Following the trends of the first week of LCK, week 2 managed to bring more of the same amazing League of Legends. With a week filled with surprising upsets and some great plays with a nice pentakill thrown in for good measure, LCK continues to entertain. After another amazing week, let’s see where all the teams are on this week’s power rankings. If you missed week 1’s power rankings, you can find them here.
10.Jin Air Green Wings (-1)
0-2 vs KT Rolster
1-2 vs Gen.G
A rough week for Jin Air as they’re now the only team in the league without a series win. After what seemed like a promising start in week 1 despite the losses, Jin Air looked lost for most of week 2. While some stellar play from mid laner Lee “Grace” Chan-ju allowed the team to pick up a victory against Gen.G, the future isn’t looking bright for this team.
As Jin Air falls back to last in the power rankings, the fate of the team is clear. As fans of the team ready themselves for a season of sadplane.jpgs, the team should prepare themselves for impending relegations.
9.Gen.G (-1)
1-2 vs Afreeca Freecs
2-1 vs Jin Air Green Wings
Along with Jin Air, another struggling team that find themselves dropping in the rankings is Gen.G. While both of their games during the week were fairly close, it was mostly thanks to the amazing play of ADC Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk while the rest of the team continues to struggle. While relying on Ruler to carry the team to victory may work against Jin Air, it simply won’t be enough to push the team into a playoff spot. Luckily, next week will be a good test for the team as they’re set to face off against KT Rolster and Kingzone DragonX.
If the team can pick up convincing victories, they could become a dark horse to reach the playoffs. However, two defeats could be a sign of the struggles to come for the team and a possible bout with relegation in the future.
8.KT Rolster (-2)
0-2 vs Kingzone DragonX
2-0 vs Jin Air Green Wings
Another rough week for the defending champs as KT drops two more spots on the power rankings. Despite the victory over Jin Air, KT end the week with more questions regarding their team. With questions regarding the continued struggles of top laner Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho along with picking a starting ADC, the struggles for the team will likely stick around for a few more weeks.
As a result, it’s hard to see the champs defending their title in playoffs, instead the name of the game has become survival as they find themselves as one of the teams near the bottom of the standings. Will KT fix their issues anytime soon? Or will it be another season of disappointment for KT faithfuls? Only time will tell.
7.Afreeca Freecs (-)
2-1 vs Gen.G
0-2 vs Kingzone DragonX
Afreeca Freecs are in a rough spot along with fellow worlds participants KT and Gen.G. While the team had a 1-1 week, the decision to play jungler Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon bot in place of ADC Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram was met with confusion. Whether this was due to personal issues with Aiming or simply a decision made by the team, the results weren’t very impressive.
Regardless, there are some good signs for the team as the season continues, mainly top laner Kim “Kiin” Gi-in and mid laner Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon’s slow return to form despite early struggles in week 1. Whether the experiment bot lane continues is yet to be seen, but for the time being, Afreeca remain at 7th on the power rankings. With a pair of important games in week 3 to remain in the race for playoffs, Afreeca can’t afford to lose.
6.Kingzone DragonX (+4)
2-0 vs KT Rolster
2-0 vs Afreeca Freecs
After a very rough week 1, all of Kingzone stepped up as they went on to have a 2-0 week. While ADC Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu continued to absolutely dominate, mid laner Heo “PawN” Won-seok and top laner Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee stepped up big time against strong opponents in the likes of top laner Kiin and mid laner Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong.
If the team can maintain their current level of play, they could possible challenge for a spot in playoffs. Whether this can happen still remains to be seen, but for now, a great week 2 has the team moving up four spots on the power rankings to 6th place.
5.Hanwha Life Esports (-1)
0-2 vs Griffin
0-2 vs SANDBOX Gaming
While Hanwha suffered a 0-2 week, they can at least be comforted by the fact that the two teams they lost to remain undefeated. Regardless of their losses, there’s some positives the team can take from them going into week 3. During their fairly close matches, the bot lane duo of Gwon “Sangyoon” Sang-yun and Kim “key” Han-gi continue to be fairly impressive.
On top of that, top laner Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk still had a fairly solid performance despite their loses. While the team brought in top laner Kim “SoHwan” Jun-yeong and jungler Kim “Moojin” Moo-jin for game two against SANDBOX, it’s yet to be seen if they’ll be the starters going forward. Regardless, the future is still fairly bright for Hanwha. A solid week 3 could see them bounce back up in the power rankings.
4.DAMWON Gaming (-1)
0-2 vs Griffin
1-2 vs SK Telecom T1
DAMWON went into week 2 with the hardest schedule of the group, while they put up a good fight against Griffin and SKT, they ended the week taking a single game through both series. While the struggles against Griffin continues, their match against SKT was fairly close for most of the series thanks mostly to the play of the bot lane duo of Sin “Nuclear” Jeong-hyeon and Ryu “Hoit” Ho-seong.
With a fairly rough week 3 as well against the undefeated SANDBOX Gaming and the revitalized Kingzone DragonX, DAMWON needs to recover from the rough week if they want to avoid falling further down the standings. Will they be able to avoid another 0-2 week? It’ll be hard, but DAMWON has the talent to pull it off.
3.SK Telecom T1 (-1)
1-2 vs SANDBOX Gaming
2-1 vs DAMWON Gaming
SKT went the distance in week 2 as both series went the full 3 games. As a result, the team comes out with a 50% win rate for the week. While their victory against DAMWON demonstrated the strengths of the team, their defeat at the hands of SANDBOX showed their weaknesses through their questionable decision making both during drafting and in-game. Issues such as the continued priority of putting Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok on Urgot and putting Kim “Khan” Dong-ha into the rough matchup of Gangplank against Aatrox with little help.
While the team remains in the top three, these issues could ruin them once it comes to playoffs, with another big week coming up with Griffin and Hanwha waiting for them, SKT will have a chance to show that these issues can be fixed sooner rather than later. For now, they fall to third on the power rankings.
2.SANDBOX Gaming (+3)
2-1 vs SK Telecom T1
2-0 vs Hanwha Life Esports
It seems SANDBOX has built a sand castle after all. As one of the two remaining undefeated teams in LCK, SANDBOX jumps all the way up to second in the power rankings. With stellar play coming from jungler Kim “OnFleek” Jang-gyeom and ADC Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun, SANDBOX took down Hanwha and powerhouse SKT for another 2-0 week.
While they were able to remain undefeated for now, the team will have an even bigger challenge ahead of them as DAMWON and Griffin await them in week 3. Will SANDBOX protect their undefeated record? Or will the sandcastle fall to the siege to come? The answer will come soon enough in week 3.
1.Griffin (-)
2-0 vs Hanwha Life Esports
2-0 vs DAMWON Gaming
While SANDBOX have yet to lose a series, Griffin has been even more dominant as they have yet to lose a single game. As a true testament to the rise of young talent in Korea, Griffin continue their dominating ways as they made quick work of Hanwha and DAMWON. Along the way, ADC Park “Viper” Do-hyeon picked up a pentakill and mid laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon only died a single time.
While a huge week 3 against SKT and SANDBOX could provide a challenge, the idea of Griffin remaining undefeated for the split is very slowly becoming a given. At this rate, Griffin has cemented their spot as the best team in Korea, but can they become the best team in the world? While that won’t be known for a while, Griffin is making a very strong argument for it.
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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