As we know, on January 9th (Vietnam time), the LCK held a Kick-Off event ahead of the new season, giving players a chance to participate in showmatches. This is quite a special event, seen as a replacement for the All-Star. In this event, five players from different teams sharing the same lane will be grouped into a team to compete with other teams in different lanes. And despite some notable absences, the event still attracted significant attention from the League of Legends community. The champion team was the Jungle team led by Oner.
Notably, on the same day as the event, players from T1, especially Faker, drew the most spotlight. The “Demon King” did not disappoint the audience as he knew how to “create content”. First, there was the comedic moment when Faker appeared in the Jungle position of the Mid Lane team. Perhaps because he does not often play in this position, Faker… forgot to bring Smite. This led to the match needing a remake. Later, Faker also struggled to control the Rift Herald and let this objective crash into the wall, losing almost all its health without taking down any towers.
However, right in the final match against the Jungle team, Faker had an unbelievable shining moment. With the champion Poppy, who does not deal much damage, he charged into a lineup consisting of four LCK jungle players (Oner, Lucid, GIDEON, and Sylvie) but managed to secure the Baron buff perfectly. Of course, afterwards, Faker could not escape as he was overwhelmed by too many crowd control effects and burst damage, but that alone was enough for him to have a “highlight” in this showmatch.
Of course, since these matches were only showmatches, the players themselves competed with a relaxed mindset. Despite Faker’s decent performance in his new role and having a highlight, his Mid Lane team still had to accept defeat. However, according to the audience, the matches at the Kick-Off were both entertaining and allowed players to interact with each other alongside the intense competitions. And perhaps this year, the Kick-Off has successfully fulfilled the role of this tournament.