
With Ruler’s great play in recent weeks, he has finally made his first appearance in the OP 5 as the OP ADC of the week. Much like Deft for most of the season, Ruler is heavily relied upon by the team to succeed. While their results have not been great, Ruler has continued to be a great player for the team.
While this season hasn’t yielded many great results for Ruler and the rest of Gen.G, a strong finish to the season in week 9 will help morale going into the break. With the Summer Split now on the minds of Ruler and the rest of Gen.G, they’ll be hoping to end a disappointing Spring Split on a high note.
Support: Son “Lehends” Si-woo (Griffin)
Another week, another support player finally making their second appearance in the OP 5. This week it’s Lehends, who had a great week of play in general. While most of his games were on Morgana this week, his single game on Galio was amazing, as he was able to take the MVP honor away from Tarzan and Chovy.
On a team with so many stars, it’s often hard for the support to stand out. However, Lehend’s performances throughout the regular season has been amazing and he continues to stand out at times like this week. Along with the rest of Griffin, if their great play continues, the LCK title will be theirs without a doubt.
Honorable Mentions:
As always, with all the great players, it’s hard to fit everyone in. Here are some honorable mentions for the ninth week of action:
Starting things off this week is ADC Park “Teddy” Jin-seong (SK Telecom T1), who has continued to be one of the best ADCs in Korea. This week was no different as he was dominating SANDBOX throughout the series. With an important week coming up for playoff seeding, SKT will rely on Teddy to continue dominating the opponents.
Lastly for the week, is ADC Park “Viper” Do-hyeon (Griffin) to finish off the Griffin lineup. Much like the rest of the team, Viper had a great performance this week after a very disappointing week 8. Playing a variety of champions from Lucian to Neeko, Viper once again showcased his deep champion pool as he also only died three times across the week. Going into playoffs, expect some huge games from Viper.
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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