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The blame is being shifted towards the persistent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that have targeted the organization, causing disruptions not only during official matches but also in personal streams and practice sessions.
These DDoS attacks have been a recurring issue for the LCK, leading to game postponements, offline play, and even the exclusion of in-person crowds at LoL Park in Seoul.
However, T1 seems to have borne the brunt of these attacks, with players facing interruptions during their streams and scrims.
General manager Jeong “Becker” Hoi-yoon disclosed on March 20 that players had been targeted during their streaming hours, forcing them to halt streams temporarily.
Additionally, players like Faker have refrained from playing on their main accounts for fear of being attacked, leading to a lack of proper practice.
The impact of these attacks was evident in T1’s recent match against Hanwha Life Esports, where they suffered a disheartening 3-0 defeat.
ORANGE SWEEP! @HLEofficial MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE UPPER BRACKET! #LCK pic.twitter.com/vtrRVNkEnO
— LCK (@LCK) April 4, 2024
Despite T1’s efforts, Hanwha Life Esports showcased exceptional resilience and strategic prowess, capitalizing on T1’s vulnerabilities.
Faker acknowledged in the post-game conference that their performances were affected by the lack of proper scrims and solo queue play.
However, the team remains determined to prepare as best they can for their upcoming match against Dplus KIA, despite facing a formidable opponent with strong players like Choi “Lucid” Yong-hyeok, Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon, and Heo “ShowMaker” Su.
The absence of adequate practice and the psychological toll of the DDoS attacks have left T1 in one of their weakest forms in recent memory.
As they prepare to face Dplus KIA in the lower bracket, fans are concerned about their chances of advancing further in the playoffs.
Hanwha Life Esports, on the other hand, demonstrated exceptional coordination and strategic execution, securing their spot in the upper bracket to face Gen.G.
T1’s journey in the playoffs continues, but they face an uphill battle to stay in contention for the championship.
Overall, T1’s recent struggles highlight the disruptive impact of external factors like DDoS attacks on competitive gaming, underscoring the importance of maintaining a secure and stable environment for players and teams.
apparently the DDOS attacks are hitting T1 so hard that they cant even scrim – teams are avoiding them because theyre constantly dcing so impossible to scrim the last few weeks
also players are having to swap accounts all the time to try to even play soloq
t1 havent played… pic.twitter.com/Kx7tkBc4ny
— Caedrel (@Caedrel) April 4, 2024
?Dplus KIA and Hanwha Life Esports will clash on Thursday, March 23, in the first round of LoL Champions Korea (LCK) 2023 Spring Playoffs. Dplus are the clear favourites to advance into the next round, but HLE are no pushovers and should give us something to look forward to.
Dplus KIA finished the regular season in fourth place, which is nothing to sneeze at, but they’ve just barely outperformed Hanwha Life Esports, who landed in fifth, following a shaky 1-3 run across the final two weeks. Still, this is a solid team, and they’ve proven it this split, with strong showings against the elite Korean LoL esport squads.
READ: Best esports bookmakers for LoL betting
A big reason why Dplus KIA are priced as such massive favourites is their 2-0 sweep of Hanwha Life Esports at the end of Week 7. But we must consider Dplus’ concerning run in the final week when they lost against Gen.G (0-2) and T1 (0-2). This might not seem important considering T1 and Gen.G are the clear strongest teams in the league; however, T1 provided us and HLE with a clear blueprint to beat Dplus KIA.
The question now is whether Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon can execute the plan against Kim “Canna” Chang-dong. And while the answer is probably not, things could look much different if Park “Viper” Do-hyeon gets ahead and force Dplus to focus more on the bot side.
A lot will also come down to the draft phase and whether HLE will allow Dplus to get the champions they want – which happened in their last meeting.
Hanwha Life Esports can win, but it’s unlikely since a lot will have to go their way. HLE are objectively a weaker team, and only conditionally can you consider them as strong as Dplus KIA, who already smashed Hanwha Life Esports and only looked shaky against T1 and Gen.G.
Assured of first place heading into the final week of the group stage, T1 maintained their dominance with back-to-back 2-0 series wins over Dplus KIA and Nongshim RedForce, finishing with 17 wins and one loss.
The second seed was up for grabs over the final two weeks, with only one win separating Dplus KIA, Gen.G, and KT Rolster.
With back-to-back 2-0 victories over Hanwha Life Esports and Dplus KIA, Gen.G flexed their muscles and clinched the second seed with a better map difference (+17) than KT Rolster (+13), who finished with the same 13-5 record.
Aside from the obvious in T1, third-placed KT Rolster enter the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the LCK, with a six-match win streak that includes victories over Gen.G, Dplus KIA, Hanwha Life Esports, and SANDBOX Gaming.
Dplus KIA started the final week of the group stage with a one-win advantage over Gen.G and KT Rolster in the battle for second place, but they lost their final two series to T1 and Gen.G, dropping them from second to fourth on the final day.
Hanwha Life Esports (fifth) and SANDBOX Gaming (sixth) were the only two teams that were unable to improve their positions in the final week, as they were scheduled to face off in their final group stage match.
HLE won the series 2-1, but given that both teams have been beaten by the top four teams multiple times this split, it’s difficult to see them making it past the first round of the playoffs.
The top two seeds advance to the upper-bracket semifinals, where T1 and Gen.G will await the winners of the upper-bracket quarterfinals.
The upper-bracket quarterfinals will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, with the loser of each match eliminated from the playoffs.
Below is the list of quarterfinals, with odds courtesy of GG Bet.
2023 #LCK SPRING PLAYOFFS BRACKET
Regular season 3rd place KT has selected @LiivSANDBOX as their first round opponent!
The remaining team @HLEofficial is automatically slotted to play @DplusKIA!The first match of Round 1 is on Wed, March 22, 5pm [KST]! pic.twitter.com/lo3LfKOFUH
— LCK (@LCK) March 19, 2023
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?Can T1 become the first team ever in LoL Champions Korea to finish the regular season and playoffs undefeated? Or will a finally full-strength Gen.G spoil the party? Those are the big questions ahead of this Saturday’s blockbuster LCK 2022 Spring Grand Final series.
T1 entered the playoffs with 18 wins and zero losses, becoming the first LCK team ever to finish the regular season undefeated. Meanwhile, Gen.G finished the regular season with 13 wins and three losses, with two of those losses coming against T1, 2-0 in both series.
T1 are red-hot favourites to take out this series and when you look at their record, it is hard to disagree with the LoL betting sites. They have been nothing short of outstanding, and considering they have only lost seven maps out of the 43 total maps they have played, some people may describe T1’s split as near-perfect.
Mid-laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and AD carry Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong are always going to be the most influential players for T1. “Faker” is in the conversation as the greatest LoL player of all time, if he hasn’t already been given that title by many in the League of Legends community. “Gumayusi” is a rising star, only 20 years of age, who has only been with T1 since November of 2019. With these two players performing the way they have been all split, and entering the LCK Grand Final coming off of their massive series against Kwangdong Freecs (18.5 KDA for “Gumuyasi” and 15.0 KDA for “Faker”), they don’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. The only team that looks to have the talent and potential to stop this rampant juggernaut is their Grand Final opponent.
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Gen.G are coming off a strong showing throughout the regular season with a record of 13-3. The one positive that Gen.G can take into this Grand Final is that they have not faced T1 in the regular season with their full roster in either series due to COVID-19 issues in the team. In the week four match-up Gen.G didn’t have top-laner Han “Peanut” Wang-ho or jungler Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon, and then in week seven they had to play without their starting AD carry, Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk. Whilst Gen.G did have mid-laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, who is their most influential player and one of the top three players in the league, he was unable to put the stand-in players on his back and carry them to a map victory, let alone a series victory, against this great team in T1.
When “Chovy”, “Ruler” and “Peanut” are playing together, they are one of the best combinations in the LCK, with all three of them having KDAs that rank in the top five for the entire regular season. This Gen.G team at full strength should not be underestimated, as they have shown that they may have the most talent on any roster in the LCK.
Everyone has wanted to see this match-up come Grand Final day. This will be the first full-strength BO5 between the first- and second-placed teams in the 2022 LCK Spring Split. Will T1 easily get past a full-strength Gen.G like they have the rest of the teams in the LCK? Or will a Gen.G push this undefeated T1 to five maps for the first time this split?
We believe you will see the latter. Gen.G will give a much better showing than the $4.33 head-to-head odds would appear to suggest. This series is every chance to go to a fifth map, so we will be taking Gen.G at the match line +1.5 at $2.50 with GG Bet in what sets up to be a series for the ages.
?In the only game of the day for the 2022 LCK Spring Playoffs, we have fourth-placed DRX taking on fifth-placed Kwangdong Freecs. DRX won both meetings during the split, saluting 2-0 in week two and 2-1 in week eight.
DRX come into this playoff series on a two-game losing streak, going down 2-0 against both DWG KIA and T1. Meanwhile, Kwangdong Freecs come into this on a three-game win streak, beating Hanwha Life Esports and Liiv SANDBOX, then winning the one-map tiebreaker against Fredit Brion to secure fifth place.
DRX were dismantled by both DWG KIA and T1 in their last two games of the regular season, and that must have really hurt their confidence coming into the playoffs. DRX have had a solid split, but while they’ve shown that they can take care of the bottom-ranked teams, they struggle when it comes to the teams above them. Five of their seven losses have come against the three teams above them, with 10 of their 11 wins coming against all of the teams that sit below them. That said, the ladder positions for this matchup work in DRX’s favour, while they beat Kwangdong Freecs quite easily in their first series.
Kwangdong Freecs have been hot and cold this split with a 9-10 record, including the tiebreaker against Fredit Brion. Given the Freecs only just qualified for playoffs, they will have their work cut out in this encounter.
Kwangdong Freecs pushed DRX to three maps in the last series they played, during week eight. With this being a five-game series, it could definitely go the distance. However, DRX will be out to make a statement and, unfortunately for them, Kwangdong Freecs will be on the receiving end. The -1.5 match line for DRX at $2.20 with GG Bet is a good bet.