For many years, the LCK and LPL regions have consistently demonstrated dominance at international League of Legends (LoL) tournaments. The evidence lies in the fact that teams from these two regions have taken turns winning the World Championship over the past five years. Therefore, when ASIAD 2022 announced that LoL would be a medal competition, the showdown between LCK and LPL became extremely anticipated.
At the press conference before the Asian Games, members of the South Korean LoL team received numerous questions about the LPL region. Players like Ruler and Kanavi expressed high regard for this opponent but remained confident in their team’s strength. However, head coach kkOma seemed quite worried about a factor that could negatively impact the South Korean LoL team.
“I believe that the South Korean team has the best players in LoL right now. In fact, the LPL began their training process two weeks ago. Meanwhile, we have had less practice time compared to them because the LCK regional qualifiers just concluded a few days ago. Such a short training period could create stress for the players. This is the ‘rival’ that worries me the most at the upcoming ASIAD, not the LPL region,” Coach kkOma shared.
After all, LoL is a highly team-oriented game. In high-level matches, the synergy among players will be a decisive factor. Meanwhile, the players of the South Korean national team come from different esports organizations.
Not to mention that players like Ruler and Kanavi have only recently returned to South Korea. Clearly, these stars need time to get acquainted and understand each other better. The short training time is indeed causing significant difficulties for this team.
With someone as experienced as kkOma, he understands this well. Thus, the head coach of the South Korean LoL team is understandably worried about the limited training time compared to the LPL opponents. Hopefully, the South Korean team can quickly overcome this challenge and perform successfully at the upcoming Asian Games.