All odds were against Afreeca Freecs coming into today’s LCK match against DWG KIA.
AFS sit in eighth place in the 2021 Spring Split and have struggled to pick up wins since the start of the season. And unfortunately for AFS, that trend continued today with a loss to the reigning League of Legends world champions.
DK left no room for errors and countered picks from their opponents, including Nasus, who hasn’t seen stage time in the LCK in 980 days. Khan and Canyon were the most impactful members of today’s series, picking up the MVP votes for their performances on Sion and Hecarim, respectively.
Khan’s Sion became a fearsome champion to face due to how well he used the kit to its full potential, soaking damage in teamfights while also delivering plenty of crowd control. Teams have started recently either banning it out or picking it for themselves to avoid giving it away to DK.
This showdown began with a surprising Nasus pick by AFS in the top lane for Kiin. DK quickly responded to it with a lane swap by sending the Lucian top lane from mid. This tactic saw huge success since Nasus was constantly poked down and camped by the opposing jungler. In teamfights, he was kited well by the DK squad, who kept winning fight after fight, before finishing the first game of the series.
In the second game, AFS adjusted their draft and went for more meta picks instead. While they did show a much better early game performance, it didn’t matter in the end once DK got a couple of kills. The reigning world champions used the small lead to snowball the entire map, before finishing the game after 28 minutes of domination.
Following this victory, DK (12-1) remain in first place in the 2021 LCK Spring Split. They’re looking as dominant as last year and show no signs of stopping. While they did show some signs of weaknesses in the last couple of weeks, they quickly fixed them and maintained a dominant performance lately.
DK will be back on the Rift on March 11 with a matchup against the only team that defeated them during this split, Fredit BRION. The showdown will be interesting to watch considering how much has BRION improved over the split. They could realistically be the only team to defeat DWG KIA twice during this split.
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