Today, June 2, the LCK organizers held a press conference before the season, with the presence of representatives participating in LCK Summer 2021 (including Coaches and Captains). During this press conference, representatives from the teams were asked who they believe has the highest chance of winning the LCK this season, excluding their own team.
As a result, 6 teams chose DWG KIA, while 3 teams picked GEN.G Esports as the top candidate for the championship this season. Only the representative from DWG – Coach kkOma chose T1. This captain believes that if we exclude DK, T1 is the team with the highest chance of winning LCK Summer 2021.
Explaining his choice, the former T1 captain asserted that his selection is not emotional but purely based on professional assessment. KkOma believes that after a tumultuous Spring split, T1 will become stronger in the summer split, as this team has found their most stable lineup.
The summer tournament is theoretically much more competitive than the spring split, as besides the regional title, it is also the only opportunity for teams to seek a spot at the World Championship. KkOma asserted that DK will also face many difficulties in this tournament and cannot just breeze through to the finish line like they did in the spring.
However, kkOma’s assessment has left many fans dissatisfied, feeling that he is being too lenient towards his former team. In fact, even during their golden era, T1 rarely performed well in the summer split. Since 2015, they have only won the LCK Summer twice out of the total 6 times the tournament has been held.
And although T1’s roster is said to be “established”, in reality, this lineup is not much different from the 2020 season, and they have shown a significant performance gap after their 0-3 loss to GEN.G in the LCK Spring semifinals. Overall, with T1’s current lineup, perhaps a spot at the World Championship will be a more achievable goal than winning the LCK Summer 2021.