Recently, the Korean League of Legends community has been buzzing with news that DWG KIA will be shaking up almost their entire roster in the match against Afreeca Freecs in the LCK Summer 2021 Group Stage.
According to this source, Ghost – the AD Carry who has been performing quite poorly – will be benched, and replacing him will be… ShowMaker.
The substitute jungler – Malrang will be used, while both Canyon and Khan will also swap positions. Canyon is expected to move to the top lane, while Khan will take ShowMaker’s place in the mid lane. The new lineup of DWG KIA will include:
Top lane: Canyon.
Jungle: Malrang.
Mid lane: Khan.
AD Carry: ShowMaker.
Support: BeryL.
Evidence for this roster change is that ShowMaker has only been playing AD Carry in ranked matches for the past two days. With experience using many AD Carry champions in the mid lane, ShowMaker is trusted to be a suitable replacement for Ghost, rather than promoting a young AD Carry from the Academy team.
DWG KIA suffered their first loss in LCK Summer 2021 right in their second match. This isn’t necessarily a disaster, but the decline in performance in the bot lane has been an issue since MSI 2021. Ghost’s poor performance and somewhat BeryL’s have been considered the main reasons for DK’s defeat against RNG.
If they continue to perform like this, DK will likely face many difficulties in their quest to defend the LCK championship. As for Ghost, he seems to be quite “out-meta” as DK’s current gameplay primarily focuses on the upper side of the map, requiring BeryL to frequently roam, leading to Ghost, who is already weak in the laning phase, facing even more challenges.
However, this information about the lineup is still just a rumor, and we will have to wait and see if there are any surprises from coach kkOma’s team in the upcoming match against AF on June 17.