Liiv SANDBOX won their fourth game of the split on Sunday against DRX (0-2), which puts them level on points with Kwangdong Freecs, OKSavingsBank BRION, and Nongshim RedForce. On the other side, Gen.G suffered their first defeat of LCK 2023 Summer against KT Rolster, who beat them 2-0 on Saturday.

Those results don’t mean much for this match – Gen.G are still a superior team to Liiv SANDBOX, who likely won’t even make the playoffs. But even though we know how this game should end, there is no value in backing Gen.G in the head-to-head markets.

LoL esports betting sites are paying $1.61 on Gen.G to secure first blood, which is a very generous offer. Gen.G have the league’s highest first blood rate (74.2%), whereas Liiv SANDBOX rank third-last with just 43.8%, and that number gets substantially lower against stronger teams.

First blood is a more volatile bet than most, but in this game it makes sense. Gen.G are extremely good in the early game and regularly punish weaker squads who can’t match their lane pressure.

Kwangdong Freecs will have to pull off a massive upset to make it past KT Rolster – who, with their 2-0 sweep of Gen.G last week, have earned the tag as the strongest team in the LCK. KT are undefeated over their last 12 fixtures; however, they’ve looked shaky in some recent outings against weaker teams.

In the sixth week of the regular season, KT Rolster dropped maps against Hanwha Life Esports and DRX through silly mistakes. That doesn’t prove that KT are easily exploitable, but they tend to play worse when not challenged.

The offered LCK betting odds for Kwangdong Freecs at the map line are too generous to ignore. Even though this looks like a very similar game to Gen.G vs Liiv SANDBOX, KT Rolster tend to take more risks than Go “Score” Dong-bin’s team. Also, the Freecs have side choice, which bumps them up a bit.

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Ahead of LoL Champions Korea (LCK) 2023 Summer Week 5, T1 announced that its star player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok would take an indefinite break from competing due to an arm injury, which came at an unfortunate time. T1 were struggling even with Faker on the roster and hit a new low on Wednesday with a rough 0-2 defeat against DRX.

It’s important to note that Faker’s substitute Yoon “Poby” Sung-won wasn’t the issue. The defeat was a joint effort from all five players, and Faker’s absence only exacerbated the problems T1 have been struggling with.

T1 are in the worst spot they’ve been this entire year, ahead of a crucial match against Gen.G, and as the latest LoL betting odds suggest, this should be a one-sided game. Gen.G, are the only undefeated team in the LCK after nine rounds of play and based on what they’ve shown recently, they’re a class above any other team in the league.

Gen.G are due to a slip-up, but we don’t expect it to happen here since Gen.G have to increase the gap between them and their biggest rivals for the LCK crown.

Gen.G to win 2-0 is a solid choice, and we’re adding under 22.5 kills on both maps.

Nongshim RedForce lost against Hanwha Life Esports (0-2) on Thursday, extending their losing streak to eight games. RedForce haven’t won a game since the second round of the split against OKSavingsBank BRION (2-1), and with just over four weeks left to play, they need to start winning if they wish to make the playoffs.

Liiv SANDBOX are in a very similar position, with just two wins (2-7) on the split and four consecutive losses ahead of Saturday’s match. And even though Liiv SANDBOX haven’t shown anything this split, they’re still considered a good team by the market.

This is a highly volatile team regarding the number of kills they see in their games. Most recently, Liiv SANDBOX saw 20 and 29 kills against Gen.G but 54 and 13 against Kwangdong Freecs in the previous round. So while taking over total kills would make sense in games like this, it doesn’t if Liiv SANDBOX are involved.

This is one of the games where you have to take the underdogs. Liiv SANDBOX and Nongshim RedForce are both bottom-tier teams, so if anything, this is a 50-50 match.

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?Kwangdong Freecs suffered their third consecutive loss of the season on Wednesday against T1 (0-2). But according to the latest LoL betting odds, Kim “Taeyoon” Tae-yoon and co. should do better on Friday when they face off against Nongshim RedForce.

Nongshim RedForce are 1-3 ahead of Friday’s clash with Kwangdong Freecs, with just one close victory against OKSavingsBank BRION in the opening week of the split. Since then, RedForce have lost against Liiv SANDBOX (0-2), Gen.G (0-2), and Dplus KIA (0-2).

The main thing to take away from Nongshim RedForce’s recent outings is that they make too many mistakes, and while Kwangdong Freecs are known to slip at times, they also field better and more experienced players. Barring any surprises, Kwangdong Freecs should sweep.

?Liiv SANDBOX edged past OKSavingsBank BRION (2-1) on Wednesday and secured their second victory of the LCK Summer split. However, as bad as it may seem for SANDBOX to hold a 2-3 record, they had the displeasure of having to face Dplus KIA (0-2), T1 (0.2), and KT Rolster (0-2) across the first two weeks.

Liiv SANDBOX were a playoff team last split, and while their numbers in LCK 2023 Summer are a bit worse, this is still a quality squad whose only real issue is lack of consistency – with high highs and low lows.

Hanwha Life Esports are 2-2, but those defeats came against top-four contenders KT Rolster (1-2) and T1 (1-2) in the opening week of the split. Since then, HLE have beaten DRX (2-0) and Kwangdong Freecs (2-0). But even though Hanwha are doing well in the current meta, this head-to-head price is too short.

Hanwha Life Esports should win, but Liiv SANDBOX are good enough to show some resistance. Expect a close series.

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According to the outright LCK 2023 Summer betting odds, Nongshim RedForce are one of the weakest teams in the league. They finished LCK 2023 Spring in 10th place with a 2-16 record, and without any significant roster changes, it’s tough to imagine them improving.

Nongshim opted to use 2023 as an experimental year by promoting the academy roster to the main lineup at the start of the season and sticking with the plan going into the summer split. But even though this roster lacks experience and doesn’t field any proven players, it has potential for growth.

Liiv SANDBOX finished LCK 2023 Spring in sixth place, but they likely won’t improve on that in this split – even with the signing of Park “Teddy” Jin-seong. Adding a former T1 ADC to the roster sounds good and adds to the hype, but Teddy is not the solution for SANDBOX, who have other areas they need to improve to be competitive.

The best League of Legends betting sites have Liiv SANDBOX priced as unbackable favourites, which means the value lies elsewhere. Nongshim RedForce might be one of the weaker teams in the league, but they don’t deserve to be $7.00 underdogs against a team that showed nothing in the opening match of the split.

Kwangdong Freecs made quick work of DRX (2-0) on Thursday, but they still have a lot more to prove before we can start talking about their chances to compete for playoff spots. And the same holds true for OKSavingsBank BRION, who kicked off LCK 2023 Summer with a rough loss against Nongshim RedForce (1-2) – one of the weakest teams in the league.

It’s not fair to try to rank teams based on their performances in the first match of the split, but Kwangdong Freecs are rightly considered favourites in this clash. While they’re not a very good team, if we consider what the two squads showed last split and the quality of the players, Kwangdong Freecs should defeat OKSavingsBank BRION more times than not.

This is Kwangdong Freecs’ game to lose; however, at $1.57 with GG Bet, they’re not a good bet. Instead, we like under 22.5 kills for both maps. We haven’t seen many bloody games this season in LCK, and the teams seem to prefer a more slow-paced playstyle which might be the theme of the Korean LoL league until the meta shifts.

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“Welcome back, @YamatoMebdi,” Liiv SANDBOX tweeted.

“YamatoCannon has returned to Liiv SANDBOX as a content creator. Join us in giving him a warm welcome!”

YamatoCannon has been around the esports scene for a very long time, serving in different capacities.

The 27-year-old started off as a League of Legends top-lane player in late 2011. As a player, he has represented teams such as the H2K, High Sea Tigers, Tt Dragons, Wetser Wolves, and a handful of other teams.

YamatoCannon launched his coaching career with the German team MeetYourMakers in 2015, and since then he has coached top esports teams such as Team Vitality, Splyce, Team ROCCAT, Fnatic, and in 2020 he coached the Liiv SANDBOX League of Legends roster.

Since leaving Fnatic on December 1, 2022, he has been streaming and dropping content.

In the course of his career, YamatoCannon has led several teams to the League of Legends World Championship, which is the biggest tournament in the game. Just a year after starting his coaching journey, the Swedish national led Splyce to the World Championship, although the team came in 13th–16th place.

While coaching the Team Vitality roster, he also took them to the 2018 World Championship, although they did not get past the group stage. The same occurrence repeated itself when he was coaching Fnatic; the team was knocked out in the group stage of both the 2021 World Championship and the recent 2022 World Championship.

Early in his coaching career, YamatoCannon was named Coach of the Split for the 2016 EU LCS Summer.

On January 20, Liiv SANDBOX are scheduled to play in the 2023 League of Legends Championship Korea (LCK) Spring against DWG KIA. SANDBOX will start at long odds of $8.93, with the latter paying just $1.05 at GG Bet.

Liiv SANDBOX’s League of Legends team currently consists of 25-year-old top laner Noh “Burdol” Tae-yoon, 19-year-old jungler Kim “Willer” Jeong-hyeon, 19-year-old mid laner Lee “Clozer” Ju-hyeon, 22-year-old bot laner Lee “Envyy” Myeong-joon, and 18-year-old support player Kim “Kael” Jin-hong.

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Sandbox announced the signing on their Twitter page, welcoming the support player to professional gaming.

“Welcome, DangMoo!
DangMoo joins #LSB CL to take on a new challenge as a pro player. Please give her a warm welcome!” the announcement read.

This is a significant milestone for the world of esports, which has traditionally been dominated by male players. While there have been a number of successful female gamers in the past, they have often faced significant barriers and challenges in terms of representation and visibility. The signing of a female player by Liiv Sandbox is a step towards greater diversity and inclusivity in the esports industry and is likely to inspire more women to pursue careers as professional gamers in pro teams.

Very little information is available about DangMoo, as her signing with Liiv SANDBOX marks the first time she has joined a professional League of Legends team. According to Leaguepedia, she has primarily played champions like Ahri and Lulu in the past.

Although DangMoo may be new to international audiences, she has already gained a following in South Korea as a content creator. With almost 250,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, which features mostly League-related videos, and over 185,000 followers on Twitch, she is already fairly popular. Now, as she makes history by joining Liiv Sandbox as the organization’s first-ever female player, she has the opportunity to expand her reach and make an even greater impact in the world of esports.

In the LSB Challengers team, DangMoo will be competing with Hong “PlanB” Su-jin for a starting spot on the roster. PlanB also joined the team in December.

It remains to be seen how DangMoo will perform as part of the LSB Challengers team, but her signing is already being celebrated as a major moment for esports and a sign of progress toward greater inclusivity in the industry. As more and more women enter the world of professional gaming, it is likely that we will see an increase in the number of female players competing at the highest levels of competition.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of female players in esports, although they often have their own separate leagues, such as Game Changers in VALORANT or ESL Impact in CS:GO, thereby making it rare to see them participate in competitions like LCK CL. However, this makes the signing of DangMoo even more significant and historic.

The 2022 League of Legends season ended extra early for teams like SANDBOX, who were unable to qualify for the 2022 World Championship tournament. As such, the franchise have begun the necessary preparations for competitive play ahead of the 2023 season.

The franchise’s entire League of Legends coaching staff was released, including Kang “Travel” Tae-su, Cho “Joker” Jae-eup, Heo “PawN” Won-Seok, and Kim “Micro” Mok-kyoung.

The official statement from the franchise thanked the former members for their contributions to the team during their tenure and wished them well in their future endeavors.

“The coaching staff of the LCK team, who have shared many journeys and romances, are leaving for a new challenge,” the translated tweet read.

“We sincerely thank coach Kim Mok-Kyung, coach Jo Jae-eup, coach Kang Tae-soo, and coach Huh Won-Seok, who shared the joys and sorrows and devoted themselves to the team during the 2022 season, and we will cheer for only good things in the future.”

“[#LSB Official Announcement]
Today, we bid farewell to the coaching staff of the 2022 #LSB LCK team,” it continued.

“We are grateful to Micro, Joker, Travel and Pawn for their contribution and commitment that led to our surprising season.
We wish all the best of luck on their new journey.”

Despite not qualifying for the most prestigious event in the League of Legends, Liiv SANDBOX have had a relatively good season this year. The team notably ended the 2022 LCK Summer Split in third place during the regular season.

In the August LCK Summer Playoffs, however, the South Korean team did not fare as well after being defeated by Gen.G. Liiv SANDBOX recorded a second loss during the LCK 2022 Regional Finals after facing off with DRX. The loss disqualified the team from participating in an international tournament.

The recently released coach, Travel, has a long history of coaching league players. Besides being part of Liiv SANDBOX’s driving force last season, Travel coached teams like Bigfire Miracle, ESC Ever, Virtuoso Gaming, and DAMWON from as far back as 2014.

Micro also had an extensive history with coaching, having started on the job in December 2013. He guided MiraGe Gaming, Kongdoo Monster, Awesome, and several others before joining Liiv SANDBOX. The coach also worked alongside Travel in DAMWON between 2017 and 2020.

PawN and Joker, on the other hand, previously played professionally and were part of the Samsung White roster that won the 2014 Worlds. At the moment, there are no information concerning the next moves for the four LoL coaches, but they will likely be without a team till the conclusion of Worlds 2022.

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LIIV SANDBOX vs GEN.G LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

?Liiv SANDBOX and Gen.G will lock horns on Saturday, August 20, in the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) 2022 Summer Playoffs semi-finals, with the winner to face either T1 or DWG KIA in the grand final.

SANDBOX kept their hot streak alive on Wednesday when they took down DRX 3-1 to take one step closer to claiming their first LCK title. It marked the team’s sixth consecutive victory, having already beaten DRX (2-1), DWG KIA (2-0), KT Rolster (2-1), T1 (2-0), and Fredit BRION (2-0) to finish the regular season.

But, once again, Liiv SANDBOX had it easy. Although they have been playing well over the last month, none of their victims had a good game. Indeed, SANDBOX’s quarter-final victory had more to do with DRX’s poor drafting than anything else.

It is tough not to feel excited about Liiv SANDBOX, but they have met their match here. Gen.G are by far the strongest Korean LoL esports team and – unlike most other squads – far less prone to making mistakes. They’ve won all but one game this split (17-1) and have dropped just 12% of the maps played (35-5).

This is a perfect match for Gen.G, who will be able to take advantage of Liiv SANDBOX’s over-aggression and punish them for it. SANDBOX can win a map, but anything more would be a massive disappointment for the regular-season champions.

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LIIV SANDBOX vs DRX LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

Liiv SANDBOX and DRX will lock horns on Wednesday, August 17, in the quarterfinals of League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) 2022 Summer Playoffs.

Liiv SANDBOX enter LCK 2022 Summer Playoffs as one of the most exciting teams to watch. They weren’t expected to achieve much this split, but they turned on their jets in the latter half of the season and stormed into third place with a 13-5 record and a five-game winning streak.

Over that run, SANDBOX have won against DWG KIA (2-0), KT Rolster (2-1), T1 (2-0), Fredit BRION (2-0), and DRX (2-1), who they defeated at the end of July. But we would be careful not to overreact to that impressive run and ignore the bigger picture.

READ: Wednesday’s LPL Summer Playoffs preview – LNG Esports vs Bilibili Gaming

It is easy to ride the hype train and believe Liiv SANDBOX are one of the serious candidates to win the league, but that is far from the truth. They have picked up a few upset wins and have done well, but they’re a bit overhyped.

The main reason why we are not too excited about backing SANDBOX is their insane aggression, which can easily turn around and bite them. On the other side, we’re not big fans of DRX either, and we have a hard time believing they can take care of business due to the sloppy approach to their games.

We saw DRX lose against Hanwha Life Esports (1-2) on Sunday, and they were no match for KT Rolster (0-2) three days prior either. But we have also seen DRX produce some good games this split, so it comes down to which version of DRX we will see on Wednesday.

Even though we believe Liiv SANDBOX are overhyped, there is nothing that would suggest DRX can win. Assuming Liiv SANDBOX do not play too confidently and shoot themselves in the foot, there is a good chance we are in for a clean sweep.

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It’s the last day of week nine and the first series brings us the battle between Kwangdong Freecs and Liiv SANDBOX. Kwangdong Freecs comes in to this series off of a 2-1 win against Hanwha Life Esports, adding another win to their record and keeping their playoff hopes alive. Whereas Liiv SANDBOX showed that they are no pushover by taking only the seventh map that T1 have lost all split but still recorded a loss, going down 2-1 in their series against the undefeated giants.

Kwangdong Freecs need to win this series to make sure that they stay ahead of KT Rolster, who have one series to play just like Kwangdong Freecs, meaning if both teams win, ‘The Freecs’ will finish in the top six and qualify for playoffs. In most of Kwangdong Freecs games, they rely on Park ‘Teddy’ Jin-Seong to provide a lot of damage and influence the game from the top lane. Whilst taking the last game 2-1 against Hanwha Life Esports, ‘Teddy’ compiled a huge 17.0 KDA over the three map series, leading all players throughout the series.

Liiv SANDBOX have had an up and down split, starting off with a 2-0 win against the now fourth placed DRX. However, after taking that series they have only achieved three more wins and had 13 losses. Coming into this series with Kwangdong Freecs, Liiv SANDBOX have lost their last six BO3s and only taken a total of two maps from those six BO3s. The one shining light for Liiv SANDBOX is that in their latest loss against T1, where they lost 2-1, they managed to take one map against the top ranked team.

Kwangdong Freecs need to win this series to make sure they qualify for playoffs. Expect Kwangdong Freecs to come out and be very strong in this match up, taking the series in the end. We believe that there is more value in the maps market than the win market. So we suggest taking the over 2.5 maps with online betting sites which sits at $2.10, we should be seeing this series go to three maps.

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The last series of the entire LCK Spring Split for 2022 is a top-end battle between the undefeated T1 and fourth placed DRX. T1 will finish on top of the standings for this split and they will look to keep their undefeated streak alive going into playoffs. However, DRX will be desperate to win this so they can stay even with DWG KIA and finish equal 3rd at the end of the split.

There is not enough superlatives to use when talking about T1 and the split they have had so far. They have been dominant all split long, dropping seven maps total over their 41 maps that they have played this split. Most of their best games have come against the top four teams, showing that there is still a big gap between themselves and the rest of the top teams in the LCK. Of course T1’s main man Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-Hyeok has been massive for the top team this split. He has a massive 85% win rate and a 4.6 KDA throughout this split for T1.

For DRX, they are coming off what many people have described a dismantling loss against DWG KIA. Losing 2-0 against the then fourth placed team puts DRX now in equal third with DWG KIA. If DRX want to win this series against T1 they will have to show a lot more fight and play a lot better as a team to take down this juggernaut of a team.

T1 sit in first undefeated at 17-0. DRX sit in equal third with DWG KIA at 11-6. There is a lot on the line for both of these teams, with T1 potentially becoming the first team ever to go undefeated through an entire split in LCK history. Whereas for DRX they will need to win to try and avoid taking on T1 early in playoffs. So we believe with so much on the line, this series is destined for three maps. GG Bet are giving us $2.25 for over 2.5 maps, in our opinion that is a steal and in this case it is our suggested bet.