The 2022 League of Legends Champions Korea summer season is well underway, with games happening five days a week. For fans that don’t have time to watch all the action but want to know what is going on, we at Upcomer are here to provide a daily recap of each day’s games. Here is what happened this Thursday in the 2022 LCK summer season.
T1 defeat KDF
The top team in the league, T1, played their first match of Week 6 against Kwangdong Freecs, a team that is nowhere near them in the standings but has somehow given them the most trouble. Earlier in the season, KDF ended T1’s historic win streak in the LCK in a 2-1 victory.
THE #LCK'S SECOND PENTAKILL BY A JUNGLER…..!
….. stolen by Teddy 😔
QUADRAKILL for ELLIM!! pic.twitter.com/TIwYMJnTgt— LCK (@LCK) July 21, 2022
In Game 1, KDF looked like they still had T1 figured out; despite heading into the match with a 4-5 record, KDF punched way above their weight class once again as they were able to push around T1. Just 14 minutes in, KDF were able to ace T1 on the bottom side of the map in which KDF jungler Choi “Ellim” El-lim almost secured one of the first pentakills of the season before having it stolen by his teammate, former T1 bot laner Park “Teddy” Jin-seong.
From that point forward, KDF never dropped their lead; it was just a matter of time before the game wrapped up. KDF took Game 1 30 minutes in.
Game 2 saw T1 bring out a crazy draft plan, picking a bot lane of Ashe and Draven with the hopes of getting their bot lane duo of Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok ahead early. With a counter-gank in the bot lane, T1 did manage to score first blood. Both teams put all of their resources in the bot lane war, with T1 coming out slightly ahead for the first 10 minutes but KDF were quick to answer back to mitigate the lead and even take a small gold advantage for themselves. However, with the game hanging on a knife’s edge, T1 were able to out-teamfight KDF around Baron which opened up the game for T1 and allowed them to suffocate the map away from KDF and win the game forcing Game 3.
Extraordinary ADC Gu (mayusi) 🐳 pic.twitter.com/f1UwylYn8r
— LCK (@LCK) July 21, 2022
The Ashe and Draven bot lane worked well enough for T1 to bring it out again in Game 3. Both bot lanes shook hands in the early game; KDF got first blood, but the second kill went to Gumayusi and T1. Eventually, KDF found themselves with the lead at the 16-minute mark, ready for a 2-0 series sweep, but a long team fight tipped it in T1’s favor. With that ever-so-slight lead, T1 took it to the bank — they took Baron, once again taking control of the map. KDF snagged a team fight win late in the game, but it only slowed the inevitable. Gumayui’s Draven was the playmaker this game, even if the stat line didn’t show it, as T1 were able to escape with a 2-1 win and stay in first place.
KT take down HLE
The second series of the day was less exciting. KT Rolster went up against Hanwha Life Esports, with the two teams having a similar gap as KDF and T1 did in the standings. However, HLE hasn’t shown signs of life in the 2022 LCK Summer split sitting at the bottom of the standings with a poor 1-9 record.
Game 1 saw the top bot laner in the league, KT’s Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram secure first blood on Lucian and while HLE were able to keep up in the early game, KT’s better team fighting allowed them to take over the game fairly quickly. KT were able to take an early 20-minute Baron and with it, the lead grew too big for HLE to fight back. with what was originally a four to three advantage in kills for HLE turned into a 13 to four advantage at the end of the game for KT as they take Game 1 convincingly.
Giving Aiming Lucian isn’t a good idea, but HLE did anyways during Game 2 by allowing the KT bot lane access to the strongest champion combo in the game. Predictably, Aiming got first blood again on Lucian, getting away with two in the same team fight. Barely four minutes in, Aiming was already up by two kills on one of the best hyper-carry champions in the game. HLE tried their best to put pressure elsewhere which gave them another slight lead in the early game but with KT having two win conditions in Aiming and dragon stacking for dragon soul, the game was always in KT’s favor. With Elder Dragon, Ocean Soul and Baron, Aiming and KT took a little more time in Game 2, but the result was the same; KT picked up the 2-0 win and improved to 6-5 for the season.
What’s Next
The 2022 LCK Summer split continues its Week 6 action on Friday, July 22 with two more matches on the schedule. Two banger matches are on the menu as the other four teams in the top six go up against each other; Gen.G will be taking on Liiv SANDBOX, and DRX squares off with DWG KIA. Matches start at 4 a.m ET on the LCK Twitch channel.
Published: Jul 21, 2022 04:52 pm