LCK is over and a new team is crowned champion after an amazing grand final series. Dominating the LCK 2022 Summer, Gen.G finished the season on a high note with a 3-0 victory over T1, finally breaking the curse against their old nemesis and giving Doran, Chovy, Ruler and Lehends their first LCK championship ever.
While a Gen.G championship was expected since they had a 17-1 season and looked so much better than T1, a 3-0 win and a helpless T1 was not something we thought we would see in the LCK grand finals. Gen.G secured South Korea’s first seed in Worlds 2022, and T1 will take the second seed now. Let’s take a look at what happened in the grand final of LCK.
Gen.G vs T1 - a long-standing rivalry
After their 3-1 victory over Liiv SANDBOX, it looked even more like Gen.G and T1 switched roles from spring season. In spring, T1 was 18-0, defeated Kwangdong Freecs in the semi-finals with ease and made it to the grand final while Gen.G went 15-3, defeated DWG KIA 3-2 after a nail-biter series and it looked like T1 would dominate the grand final.
Gen.G did what was expected from them. Ruler was unstoppable against T1, DK and LSB, and T1 still couldn’t find a solution for this problem. It wasn’t that Gumayusi and Keria were having problems against Gen.G’s bot lane. Ruler got Zeri twice in the series and Nilah once, and he was just crushing everyone in sight. Maybe it was the drafts or maybe it was just Ruler’s passion to win an LCK trophy, it doesn’t matter, the main reason T1 lost the series and lost the advantage in the regular season was due to Ruler’s dominance.
Add Chovy’s incredible skills, Peanut’s domination over Oner and Doran locking down one thing that was still good for T1, Zeus, to that and you have a 3-0 series in your hands. From the start, even with the perfect drafts, T1 just couldn’t defeat Gen.G. They will have to work hard for a rematch in Worlds 2022. I find it useless to try and blame someone for this loss, it was just Gen.G’s supremacy.
After the end of LCK grand finals, these two teams will represent the country in Worlds 2022. Make sure to visit Luckbox to follow their story with latest news and live streams of their matches. Sign up now to claim your 100% bonus before placing your bets.
For T1, there is literally nothing to take positively from this series. Doran, Chovy, Ruler and Lehends were fixated on getting their first LCK trophy (for Chovy, it was the first trophy and first BO5 win over Faker). Against a team with such a form and a boosted morale, T1 tried to make some plays over the series but it wasn’t enough. You don’t have enough bans to keep Ruler and Chovy in their place, you can’t answer Lehends Singed.
Gen.G will use the break between LCK finals and Worlds 2022 to improve their game further, and T1 will have to work even harder. No matter what T1 fans say about their coaching staff, games between Gen.G and T1 will not be decided in draft anymore, unlike many League of Legends best-of-five series. It will be decided by the skills and mechanical gameplays. They need Keria and Zeus to outclass Lehends and Doran, and Gumayusi to at least answer Ruler.
Such a performance indicates Gen.G as one of the favourites for the Worlds 2022 trophy. Obviously, Top Esports and JD Gaming will be stronger favourites, but Gen.G looks like they can challenge the best Chinese teams for the Summoners’ Cup. Ruler will definitely wait for EDG to qualify for Worlds, he wants to take revenge from Viper and establish himself as the best ADC in the world.
LCK Regional Qualifiers
What’s next for LCK is the Regional Qualifier. The last two spots of South Korea at Worlds 2022 will be decided in the Regional Qualifier which includes a quick double-elimination bracket. T1 and Gen.G skipped this part with their achievements in 2022.
However, DWG KIA, Liiv SANDBOX, kt Rolster and DRX will fight in this small competition to make it to North America. The regional finals will be played on September 1-2-3. DK and LSB will have one more chance if they lose their first game, but KT and DRX will have to win in order to survive.
