League of Legends LCK Spring Split 2016 – All you need to know
The LCK returns in January after a triumphant World Championship that saw SK Telecom T1 once more crowned World Champions, while the KOO Tigers (now the ROX Tigers) fought their way to second place.
KT Rolster meanwhile were unfortunate to meet the Tigers in the quarter-finals as they ended their run to the trophy with a convincing 3-1 victory.
All three teams’ performances put to bed any notion that the Korean scene would be significantly weakened by players moving from the LCK to participate in China’s LPL.
Korea remains the dominant force in League of Legends, not just thanks to the established players but also because coaching, infrastructure and a wealth of untapped talent all contribute to a powerful region with the best understanding of how to play LoL on an international level. Indeed, this was highlighted by the fact that no Korean team was knocked out of Worlds by a team from another region.
Last Season Recap
The 2016 Spring Season will give us a look at the teams who will be aiming to win Worlds again in nine months’ time. It will also give us a flavour of which teams are the complete article, which are works-in-progress and which need significant improvement if they are to realize their dream of reaching the World Championship.
Spring last year marked the rise of a dominant Tigers team, whose 12-2 performance during the season forced a strong SKT into second. CJ Entus were just behind the two, with none of the other teams even close.
The play-offs are where it all counts though and SKT were able to beat CJ in a toughly contested encounter which ended 3-2. This earned their spot to face the Tigers in the final, with SKT overcoming them with a dominating 3-0 victory.
In Summer, SKT showed up big-time, going 17-1 in the regular season and looking like the kind of side desperate to add a second World Title to their trophy haul. KT Rolster, CJ Entus, Tigers and NaJin e-mFire couldn’t match SKT, but all looked like strong teams in their own right going into the play-offs.
It was not particularly surprising to see SKT dominate in the play-offs again with another flawless 3-0 victory over KT Rolster.
Meanwhile, the Tigers automatically qualified for Worlds thanks to their 2nd and 3rd place finishes giving them enough championship points to qualify directly.
KT, however, had to face-off against a resurgent Jin Air in the Regional Qualifiers. Jin Air’s regular season was average at best, with a 4th place finish in the Spring play-offs followed by 6th place in the regular Summer Season, but they bested CJ Entus and NaJin en route to their showdown with KT. KT were able to beat Jin Air in the final though, securing their spot at Worlds in the process.
Format:
Taking place over two periods of six to seven weeks, the LCK (or technically Champions Korea) uses a double round robin format, where each team plays each other twice.
All games are best-of-three and substitutions can be made between games.
The top five teams will go into a play-off bracket, where they can win Championship points that go towards qualifying for the 2016 World Championship. The winning side will also earn approximately $90,000.
Let’s take a closer look at the teams participating:
SK Telecom T1
The last time SKT won the World Championship, the team collapsed the following year. This saw them fail to make the play-off stage of both the Spring and Summer tournaments. They will be loathed to allow such a situation to occur for a second time.
There’s little doubt that their roster of players has been weakened however, with both their rotating Mid Laner EasyHoon and dominating Top Laner MaRin leaving for the LPL, with the latter replaced by former e-mFire Top Laner Duke.
As ever with SKT, all eyes will be on prodigy Faker, whose Ryze play at Worlds demonstrated a Mid Laner essentially playing a different game to everyone else, a game where he was unstoppable. Although his KDA of 7.3 was modest, his performances were the foundation of their eventual success. Barring another collapse, we’d expect SKT to remain a strong contender in LCK Spring.
ROX Tigers
The Tigers were the break-out team of 2015 in Korea (and indeed the world), and they were understandably delighted to reach the finals of the World Championship.
However, Jungler hojin has since retired from professional play and has been replaced by NaJin e-mFire’s Peanut.
The player to watch for the Tigers is AD Carry PraY, who is considered by some to be the best current ADC in the world. At Worlds he heavily favoured The Frost Archer – Ashe, playing her in seven games while achieving a KDA of 9.75.
kt Rolster
kt have long been one of the fans’ favourites, going back to the days of inSec’s devastating Lee Sin performances in 2013.
Last year saw them finally make it to Worlds and while they will be disappointed not to have made it further than the quarter-finals, they will expect to move forward this year.
Mid Laner Nagne and Support Picaboo leave the team and are replaced by Fly and IgNar. Top Laner Ssumday will hope to continue with his dominant performances, while ADC Arrow boasted one of the best KDAs at Worlds with 8.9, mainly thanks to his ability to escape fights without dying – he was terminated just 12 times in his 10 games.
e-mFire
Having abandoned the NaJin prefix and indeed their entire roster from last season, this is a new-look e-mFire that includes three rookie players in the line-up. They could be in for a baptism of fire in their first season of professional play.
Mid Laner Edge has played at this level before as a substitute Mid Laner for kt Rolster, having played eight games for them in last year’s LCK Summer. However, he will need to improve on a KDA of 3.26 if e-mFire are to survive.
CJ Entus
CJ Entus used to be one of the dominant Korean teams and still boast two renowned players in Shy and MadLife, but along with several other sides, they have undergone major roster surgery since last year. Rookies Bubbling and Sky join alongside former Flash Wolves ADC Kramer.
Shy is one of the Korean scene’s veterans and has been with CJ since they took over the Azubu mantle in 2013. MadLife is the other veteran on the team, whose skills on Thresh have become synonymous with his name.
With tanky-ninja Shen about to be significantly changed, we wonder if Shy will be able to perform as well as he did in seven games in last Summer’s LCK, where he had a KDA of 32.33 thanks to just 3 deaths and 71 assists.
Jin Air Green Wings
Jin Air rose from the middle of the pack last year to go on a memorable run during the Regional Qualifiers that almost saw them make it to Worlds. However, they were stopped in their tracks by kt Rolster.
Only their long-serving Support Chei is retained from that line-up. With three rookies to the scene in the shape of SoHwan, Pilot and Kuzan, Jin Air are not expected to push for glory just yet, but the Spring Split will judge whether their young roster has a future in professional League of Legends.
Chei has traditionally favoured Janna and Thresh, with the former falling out of favour thanks to recent changes to the meta.
Samsung
Samsung are still recovering from the rule changes that followed their dominance in 2014. The main change decreed that organizations would only be able to enter a single team into the Korean professional league. Instead of combining the rosters of the hugely successful Samsung Blue and Samsung White sides, they instead chose to release both sets of players.
They started to rebuild in 2015, but the new line-up met with middling success. For 2016, they bring in steely eyed Jungler Ambition, while CoreJJ returns to Korea after spending time with North America’s Dignitas.
Expect Ambition to pick up Rek’Sai whenever possible as last year’s Summer Split saw him pick the champion 16 times, with him earning a KDA of 3.56.
Afreeca Freecs
A rebranded Rebels Anarchy, afreeca Freecs finished 8th in LCK’s 2015 Summer Split and retain the same roster. They’ll be hoping that a season being tempered in the flames of Korea’s top league will have seasoned these players a little as their inexperience was on show throughout last year’s Summer competition.
Mid Laner Mickey in particular will have to improve on a KDA of 2.18 across 46 games if they are to move up the standings.
Longzhu
A new name for the organisation formerly known as Incredible Miracle, Longzhu boast an eight-man roster that combines new-blood with experience.
LCK fans will be looking to veterans ADC Cpt Jack and Top Laner Flame to perform if Longzhu are going to challenge. Both are certainly capable. Cpt Jack in particular posted a KDA of 5.14 in last year’s LCK Summer, and he’ll want to utilise the changes in the ADC role this year to help Longzhu challenge for the top positions.
SBENU Sonicboom
With a 10th place finish and a 1:17 record in LCK Summer 2015, little is expected of Sonicboom.
Jungler Catch leaves to play in the newly founded Japanese league and is replaced by substitute Flaw.
ADC Nuclear will have to do the heavy lifting if the team are to improve on last year’s performances – in 2015 he achieved a KDA of 2.76 across 42 games.
Conclusion
The three teams that qualified for last year’s World Championship still look very strong indeed, but things never seem to be that simple in Korea.
Longzhu look to have formed a strong and adaptable roster, while Samsung’s addition of Ambition in the Jungle could transform them from a middle-tier team to potential challengers.
The big question this year will be whether SKT can continue to dominate the region. MaRin and Easyhoon’s departures for China will place more pressure on their remaining members and if they slip up, there will be other teams waiting to capitalize.
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