A brand new split of the LCK, one of the most competitive League of Legends competitions in the world, begins this Wednesday. Here is a primer of the two matches scheduled for opening day along with betting predictions for your consideration.
Power Level: Over 9000
DRX vs Liiv Sandbox
DRX will open the new spring split of the LCK as heavy favorites against Liiv Sandbox on Wednesday. At face value, that may come as a surprise to many considering DRX finished the summer split of 2021 in the LCK as the bottom team, finishing with an appalling 2-16 record, which included three straight defeats to close out the season.
However, DRX have made some shrewd acquisitions to bolster their roster, including the signing of BeryL from the reigning champions of the LCK Damwon Gaming. BeryL will fill in the role of support to a new bot laner in Deft, who has also been brought in, from Hanwha Life Esports.
These additions are vital because it brings some precedence of success to a team that has been bereft of much progress in the last few splits. BeryL provided Damwon Gaming with 0.72 kills and 7.7 assists per map in the summer of 2021 at a KDA of 2.85 while Deft produced 2.72 kills and 4.79 assists per map. Those returns are not as high as their teams would have liked, especially considering their positions. It made sense to make personnel changes but DRX will have to help them find their best. Kingen and Pyosik will retain their spots for DRX as top laner and jungler respectively.
Backing DRX might make sense, not just against Liiv Sandbox in the opener but for several other games as the Spring Split gains traction. They could just be the standout team this year. You can get x1.44 in return over at Buff.bet.
T1 vs Kwangdong Freecs
The second match of the day will see one of the title contenders in T1 facing renamed Kwangdong Freecs. T1 will start as clear favorites, and understandably so. They have been one of the most consistent teams in the pro circuit for a while, they have worked incredibly hard to build a solid roster and have enough experience to sustain excellence.
Kwangdong Freecs are no pushovers, not by any means. Both these teams finished the summer split last year with 11-7 records in the regular season, which is as good an indicator as any that this will be a tight matchup, especially in team fights ahead of the spawning of neutral objectives.
T1 will have one major change to the roster from the offseason: the addition of top laner Zeus in place of Canna. The rest of T1’S roster remains, by and large, the same as 2021. They will have Gumayusi in the bottom lane, Faker in the middle lane, Oner as jungler and Keria as support to Gumayusi.
Incidentally, it was Canna that produced the most kills for T1 in the summer last year, with 3.16 per map. However, there is enough depth with Gumayusi (who had a team leading creep score of 326, 10.07 CSPM) and Faker to compensate for his absence. T1 to win this, possibly even without the need for a third map. A 2-0 win for T1 will earn you x2.05 in returns.
