Korea off to Worst World Championship Record Since 2013

Kiboo

Saturday, October 13, 2018
4:00 pm

| LOL

The dynasty is crumbling

The atmosphere of the League of Legends World Championship has been monothematic since the beginning of the Korean dynasty in the tournament’s 2013 iteration. Fans of the game would always expect a Korean team to dominate the rest of the competition in the fight for the Summoner’s Cup. This notion has been strengthened in the most recent runs of Worlds given that the Grand Finals for the past three years involved two South Korean teams engaging in heated battle.

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It would always seem like a foregone conclusion that Korea would continue to dominate League of Legends, however, the road leading up to Worlds 2018 and the recent performance from the Korean representatives seem to indicate otherwise. South Korea’s misfortunes continue well into the current World Championship, giving life to the hope that a team from outside South Korea will finally wrest the Summoner’s Cup away.

The Fall of a Dynasty

South Korea has collectively tacked on four losses in the first three days of the Worlds 2018 group stage. This is the worst performance from a Korean delegation since the tournament’s last run in South Korea in 2014. Fans were shocked when the second seed from LoL Champions Korea (LCK), the Afreeca Freecs, were soundly defeated by the third seed EU team, G2 Esports. Troubles only seem to continue for the region with only their first seed, KT Rolster, almost single-handedly carrying the entire country by themselves.

The defending world champions, Gen.G, isn’t fairing much better with a dismal 1-2 standing. This absence of an absolute Korean presence in the tournament such as SK Telecom T1, or 2017’s Longzhu Gaming, or 2016’s ROX Tigers, has shifted the focus away from the once dominant region and towards other hopeful teams in the tournament. There are still five days left in the group stage, plenty of time for the Korean teams to mount a comeback. However, the rest of the competition are just as eager as earning any of the eight qualifier slots for the Playoffs Stage.