Soo-hwan "Jopssal" Hyun, a.k.a JSS, is a Korean caster & commentator that has been garnering a lot of attention from the Korean League of Legends community. He's been commentating on LEC and LCS leagues' games for 3 years... and with the recent rise of EU, his analysis on the game and each major league became a hot topic within the community.
As an analyst, Hyun enjoys making predictions as to what'll happen during an ongoing game and who'll eventually win. Even though making predictions like that isn't a good image for a commentator such as himself, and It's quite easy to mispredict the outcome of a game, He likes to predict based on his analysis. Because he is a passionate LoL commentator who has not missed a single LCK, LPL, LCS, and LEC game.
The following is a report about The feature about LCK and LPL.
They play by the book and prefer compositions that can somewhat do well in all stages of a game. This is one big reason why the LCK highly favors the Azir pick. Azir is fairly powerful during the 1 vs. 1 laning phase, and he grows stronger as a game progresses to the late game. He's also strong at countering the enemy's aggression.
"I'm going to pressure your tower or the Baron, so you better engage us sooner or later," is LCK's basic mindset. They prefer the 'countering' playstyle, so their investment in engages are minimal.
Which teams will compete in the next World Championship are hard to predict. Although the SKT revival is a possibility, their spot in the LCK standings is currently very low. If SKT fails to place high in the playoffs, it's very likely for either Kingzone or Griffin to take the World Championship seed in place of SKT. If SKT runs the gauntlet, it becomes even harder to predict - DAMWON and SANDBOX will probably compete against SKT if that becomes the case.
DAMWON is always a bit short of meeting the fans' expectations. DAMWON is a team that is as aggressive as Invictus Gaming. Each laner on DWG can overwhelm and beat every other player during the laning phase. Their top and mid laner have already proven their strength, and DWG's bot duo is very high in the solo queue ladder. Each DWG laner have the potential to win and push their lane, but their jungle macro seemed a bit passive. If DWG can utilize their jungler a bit more offensively, I personally believe DWG can place higher in the LCK standings. Recently, Canyon was spotted trying to play a bit more aggressively.
Griffin is a 'solid' team. Not only is their picks & bans very creative, but their team composition is built with both champion synergy and lane priority in mind. It feels like their Pantheon-Taliyah strategy that Griffin used and failed with during the previous Spring Finals gave them the experience that they needed to push their creativity to the next level.
Tarzan also began playing more aggressively. For example, Tarzan used to clear all of his jungle camps and only ganked when there was nothing to lose. Now, he more often attempts to gank for his laners even if it cost him jungle EXP or gold. Sword, Viper, and Lehends have also improved significantly. Viper-Lehends is LCK's strongest bot lane. Sword is also top 3 in the LCK's top laner pool.
Kingzone is currently showing the most diversity during picks & bans. They have good synergy and are creative, but the laners' individual performance should be better. Deft needs to get back to form. Rascal and Naehyun are doing fine for themselves, but Rascal often loses his lane and Naehyun's champion pool could be better.
Their level of understanding in team compositions also seems a bit lacking. They'd sometimes draft a comp that is strong during the mid-to-late game but play aggressively in the early game. If Kingzone can better improve in this area, they'll become a lot stronger. As long as Deft gets back to form, the bot lane can carry the team in any given time.
From late spring to MSI, SKT was a team that was largely jungle dependant. Honestly, there are a lot of teams in the LCK that rely on their jungler to win the game. Picking champions with a strong laning phase and looking for ways to counter-gank the enemy jungler is LCK's most traditional method of playing the game. The LCK likes going even during the laning phase, so securing kills and favorable trades is difficult without the help of a jungler.
SKT was a team that was good at fully utilizing the 'LCK playstyle'. However, this failed at MSI. They've been trying different things ever since, and they faltered a lot during that process. They tried increasing their tempo in game and also tried slowing down... they weren't in their best shape when facing the top teams of the LCK, and they fell as a result.
But even amidst all this, SKT's top laner, Khan, always displayed outstanding performance. Although his laning phase could've been better, he always moved in a way that created opportunities for his team. Faker also found a new weapon, Neeko. Faker's performance on Neeko is similar to his performance on Lissandra during spring. If SKT's bot lane gets back in shape, the jungler will also get better as a result. If things continue as it is, SKT may naturally qualify for the World Championship.
SANDBOX Gaming is also a strong contender for a Worlds spot. They're a team that always does more than anyone expects. They receive, process, and implement feedback in their plays in just a week, while it usually takes 2-3 weeks for other similar teams to do the same. Their macro gameplay is stable, and their picks & bans are great.
SANDBOX has somewhat mastered their macro playstyle, so it won't be easy for them to change the way they play. They're a team that prefers the 1-3-1 macro gameplay, the same type of playstyle that Samsung White used to play. They don't have a fast tempo in the early game, and they're great at countering the enemy's aggression. However, their engaging capability is a bit disappointing. If they learn to lure out the enemy to engage through objective control, it'll be easy for SB to make Worlds.
LPL also prefers a scaling comp, just like the LCK., However, they draft with 'fighting' in mind. Examples include Renekton and Kai'Sa. Although the mentioned two champions aren't great at countering offense, the two have the potential to completely annihilate the enemy team if they manage to engage first. LPL is the league that prefers teamfights the most. That's why I believe the LPL has the strongest teamfights out of the 4 major leagues.
It's very hard to predict which teams will qualify for Worlds. To begin, I still think FPX and iG will make Worlds. They're high in circuit points and they seem to be in good form. It's very likely for them to win the LPL Summer Split as well.
iG is a well-rounded team. The team is very unique in nature within the LPL. Usually, they farm like normal, but when an opportunity to fight arises, they immediately jump on their opponents. Starting from the laning phase, iG pushes every lane. When each and every lane is pushing, one of the lanes is bound to become vulnerable to ganks. When that happens, iG dives another lane to even out the deficit, maintaining their push and lane priority.
Even if all three lanes have the lane advantage, aside from one lane that's receiving jungle support, the other two lanes have no choice but to play carefully - forced to go even with their opposing laner. iG, however, completely breaks this equation. Teams that can't endure iG's onslaught get quite literally destroyed.
If iG fails to grab a big lead during the laning phase, Ning and Rookie actively roam to either top or bot lane to dive and snowball their lead. If this fails, iG then utilizes the one or two late game champions that they have preemptively picked during picks & bans to win the game through teamfights. They're like the final boss of an RPG game. The boss has different phases, and each phase has its own attack pattern. You have to overcome all of that to defeat iG.
iG's success relies on Ning's performance. If he's not at his best condition, Ning often fails to gank the opposite lane to that of his opponent's jungler. iG's early game is largely dependant on the jungler's macro gameplay, so the team's overall level of performance sees a large dip when Ning underperforms. With that said, Ning isn't a replaceable jungler for iG. It's very important that he stays at his best performance.
FunPlus Phoenix is a team that is very similar to LCK's Griffin. Griffin is a team that gives its players an advantageous 1 vs. 1 lane. They then use Tarzan to break open the said lanes to take a massive lead. FPX does the same, but they also utilize their mid laner, support, and top laner's roam to fight with a numbers advantage when a skirmish breaks out.
DoinB plays smart. He often pulls off plays that are fit for gaining an advantage in any given situation, whether that'd be having to forcefully dive the enemy laner or denying him of CS.
Both Griffin and FunPlus Phoenix are great at diving towers. However, FPX is a bit more aggressive with their dives, as they try diving in a lot more diverse situations. The situations in which Griffin will dive, however, are a bit limited. That's why I believe FPX is a bit better than GRF.
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