As we know, recently, the LCK Spring 2024 has been facing a very serious issue related to network transmission that has affected a series of matches. At this time, the tournament organizers have decided to switch to a closed competition format and only provide replays for the audience to watch online after the match has ended. The incident has been identified as a DDoS attack by hackers, but the LCK has not announced a definitive solution. The latest “victim” of this incident is T1 in the match against FearX.
However, according to some Korean streamers, this DDoS incident has affected not only the LCK tournament but also the entire Korean ranked server. Examples given include the fact that ranking has become extremely difficult, leading many to lose interest in this activity. However, this viewpoint from the streamers and several Korean netizens has raised questions. For instance, in the case of Faker, he has still been playing ranked normally over the past few days, around 4 to 5 matches each day as per the schedule of T1.
Recently, some opinions have also suggested that the DDoS could be related to the LPL region. Specifically, a male streamer named Kim Min-kyo, with about 674k followers, tested installing and playing using the League of Legends client from the Chinese server. Reports indicate that Kim was unable to play League of Legends for a week. However, when using the client from the Chinese server, he was able to play normally and no longer experienced DDoS issues. According to LCK media, streamers are testing various methods and conducting eliminations to uncover the true cause of the DDoS incident.
Many viewers were surprised that installing the LPL client could yield better gaming performance than the client from the Korean server itself. Some opinions even pointed to a “conspiracy theory”: “Is there a suspicion that the Chinese server is unaffected because it is operated by Tencent and not Riot, or that the DDoS incident is related to this area?”.
But for now, everything remains at the level of speculation and no one dares to assert anything. One thing is for sure: the DDoS incident is having a very serious impact on the LCK Spring 2024 tournament and there are no signs that it will end anytime soon.