Can Hanwha Life, the two LCK mountains built by Gen.G-T1, finally crack?
Sep 01, 2024
|
|
In LCK (League of Legends Champions Korea), Gen.G and T1 are rivals that are threaded like a thread and a needle.
The two teams met in the LCK final five times in a row starting from the spring season in 2022 until this year's spring season. However, Hanwha Life e-Sports came forward as a team that will break this solid stronghold.
Hanwha Life Insurance lost to Gen.G. 1-3 in the final round of the LCK Summer Season Playoff on the 31st, but there is another opportunity left to advance to the final round. If you win here, you will not only be on the LCK final stage for the first time since its inception, but you will also get a bonus to confirm your entry into the 'League of Legends World Championship' (Lold Cup) for the first time in three years since 2021, regardless of whether you win or not.
▶ There are no two mistakes
Gen.G, which makes a major lineup with S-class players brought almost every year, and T1, which has been working with players who have fostered themselves around Lee Sang-hyuk, have something in common with generous investments in the squad. This is why the two teams have been facing each other for the third year.
However, the league's interest is inevitably halved due to the same 'repertory' that is always the same. No matter how well they did in the regular league, the psychological burden of other teams that they can hardly cross the two teams in the playoffs is also underlying. In international competitions such as MSI and the LOL World Cup, other regional teams can never ignore the negative effects of LCK's poor competitiveness as a result, as they grasp and deal with Gen.G and T1's power in too detail.
In this respect, Hanwha Life's rapid rise is more welcome. Hanwha Life Insurance made as much investment as the two teams ahead of this season and formed a 'super team' with a luxurious lineup, but it always lost at a critical moment, disappointing. In this spring season, he ranked third in the regular league after Gen.G and T1, and in the second round of the playoffs, he shut down T1 3-0 to reach the third round, but lost to Gen.G and T1 side by side in the winner's group final and the loser's group final, finishing third.
In the summer season, he maintained his steady power and raised his status to second place in the regular league after Gen.G, and also beat T1 again 3-0 in the second round of the playoffs, but lost to Gen.G. 1-3 in the winner's final, showing the same moves as the previous season so far.
The final match is the winning team of T1 and D-plus Kia, which will be held on the 1st, and they are showing a strong will not to repeat the same regret regardless of who comes up. Although he failed to go straight to the finals again due to the defeat against Gen.G, Hanwha Life Insurance coach Choi In-kyu and players expressed confidence after the game that they will be able to reach the finals because their current performance is much better than in the spring season and there are many opportunities to play practice games with various teams.
Hanwha Life Insurance has been in a tough position with one win and one loss against D-plus in the summer season, but it has won two games against T1. Gen.G will go straight to the final at Gyeongju Indoor Gymnasium on the 8th and is one step closer to winning the first LCK five consecutive championships, while Hanwha Life Insurance will have a final match against the winner of the T1-D-plus match at the same place on the 7th, a day earlier.
▶The competitor has been decided
In LCK, Gen.G has confirmed its advance to the LOL World Cup, but in the rest of the region, the outline is being revealed one after another. As of the 1st, 14 out of a total of 20 teams have been determined.
In LPL (China), which is likely to face LCK again this time, Billibilli Gaming, which won the championship after spring and summer season, will play in the LOL World Cup for the second consecutive year following last year, and TES and LNG joined as the second and third seeds, respectively. In particular, as Bilibili and TES, which are made up of all Chinese players, are showing great strength, the position of South Korean players, who have been the top recruitment player, is expected to decrease further.
In the LEC (Europe), which is expected to be strong as a home region as the LOL World Cup will be held sequentially in three countries: Berlin, Germany, Paris, France, and London, the U.K., G2 e-sports, Fnatic, and Mad Lions have won tickets for three years from 2022 to this year. In the LCS (North America), Team Liquid and Flyquest will play.
In LCK, among the three teams, Hanwha Life Insurance, T1, and D-Plus, the team that goes to the final will play in the LOL World Cup with Gen.G, and the two teams that failed to reach the final will be selected by KT Rolster and BNK Pierx from the 12th to the 14th, and the final two teams will confirm their trip to the LOL World Cup.
bluesky@sportschosun.com
