China has won the World Championship for two consecutive years, and Korea has failed to make even the finals for the last two years. Fans await to see if China will cement their position as the best region and continue their dynasty, or if Korea will regain its former glory. Whether Europe, which placed second in last two years’ finals, can pull off an upset and claim the trophy is also worth kee...

Gen.G’s Arnold Hur predicts LCK turning to franchises will lead to improvements in esports industry

Leading up to the 2020 League of Legends World Championships, many knew this year would be different. COVID-19 not only put an end to travel across China for the 10th year of LoL esports, but also made it impossible for teams from Vietnam to participate -- they were considered dark horses in the tournament. The South Korean members of PSG Talon would have to join the team later than planned due ...

As the 2020 League of Legends World Championship looms closer with the opening ceremony on Sept. 25, ESPN released its annual power rankings for the teams competing this year, Wednesday. Damwon Gaming, the top-seeded team coming out of LoL Champions Korea, placed second out of the 22 teams participating in the event, as ranked by the four ESPN analysts. To no surprise, analysts of ESPN assessed...

Damwon Gaming hoisted the LCK trophy for the first time in its history, sweeping DRX in three games in the 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea Summer Finals on Saturday. Matches were played online from each team‘s own facility because of COVID-19. Although most analysts and experts had predicted Damwon Gaming’s victory with the team having had an undefeated run in the second half of the regul...

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism released standard contracts for esports on Thursday, addressing last year‘s online petition that requested action for fair contracts between players and organizations. Although South Korea has been hailed as the birthplace of esports with the Starcraft league established in 1999, there has been few mechanisms to protect esports players from unfair cont...

To no one‘s suprise, Damwon Gaming’s Head Coach Zefa won Best Coach after an unrivaled summer season, placing Damwon Gaming in the LCK finals for the first time in the organization’s history. DRX and Damwon Gaming face off on Saturday for a first seed ticket to the World Championships. DRX already qualified for Worlds via Championship points, but Damwon Gaming has yet to qualify. Should Damwon w...

Riot Games Korea on Friday announced the 10 preferred bidders for negotiating for LoL Champions Korea franchises next year, along with five teams that have the next priority, should negotiations with any of the 10 teams fail. The 10 preferred bidders included nine current LCK teams and hyFresh Blade in the Challengers Korea league. The nine current LCK teams selected as preferred bidders in the ...

The postseason for 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea Summer season kicked off with Afreeca Freecs playing against T1 in a best-of-3 series on Wednesday and resulted in a major upset where Afreeca won 2-1. Many analysts had predicted victory for T1, as it won both rounds against Afreeca in the regular season. T1 was the fourth place team of the regular season and the nine-time LCK Champions...

As major regions in League of Legends hold on to their seats with summer playoffs starting, many Korean players can be found in teams outside the LCK, hoping to qualify for the LoL World Championship starting in September at Shanghai. Korean players in North America particularly expressed hopes for LCK teams at Worlds and the determination to face them on the big stage. Of six teams in contenti...

Riot Games Korea announced that the rest of the matches for the summer season will be held online, starting Friday, in response to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the capital area. LoL Champions Korea had been holding matches in LoL Park Arena in Jongno, Seoul, without an audience since the start of the season before the resurgence of COVID-19. “As the spread of COVID-19 has recently wo...

T1 secured their playoff spot with a 2-0 victory over Team Dynamics on Sunday, leaving only one final ticket left for the taking. Four teams -- Damwon Gaming, DRX, Gen.G and T1 -- have secured playoff positions already and will battle in the playoffs over the next two weeks. Three teams technically have a chance to clench the final ticket to the playoffs, but all odds are in favor of Afreeca Fr...

With the match even at one apiece, Damwon decided to rotate Sejuani to support at the last minute in the pick-and-ban phase and picked Karthus for Canyon in the third set. Damwon also banned out Ashe and Renekton, forcing Rascal on Irelia. Irelia took two quick kills in the beginning, as Gen.G put on global pressure with Galio in the mid lane and Nocturne in the jungle. However, Damwon aced Gen.G...

Four legendary retired professional gamers joined the program as mentors. Two-time world champion “Wolf” has teamed up with “PawN,” the 2014 world champion, to create a five-person roster team. 2015 World Championship runner-up “PraY” will work with 2015 World Championship MVP “Marin” to create the opposing team. “LoL esports had its 10th anniversary this year. As such, I wanted to create a pro...

At a record of 9-1, DRX only dropped a match to KT. The team full of rookies in 2020 has become a formidable force, with Chovy dominating the laning phase and bottom lane holding the team steady. Damwon Gaming is also returning to the World Championships form they showed last year, with a record of 8-2. ShowMaker, who sits in both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the Korean solo queue, shows off his...