There’s significant bunching at the top of the standings in the LCK 2018 Summer Season as the 10 teams enter the final three weeks of the round-robin group stage.
Gen.G have momentum
Gen.G enter Week 6 on a three-game winning streak, including victories over KING-ZONE and the Afreeca Freecs.
In a season full of chaos, Gen.G have been the most consistent team in the league in terms of their drafting, playing chalk standard in every single match-up thus far.
Being one of the only teams to find success without showing much flexibility, Gen.G have made a living from playing a singular style and maintaining it despite the ebbs and flows of a split.
The only major change for Gen.G has been in regards to their Jungler position, with Ambition seeing a majority of the playing time recently over Haru, who appeared to be the primary Jungler entering the Summer Split.
This week brings a whole new set of challenges for Gen.G, with matches against the suddenly-surging kt Rolster, fellow 9-3 side Griffin, and an ever-dangerous SK telecom T1.
Esports Betting: They are Dafabet’s 2.050 underdogs for Tuesday’s clash with kt Rolster, who are offered at 1.787.
kt Rolster lack consistency
kt Rolster remain one of the most difficult teams to assess, coming into Week 6 on their own three-game streak. They have arguably the highest skill ceiling in the league, with an incredible roster full of talent able to rival anyone in the world.
Yet their inability to maintain a consistency throughout their history has been perplexing, with their form appearing to fluctuate from week to week.
Back-to-back victories over SK telecom in the Telecom War followed by a 2-1 victory over top-seeded Griffin gives renewed faith that kt can finally find staying power towards the top end of the league.
The best performance for kt came in game 3 against Griffin, with Score and the crew completely shutting down the catalyst of Griffin, Jungler Tarzan. kt’s co-ordination and control of the match from the opening was impressive and they now have high hopes that they can bring that same energy in the coming week against Gen.G, KING-ZONE, and the bbq OLIVERS.
KING-ZONE eye play-offs
This is a crucial week for KING-ZONE DragonX as they look to make a push towards the play-offs with matches against three of the top teams in the league, namely Griffin, kt Rolster, and Afreeca.
KING-ZONE ended their losing streak at two games with a victory over MVP, although it was a severely-limited MVP given the late news that their starting Top Laner ADD would be out of the line-up with a collapsed lung.
KING-ZONE are not the unbeatable machine they were in previous splits, with questions still remaining about which Jungler gives them the best opportunity to win, with both Cuzz and Peanut having up-and-down performances.
Despite all this, the likes of Bdd and Khan have remained consistent, with the latter still able to lead the league in MVP voting despite KING-ZONE’s regression from the Spring campaign.
This is a brutal stretch of matches, with a 2-1 record by the end of it all being more than acceptable.
Esports Betting: Dafabet make Griffin slight favourites for Tuesday’s battle – they are at 1.724 with KING-ZONE out at 2.140.
Faker benched
After a controversial selection decision, SKT telecom were able to close out their Week 5 with a 2-0 victory over Hanwha Life Esports.
SKT benched arguably the greatest League of Legends player of all time in Faker for the match-up, with Pirean seeing play instead.
One thing to note about this series was that after their loss in game 1, Hanwha Life benched their entire roster for what is essentially their B-team, with two players making their LCK debut. They would then proceed to throw away a 10,000 gold lead in game 2.
For SKT the unknown is whether or not Faker will continue to ride the bench, something almost incomprehensible given his stature within the league.
Key week
With question marks around all the top teams and just one series victory separating the top four, Week 6 represents a potentially-crucial moment in the Summer Season.
It is certainly a big week for Gen.G as their run in the final two weeks looks very easy, at least on paper.
