Battle of the Mid-Table Teams
Following one of our most important esports picks of the week, we have another banger lined up in the 2nd week of the 2022 LCK Summer Split. While not a lot of people might bat an eye for any of these two teams, this series will definitely be a very important one as both teams have very clear objectives for this regular season.
On one hand we have the Kwangdong Freecs, a team that didn’t feel the need of making a single roster change as a 4th place finish in the spring split was more than what they would have wished for. This team managed to take down 3-2 DRX against all the expectations. And now after a shaky opening week, they will try to get back on track against a team that didn’t have the best start of the split.
Nongshim RedForce didn’t look that great during the regular split, where they managed to pick up only 5 wins out of the possible 18, though their game differential wasn’t as bad as the rest of the teams in the bottom of the standings. In our LCK Summer Split power rankings we talked about how a team with such caliber would have looked so bad last split, though for summer they made seemingly impactful changes.
They brought in Heo “Irean” Yeong-cheol and Shin “Coco” Jin-yeong to reinfornce their coaching staff. It’s safe to say that a team with players like Canna, BDD, and Ghost doesn’t necessarily have to make player changes and instead need to change the way they approach the game. Hopefully for them, bringing two new coaches is going to be enough to get out of the bottom of the standings.
BDD Did Great Last Week
Though the RedForce didn’t get to pick up a single win in their encounters against DRX and T1, Gwak “BDD” Bo-seong still racked up good numbers. With late-game scaling picks like Corki, Azir, and Viktor, BDD scored a 37.3 DMG share, which is the highest of any player so far in the split; he also scored 3 solo kills, the highest of any mid laner.
It’s very clear that Nongshim can rely on BDD’s carry potential, though he still needs to demonstrate that he can translate his skill superiority into a team advantage. To be fair, they had to face some of the strongest teams in the league, so we can’t simply say that BDD should’ve won Nongshim’s games by himself.
He’ll be squaring up against Yoo “FATE” Su-hyeok, a player that is known for playing in a very different way than BDD does. During week 1, KDF’s mid laner picked Ahri, Twisted Fate, Taliyah, and LeBlanc, which tells us that there is going to be a clash of styles in the mid lane for this matchup.
It’s hard to tell if Fate is going to be able to roll over BDD like he did against much weaker mid laners last week. But we can be sure of one thing, this duel in the mid lane is going to tell us a lot about which team has the higher chance to upset the strongest teams in the league. Is it the one that aims for a big early lead, or the one that aims for a steady scaling into the late game?
KDF vs Nongshim RedForce Game Information
- Date: Thursday, June 23
- Time: 6:00am ET
- Live Stream: LCK – Twitch
KDF vs Nongshim RedForce Predictions
Right now, Nongshim RedForce looks like they are very far from being in its final form. This team is clearly aiming for a solid development throughout the regular season that they can use for a good performance in the playoffs. It’s going to take them some time to adjust to the changes they made in the coaching staff, and their schedule for the first 2 weeks is tough as they face 3 spring split playoffs teams.
On the other side we have the Kwangdong Freecs who have already demonstrated that they can take games off the very best teams in the league. Just considering how they didn’t make a single roster change it’s very obvious that this team is ready to take the storm by competition. And even though they dropped their series against Liiv SANDBOX, the Freecs shouldn’t have issues in this upcoming match.
One of the things I love the most about league of legends bets is when upsets happen, though I think that this isn’t going to be the case. Unless KDF somehow botches their drafts, Nongshim doesn’t have a single lane where they can generate an early lead big enough to overcome their opponents’ strong team fighting capabilities. BDD is taking too long to come online in their games and FATE’s @15 stats are good enough to overpower his counterpart in the mid-lane.
