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 Wednesday in the 2022 LCK summer season.
T1 defeat HLE
In a match that was not expected to be eventful, the series between the bottom-dwelling Hanwha Life Esports and the top-seeded T1 produced a memorable three games for all the wrong reasons. T1’s MVP support player Ryu “Keria” Min-seok decided to lock in Pantheon in the bot lane, which was the first time anyone in the LCK picked Pantheon support in almost a year. But the spice didn’t help mask some overall bland gameplay.
Game 1 was actually the tamest game of the three despite actually being the closest in terms of actual gameplay. HLE threw everything they had at T1 in the first game. Both teams traded back and forth in fights and objective control with both teams taking two dragons apiece with gold less than 1K in favor of T1 before a Baron fight 27 minutes into the game. But with a poor steal attempt, T1 could finally break away and push their advantage into a Game 1 win.
Welcome back support Pantheon!@T1Keria picks the first #LCK support Pantheon in 349 days! pic.twitter.com/O639PgW8HG
— LCK (@LCK) July 13, 2022
Game 2 is when things started to get shaky. T1 managed to grab an early 2K gold lead around the 13-minute mark, but by the 20-minute mark that was already erased. HLE could not be stopped in teamfights and were able to clean T1 off the map.
Twenty five minutes in, HLE had a 4K gold lead and were already on Ocean Soul point. T1 did manage to prolong the game with a clutch Baron steal by Keria on Pyke, but the next fight at dragon again went to HLE. With Ocean Dragon Soul, HLE really couldn’t lose a fight as they marched their way to T1’s Nexus to tie the series up at 1.
GGS @HLEofficial. Obviously very unhappy with how the chronobreak was handled in Game 3 and not for Gumayusi in Game 2. Polt and I will continue to discuss privately before speaking w/ LCK directly again. Happy we won, but there has to be a better way to handle breaks. #T1WIN
— Joe (@JoeMar) July 13, 2022
Game 3 saw a glimpse at T1’s spring form as they went up 5-0 in kills just seven minutes in and were on their way to an early victory. However, after identifying a bug in Game 3, the referees decided to Chronobreak the game back to the beginning, which killed all of the momentum T1 had. Discourse started on social media because in Game 2, T1’s bot laner Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong had an issue with wrong Runes selection, but T1 were forced to play through it.
With the team frustrated, T1 left it all on the Rift. Even though T1 didn’t have five kills at seven minutes after the Chronobreak, the team did manage to grab a 5-0 lead in kills 12 minutes in after the remake. HLE did not have a chance in this game with T1 jumping out to a massive 5K gold lead 13 minutes in, and T1 took the series 2-1 even though it was more of a 3-1.
Gen.G take out LSB
In a match that was surprisingly highly anticipated so far in the 2022 LCK Summer season, the upstart Liiv SANDBOX squad, winners of five straight matches, went up against the second-seeded Gen.G in a match that could have flipped the two in the standings.
there was an attempt to let shelly dance… 🥲@GenG handily take game 1 of this series! #LCK pic.twitter.com/yUUkdOWijB
— LCK (@LCK) July 13, 2022
However, Gen.G put an end to those hopes in Game 1.
In one of the most dominant performances in the LCK this year, Gen.G showed that despite the teams being similar in record, they are not comparable in skill level. The game was close at the 10-minute mark, but Gen.G only needed nine more minutes after that to close out the game. Through incredible objective control and being able to constantly find skirmish after skirmish, Gen.G already had a 10K gold lead just 16 minutes in. With the lead growing to 13K at the 18-minute mark, Gen.G simply dropped the second Rift Herald at the Tier 3 mid turret and aimed to end the game. After a 5-0 teamfight in the enemy base, Gen.G closed out the game in just under 20 minutes.
Game 2 lasted longer for LSB, and they actually were the ones in control in the early game with a 4K gold lead 19 minutes in and 9-1 lead in kills. But LSB fell apart. A fight around the second Rift Herald looked good initially for LSB as they picked up a kill to make the fight four-on-five. But a triple kill for Gen.G bot laner Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk led to an ace that put Gen.G back into the game.
Through teamfight outplays, Gen.G turned the gold deficit into a gold lead in just three minutes’ time, and the 10-1 kill lead for LSB shrunk to 10-8. With LSB getting desperate, a Baron call turned fatal as Gen.G were able to win the Smite fight and the teamfight right after. In just 29 minutes, Gen.G were able to close out the series 2-0.
What’s Next
The 2022 LCK summer split continues its Week 5 action on Thursday with two more matches. KT Rolster take on DRX while DWG KIA will go up against Kwangdang Freecs. Matches start at 4 a.m. ET live on the LCK Twitch channel.
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