LCK Cup with only the final left, will Doldozenhan continue this season?
Feb 23, 2025
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After a month-long LCK Cup, only the final between Hanwha Life e-Sports and Gen.G. will be left on the 23rd.
Starting this season, global 'League of Legends' esports has been reorganized into a single league, a new international competition called 'First Stand' has been established, and a new van-pick method called 'Peerless Draft' has been introduced, and the LCK Cup held ahead of the opening of the regular league has been a kind of 'exploration war' that can be applied and examined in advance.
Although it is not reflected in the regular league performance, the 10 teams strengthened the teamwork of the newly formed roster, used various champs according to the changed Banpick rules that could not use the champions used in the previous game, and used tactics, strategies, and meta as a test stage to utilize them in practice.
However, despite these changes, teams that reached the semifinals last year, such as Hanwha Life Insurance, Gen.G., D-Plus Kia, T1, and KT Rolster, continued to strengthen as expected before the season. On top of that, Nongshim's Red Force, which struggled by staying in eighth place in both the spring and summer seasons last year, is expected to advance to the second round of the playoffs (PO) by recruiting top-notch FA such as 「Kinggen」Hwang Sung-hoon and"Leehenes" Son Si-woo ahead of this season, and it is expected that the team will compete fiercely with the top five teams in the regular season.
Above all, as Hanwha Life and Gen.G. will face each other in the final of two consecutive tournaments following last year's summer season, attention is being paid to whether the so-called 'Round and Round' will eventually solidify. Until now, as Gen.G and T1 have faced each other in the LCK final five times in a row from 2022 to last year's spring season, 'Dolgenti' has been a kind of official term, but T1 finished its journey early in the first round of the PO and did not even make it to the semifinals.
After winning the summer season last year, Hanwha Life Insurance recruited Choi Woo-je from T1 as an FA ahead of this season, made the top position complete, and then defeated T1, Gen.G., and D-Plus in the first to third rounds of PO to prove the team that has prepared and adapted best for the `Peerless Draft.' Although Gen.G lost to Hanwha Life Insurance in the second round, it eventually defeated D+ 3-0 in the final round of the loser group in the third round, signaling a strong performance this season as well.
D-Plus, which gained momentum by winning all six games from the group stage to the second round of the PO, lost to Hanwha Life Insurance and Gen.G. in succession, and eventually faced the task of surpassing two teams to win this season. T1 is expected to challenge not only good performances in the regular league but also three consecutive LOL World Cups, depending on how well Choi Hyun-joon, a transfer, will fill Choi Woo-je's vacancy and work with existing players.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
