LCK Week 4, recapped

With the pros getting back into action after a week-long Lunar New Year break, the fourth week of LCK series brought multiple long-awaited matchups. Sadly, with the COVID still running around, our hopes were – being completely honest here – dashed as multiple teams had to field in stand-ins. For some organizations, the restrictions were particularly challenging as they even had to field in their challenger roster to play instead.

LCK 2022 Spring Standings
	Team	Series		Games			Str
1	T1	8 – 0	100%	16 – 4	80%	+12	8W
2	Gen.G	7 – 2	78%	14 – 7	67%	+7	1W
3	DWG KIA	5 – 3	63%	13 – 6	68%	+7	2W
4	DRX	5 – 3	63%	10 – 8	56%	+2	5W
5	KT Rolster	4 – 4	50%	11 – 9	55%	+2	1W
6	Fredit BRION	3 – 6	33%	9 – 14	39%	-5	2L
6	Nongshim RedForce	3 – 6	33%	9 – 14	39%	-5	5L
8	Liiv SANDBOX	3 – 6	33%	7 – 14	33%	-7	1W
9	Hanwha Life Esports	2 – 6	25%	8 – 13	38%	-5	2L
10	Kwangdong Freecs	2 – 6	25%	4 – 12	25%	-8	1W

Still, time waits for no one, so we proceeded to the fourth week regardless. Here’s what the standings look after it.

Day one

T1 vs HLE

With Hanwha Life Esports playing out of their minds throughout the entire series, the match went on to become the perfect showcase of why T1’s botlane is considered (one of the) best in the world. As Hanwha Life almost took down T1, brining the series all the way to the third map, T1 Keria’s Tahm Kench was an absolute menace for his opponents – and a blessing for his teammates. Delivering a clutch play in the Baron pit, Keria managed to save his jungler, Oner, and secure a teamfight win with his dive onto the enemy’s backline in a singular, swift motion, earning himself a well-deserved MVP of the series.

DRX vs KT

What do you get when you don’t give KT Rascal his Lee Sin, but give DRX Deft his Jinx? The answer is: you get a “defeat” screen. It seems that nothing can get in the way of Deft’s winning streak on Jinx. As the AD Carry is now sporting a healthy 46-4 win/loss ratio on that champion, not even the fact that DRX had to field in the Challenger players for the first map could change it.

Day two

DK vs KDF

With DWG Kia introducing a new spin on the crowd favorite, Graves, in this series, they quickly proved the absolute strength this champion possesses when building Hullbreaker. Rumor has it this build was the idea of Canyon himself – and, believe me, he knows a thing or two about playing Graves. The pick’s power became incredibly apparent when DWG used it to neutralize the Freecs’ Chemtank Akali, paving the way to a quick 2-0 in the series.

LSB vs GEN

Liiv Sandbox opened the series up with a powerful statement with their 30-minute victory. For sure, Gen.G were far from their pick form in their series after having fielded stand-ins from their Challenger team. Eventually, however, the higher-ranked team hit their stride, delivering a nearly flawless performance in game two, with Doran picking up a pretty niche Fiora pick. Ruler and Chovy made sure game three didn’t slip away, with their Aphelios and Vex being so massively ahead. Chovy, in particular, dealt more than twice the amount of damage than Clozer. All hail the sadness raccoon!

Day three

NS vs BRO

Fredit BRION continue the good fight. After witnessing the team go through the hell and back in their openin matchups, seeing Fredit perform is a welcome sight. With Sw0rd channeling his inner KT Rascal during game one, Fredit took the game after a clean 38 series of pristine League of Legends gameplay. Of course, Lava’s Veigar stole MVP with his impressive KDA of 8-1-10, but… toplane Lee is spreading!

After their victory 2-1, Fredit Brion are the very first team in LCK to actually make the Renekton pick work. Part of me is unsure whether it was due to them outplaying RedForce, or whether it was due to Canna building the most ludicrous Gangplank build I’ve ever seen: Divine Sunderer into Collector… Well, what is it you want – the beefiness or the damage?

DRX vs HLE

DRX are still going strong after receiving the “fire your coach” buff. It’s unclear what’s currently happening within the team, but there’s one thing clear as day: it’s actually working. The botlane duo of Deft+BeryL seems to be in especially high spirits after the incident judging by their performance. With Deft collecting an MVP title in every game he wins, this is even more apparent.

Day four

T1 vs GEN

The long awaited matchup we’ve been waiting for an entire month has been unfortunately spoiled by the COVID. With Gen.G having to play with their Challenger League teammates, the clash of titans was nothing like we anticipated it to be. What’s even more distressing is Chovy having to swap to toplane for the series. Even though the star midlaner is known to be quite adept at playing toplane, surely it made an impact on the series, netting T1 a quite easy and unremarkable 2-0. Oh well, maybe next time.

LSB vs DK

A clean 2-0 series from DWG Kia. It is good to see DK Burdol improve by the day. He has demonstrated his ability to play both weak- and strong-side toplane, coming from 1-2-7 frontline threat Gwen to a 6-0-3 backline diver Camille within a single series. Canyon’s Xin Zhao was an absolute menace on the rift on both maps, as well, earning him a well-deserved MVP.

Day five

KDF vs NS

A real head-scratcher there. The Freecs absolutely steamrolled Nongshim in game one, leaving RedForce with no chance to ever claw back into the match. Being outside their main roster is undoubtedly an unfortunate state of affairs for Nongshim RedForce. Game two wasn’t any different – in fact, it ended even faster. Nongshim were looking so promising in the previous weeks, but the entire situation around restrictions leaves a sore taste. The only saving grace were DnDn’s Gragas plays – no offense, of course.

BRO vs KT

If you ask a KT Rolster fan about this series, they will tell you it was a “clean 2-1.” Do not believe their lies: this match was anything but clean. In the typical KT Rolster fashion, the team took their fans through an absolute rollercoaster. The game two was an absolute timeless classic: KT Rolster reviving Tristana+Rell botlane and getting absolutely dumpstered 1-10 is something we all enjoy. In their defense, they were facing the un-nerfed version of Zeri. But still. But when push comes to shove, KT spring back into the game with the actual human being picks, as we’ve seen them do just that on map three.