Gen.G Esports secured its second LCK title and a trip to MSI.
Gen.G Esports are your LCK Spring Split champions having defeated T1 in the grand finals. In a rematch of last year's Spring Split, it was Gen.G who came out on top this time with a 3-1 victory that saw them become two-time LCK regional champions.
With that win, both Gen.G and T1 have secured their spots to the Mid-Season Invitational in London, England next month. And given that DRX won Worlds last year, the LCK have been granted two direct slots to the MSI playoffs. This puts both Gen.G and T1 straight through to the playoffs, skipping the play-in stage entirely.
Gen.G's victory also should not be taken lightly; the team first lost against T1 in the upper bracket final 3-1, which dropped them down to the lower bracket final against KT Rolster. And even with KT taking an early 1-0 lead, Gen.G still managed to turn its season around and win the next three games in the series to secure a grand finals spot.
The fabled match-up between two of Korea's best teams proved to be a showstopper with Gen.G taking no prisoners this time. Gen.G won the first two matches of the grand finals 10 seconds apart after 37 minutes while also picking Gragas, Wukong, and Ahri twice in a row. Of course, T1 ensured that it wouldn't be a total shutout by winning a pivotal game three to force a fourth.
Unfortunately, T1's journey to a reverse-sweep against Gen.G could not be done. In the fourth and final game of the series, Gen.G pulled off one of the greatest victories against T1 with some of their favourite picks like Maokai, Jinx, and Lulu. And despite that being Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan's first playoff game with Jinx, he could not have done any better, ending the series with a KDA of 9/3/10 while also having the second-highest CS rating of the match with 338.
The 17-year-old AD carry has been in stellar form of late, showcasing why he deserves to be on the main stage. His Xayah in the first match of the grand finals against T1 will be talked about for days to come, picking up 14 kills with zero deaths as well as having the highest damage distribution amongst all 10 players. Even his Aphelios is one to be wary of after he got 10 kills with just two deaths in the second game.
Despite T1 dominating the LCK Spring Split awards, it was Peyz who took home the Finals MVP award for his performances during the grand finals. Having signed Peyz in the off-season along with Yoo "Delight" Hwan-joong, the bottom lane duo have been a revelation to the organisation. For instance, in the grand finals, Delight averaged double-digit assists in the three games Gen.G won.
With this being only their second regional title, Gen.G will be pleased to know that this could signal the changing of the guard in Korea. Having won two of the last LCK regional splits, Gen.G will be heading to MSI next month full of confidence as Korea's number one seed.
