The 2023 LCK Summer kicks off today to determine which teams will compete in Korea's first League of Legends World Championship in five years.
League of Legends Champions Korea (CEO Oh Sang-heon, "LCK"), organizer of the Korean professional league for "League of Legends" esports, announced that the 2023 LCK Summer Regular Season will kick off on Wednesday, July 7 with the opening matchup between KT Rolster and Hanwha Life Esports, and will continue through Sunday, July 11 at the LCK Arena located at Roll Park in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
The Summer Split is a crucial event for all teams as a spot in the League of Legends World Championship is at stake. The eventual champion will enter the World Championship as the No. 1 seed in the LCK, while the team with the most Championship points will advance to the No. 2 seed. The LCK Representative Selection will determine the third and fourth seeds, but this will follow the Summer Playoffs, so teams will need to be in good shape throughout the summer to punch their ticket to the World Championship.
Furthermore, this year's World Championship will be held on the home courts of Seoul and Busan, South Korea, making it an unmissable opportunity for the 10 teams playing in the LCK.
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KT-HLE Opening Match...'Saturday Showdown' is LSB vs NS
KT Rolster and Hanwha Life Esports are the teams competing in the Summer opener. Both teams qualified for the playoffs by finishing third and fifth in the Spring Regular League, and won their first games side-by-side to be part of the double-elimination, but fell to the lower bracket with losses to T1 and Genji respectively. In the elimination match, KT defeated Hanwha Life 3-1 to reach the lower bracket final. The two teams' head-to-head results in this year's spring regular season have been favorable, with KT winning both times.
The first matchup of the opening week on Saturday, October 10, dubbed the "Saturday Showdown," pits the Reeb Sandbox against the Nongshim Red Force. Both teams made changes ahead of Spring 2023 with the introduction of "young guns" to their rosters, and while ReV Sandbox made the playoffs, Nongshim RedForce accepted a last-place report card.
Live Sandbox showed their desire for a higher spot by signing experienced mid laner Park "Teddy" Jin-seong ahead of Summer, while Nongshim RedForce also bolstered their roster with the addition of Song "Quad" Soo-hyung, who was a main mid laner for DRX and Genji.
'Three straight LCK Finals matchups' T1, Genji to face off in opening week
Genji and T1, who met in three consecutive LCK Finals from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023, will meet for the final time on the 11th, the last day of the opening week of Summer.
The two teams have built a rivalry, meeting in the finals more times than any other team since 2021, when the LCK introduced its franchise system. T1 won the Spring 2022 final, but Genji won back-to-back titles in Summer 2022 and Spring 2023. The last time the two teams met was in May at the Mid-Season Invitational in London, England, where T1 defeated Genji in a three-set thriller in the top bracket.
Over the last three years, T1 and Genji have a commanding 8-2 head-to-head record in the regular season. Only Spring 2021 and Summer 2022 saw the two teams split the series 1-1, with T1 winning the other two splits. Even in Spring 2023, when Genji won the title, T1 met Genji twice in the regular season and won both times.
Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu is on the verge of reaching 700 games for the second time in his LCK career
Deft "Deft" Kim, a long-distance dealer for DePlus Kia, will reach 700 career LCK games in the opening week.
DPLUS Kia will take on Reef Sandbox in the second match on the opening day of the 2023 LCK Summer on July 7, before facing DRX in the first match on Sunday, July 11 at 3pm. Kim Hyuk-kyu, who currently has 697 matches (in sets) under his belt, will reach the 700-match milestone if he takes just two sets against ReB Sandbox and then goes on to face DRX.
This is a special milestone, as only T1's mid laner Lee "Faker" Sang-hyuk has played more than 700 games in LCK history. As of the 2023 LCK Spring, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyuk has played 834 games, and the player in third place behind him is KT Rolster mid laner Kwak "Bididdy" Bo-seong, who has played 611 games.