The opening match of the MSI 2021 Rumble Stage was an unmissable showdown between two teams considered top contenders for the championship: Royal Never Give Up and DWG KIA. In the end, RNG temporarily held the advantage in the clash between the Chinese and Korean representatives after convincingly defeating DK.
The strength of the LPL champions is becoming increasingly evident, highlighted by the brilliance of veteran Xiaohu and the rapid progress of young AD carry GALA. However, for DK, the defeat against RNG was not an accident but rather a foreseen failure as Coach kkOma’s players are facing numerous issues with their performance.
Despite dominating the Challenger rankings in the Western server, superstars like Canyon and BeryL seem to be losing focus in their most important “battlefront.” ShowMaker maintains steady performance, while Khan continues to strive to prove himself, but that is not enough to help DK’s destructive machine operate smoothly.
In the loss to RNG, DK completely overwhelmed their opponents in the early game, thanks to the renowned control style of the Koreans, particularly under the guidance of Coach kkOma. However, starting from the mid-game, this team began to continuously make mistakes in personal handling situations, directly leading to RNG turning the tide.
A weakness of DK that was deeply analyzed in this loss is their confusion when entering the mid-game. This has been a recurring issue for teams led by kkOma since 2019 (including SKT T1).
The commonality between SKT 2019 and DK currently is that they perform very well in the laning phase, but when it comes to contesting major objectives (like Dragon 3 or the appearance of Baron), their ability to initiate attacks or counterattacks is significantly impacted.
In the laning phase, the vision control ability of the support and jungler provides DK with absolute safety moments. But when they leave that safe zone, they become quite mechanical in their movement strategies, leading to completely ceding the initiative to their opponents in contesting Dragon or Baron.
This weakness used to be kkOma’s “strength,” as he always built the old SKT around the incredibly strong team fighting capabilities of the duo Bang – Wolf and Faker. The peak SKT era was unafraid of clashes in situations where they were the ones being defensive. But now, this late-game playstyle has become outdated, as the gap in “hands-on skills” is no longer an advantage for Koreans. Instead, their fierce rivals in the LPL region present even more formidable names in team fighting capabilities, notably including Suning, FunPlus Phoenix, and of course, Royal Never Give Up.
The loss to RNG is not a major issue, but nearly losing to Cloud9 on May 15 reveals even more problems for DK. It’s not just about their approach to the game, but kkOma’s ban/pick abilities are also under significant scrutiny.
It seems unlikely that DK will be eliminated from MSI in the Rumble Stage, but the signs of stumbling that this team is showing will certainly be a significant concern for fans. Hopefully, kkOma’s magical touch will help DK quickly address these weaknesses and aim for a dream finals at MSI 2021.