Last 6th (KST), Riot Games announced that the 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea Spring Split will go on an indefinite hiatus for the safety from the coronavirus (COVID-19). Although the league has been stopped, the teams have been preparing for Round 2. As everything has come to a stop, there isn’t much for fans to watch and enjoy, so the players selected and recommended their “most memorable LCK matches”.
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu. They’re both a symbolic figure in their respective positions in the LCK and also are from the same high school. They may have had something that clicked; they chose the same game. The 2017 spring season match between SK Telecom T1 and kt Rolster. The KT of that season was called a “super team” and was rising to stand against SKT.
As eternal rivals with fantastic players, the games were fabulous. Although the result was in SKT’s favor, Deft also recommended this game; you have to see the game.
Faker spoke of why he picked this game, “Until the game was over, there were many, many fights. I remember that our Nexus was almost blown. It was a very thrilling match.” Deft also commented on his choice, “It was a rivalry match. Although I died a lot on Ashe, the game itself was a slugfest so I remember having fun during the whole match.”
Hanwha Life Esports bot laner Jeon “Zenit” Tae-gwon also chose this match. “Although I didn’t play in it, I really enjoyed watching this game as a fan of the players that played in it.”
kt Rolster mid laner Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng thought of the moment he took the championship after defeating his current team. The finals of the 2016 summer was between ROX Tigers and kt Rolster. At that time, ROX Tigers was a team that often went straight to the finals, but failed to win the championship.
In that finals, fate was decided in Game 5. When the score was 2-2, many people thought of ROX Tigers losing again… But ROX Tigers overcame the jinx and won their first championship, while another “2nd place” character, Go “Score” Dong-bin ended as the runner-up.
Kuro said, “This game came to mind without needing to think much. I was really thirsty for a championship and it was my first championship as well. It was an extremely electrifying moment.”
Next is Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon’s recommended match. Spirit thought of the match that he regretted the most. It was the match between Afreeca Freecs and Samsung Galaxy, where both teams were aiming to reach the World Championship. At the time, Afreeca had a 2-0 lead and Game 3 was going in their favor as well.
However, in a crucial moment, Spirit’s Body Slam started a little snowball which led to a huge avalanche. Afreeca lost that game and two more following games and were eliminated from the qualifiers. This didn’t stop there; Samsung went on and won the World Championship that year.
Spirit’s comment was simple, “If I just hadn’t used that body slam…”
Before the start of the season, APK Prince was considered the weakest team in the league. However, they stacked up two wins in Round 1 and even in the games they lost, they’ve been showing their strength and unique colors, even sometimes pushing against the strong teams in the league.
APK’s Jeon “Ikssu” Ik-soo picked one of the most recent matches: APK’s first win in the LCK against kt Rolster. Ikssu said, “It’s the match that APK had the first win ever in the LCK. Through that match, I felt that we were improving and showed that to the fans.”
Back then, no one knew that they’d end up on the same team. Park “Teddy” Jin-seong, who was proving himself by showing outstanding performances, and the SKT rookie, Lee “Effort” Sang-ho. In the heads of the current T1 bot duo, they had the extreme 94-minute match in 2018 between SK Telecom T1 and Jin Air Green Wings. Teddy said, “Looking back at the 94-minute match in 2018 against SKT, it’s a wonder how we played that long and it’s even more memorable since we won.”
As Teddy said, the match was the longest ever, 94 minutes, and the game wasn’t loose at all. Teddy’s Sivir showed its identity the later the game went and for God’s sakes, it was Teddy’s Sivir. As for SKT, they had to end the game, but weren’t able to. The two players at that time were the youngest in the team, and they now developed to become a reliable bot duo in the same team.
Besides these two players that played in this game, Hanwha Life Esports Kim “Lava” Tae-hoon also recommended this match. “I was in awe watching and thinking, ‘how can someone get CS like that?’ I thought how Jin Air won in such a long game with such concentration was really cool,” said Lava.
The former form of current Gen.G Esports, Samsung Galaxy, wasn’t always a strong team. After the dynasty Samsung had formed, all the players were changed and they never reached the LCK finals. However, by unearthing a treasure named Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk and awakening Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin combined well with hard-working genius Lee “Crown” Min-ho, Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong who returned as a jungler, and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in who blossomed, they wrote a new drama.
The Samsung Galaxy of 2016 had to get through the regional qualifiers to reach the World Championship, and the last hurdle was kt Rolster. At that time, Samsung Galaxy had a maximum number of 19 consecutive losses in set score against kt Rolster; a natural enemy. But, like a lie, Samsung defeated KT 3-2 and they became the runner up of their first World Championship.
CuVee looked back at the time, “Whenever we met KT, we were intimidated since we had no memory of winning. But we won at the most important moment and was the one to laugh last.”
Whatever you do for the first time, it sticks in your mind for long. It was the same for Ruler. To an AD carry, the name Vayne would bring mixed emotions. Ruler picked this match, where he picked Vayne for the first time in an official match, rather than other big matches he’s been through.
“I remember it more because it was the first time I played Vayne in an official match. And I remember that I did quite well,” said Ruler, looking back at the time. He probably had wanted to play her for a long, long time.
We thought Heo “ShowMaker” Su would pick his one of his own match where he played Akali, but his choice was from a different team. It was when Griffin swept through the LCK sensationally; the match where world champion CuVee’s real value was proven.
ShowMaker said, “The teamfights were spectacular. I was watching thinking that Griffin nearly had the win, but CuVee’s performance on Gnar was awesome. It would be regretful for Griffin since they lost a game that they were so close to winning, but as a spectator, it was the most exciting and fun match.”
Sort by:
Comments :0
