LCK Regional Finals: DAMWON and DRX qualify for Worlds

The 2022 LCK Summer Split has officially wrapped up, with the playoffs and regional qualifiers in the books.

2022 was a top-heavy year for the LCK, with some teams proving they are a cut above the rest. T1 went undefeated in the Spring Split, while Gen G almost managed to match them in Summer, finishing with a 17-1 record. You guessed it, their only loss was against T1.  But that didn’t seem to bother them when the playoffs came around, with Gen G handing T1 a 3-0 loss in the Grand Finals.  Outside of the top two seeds who went straight to Worlds, the rest of the LCK competition was pretty evenly matched. Five of the six playoff teams in the Summer Split finished with 10 wins and that carried over into the Regional Qualifiers.

The top four teams in terms of Championship points, that haven’t already qualified for worlds, are slotted into a waterfall format for this tournament. All matches are best of five series, playing out through two rounds.

DAMWON Kia vs. Liiv Sandbox

Throughout the regular split, LSB looked like a better team than DK. LSB bot laner Lee “Prince” Chae-hwan looked to challenge world-class counterparts on T1 and Gen G, carrying his team to the third seed. DK looked a shell of their former selves, with the 2020 World Champions struggling to adapt to the meta. Luckily for us fans, they managed to scrape a solid playoff run, beating KT Rolster and giving us an epic five-game series against T1. Despite being inches away from the Grand Finals, it was enough for another shot at Worlds. Both teams won one series in the playoffs against the lower seeds but then lost to the eventual finalists. But then Damwon Kia turned it up a notch, beating Liiv Sandbox 3-1 in the regional qualifiers. Their only loss came in game two when they subbed out the incumbent starter and World Champion, top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon, for Noh “Burdol” Tae-yoon. In the three games Nuguri played, DK looked like the better team far and away, qualifying directly for the main event at Worlds.

KT Rolster vs. DRX 

Despite entering the match with low expectations, these evenly matched teams managed to give us an entertaining five-game series. The story of this series was the same as the entire year for KT Rolster. They went as far as their mid-laner Lee “VicLa” Dae-kwang could take them. He won Rookie of the Split for his regular-season effort and managed to secure two wins for his team in this series but it wasn’t enough. 

DRX Liiv vs. Sandbox

After advancing in the second round, DRX would face off against the loser of the higher seeded bracket and that was Liiv Sandbox. Fighting for the fourth and last Worlds slot, LSB opened the series with a Nilah pick that struggled to match the enemy bot laner’s impact. Despite gifting a game to DRX, LSB bounced back winning the next two games behind Lee “Clozer” Ju-hyeon Azir performances. DRX learned their lesson, taking away both Azir and Zeri from LSB, ending with a game-four win and setting us up for Silver Scrapes. As hectic as the series was, game five failed to deliver. It seems LSB just ran out of gas, piling on early mistakes until eventually, the lead was too big.  The experienced DRX roster led by storied bot laner Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu managed to bounce back from losing star mid-laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon two off-seasons ago. With this win they qualify for the Play-In stage at Worlds, marking Deft’s seventh appearance at the World Championship.

Header: Twitter/ DRX