Although it didn’t force teams to compete online like in previous seasons, the pandemic, which everyone knows about, has negatively impacted the LCK tournament. Specifically, many players here tested positive, and teams had to use young players from the Challenger league to “fill in.” Clearly, this situation severely affects the quality of the matches, as exemplified by the confrontation between Gen.G and T1.
Most recently, we have the unfortunate case of Fredit BRION, represented by “Mr. Morgan,” when this team had to forfeit their match against Gen.G due to not having enough eligible players. It’s unclear if this was a response to public pressure or from the teams, but yesterday – March 17, the LCK organizers announced an update to the playoff format regarding pandemic-related issues. Specifically, under the new rule, players who test positive can still compete online from the gaming house.
This is seen as a necessary change to adapt to the pandemic situation from the LCK organizers. It also helps them avoid having to forfeit a team in the playoffs, similar to the case of BRO mentioned above. However, this late rule change has also caused frustration among many gamers. If the LCK organizers had implemented this change at the start of the season, the situation of having to “fill in” with Challenger players wouldn’t have occurred.
Perhaps we should also sympathize a bit with the LCK tournament organizers, as they couldn’t have anticipated the rapid spread of the virus affecting the teams. After all, with this new regulation, teams losing players due to the pandemic will no longer be a problem (unless that player is in extremely poor health). Hopefully, the upcoming playoffs of LCK Spring 2022 will run smoothly and provide audiences with the best quality matches.