LoL - LCK: End of the road for BRO, as Dplus KIA join Nongshim in the qualification match

Season ends in the LCK for OKSavingsBank BRION this Saturday, September 6, after a rather expected loss to Dplus KIA. With this win, DK move closer to playoffs and will play a final qualification and elimination BO against Nongshim RedForce tomorrow, Sunday 7. Earlier, BNK FearX became the first team to secure playoffs by defeating both DK and NS back-to-back. Today’s MVP went to DK’s young jungler Choi "Lucid" Yong-hyeok, notably for his huge Game 3 performance on Zed.

BRO’s year will hardly be remembered by their fans or LCK viewers. A poor LCK Cup run saw them fall in the Play-In to Nongshim, followed by a Round 1-2 finish where they placed eighth with five wins and 13 losses. The arrival of Kim "Croco" Dong-beom brought some relief, and they managed to secure third place in the Rise group, but that’s where the journey ended for this team.

As for Dplus KIA, the year has been truly difficult. On paper, the five players are outstanding, with a very high ceiling capable of competing with the best teams in the LCK, but in reality things didn’t go as planned. In the LCK Cup, the team dominated the group stage without dropping a single BO before being clean swept by the Gen.G wall in playoffs, and since that day they’ve been unrecognizable.

In Round 1-2 they finished fifth, tied with Nongshim, forcing a tiebreaker to decide who would advance to the Legend group with the league’s top teams. KT eventually took that spot, further highlighting the struggles of this DK roster that, on paper, had everything to succeed. A young, promising topside with Lucid and Jeon "Siwoo" Si-woo combined with the experience of World Champion Heo "ShowMaker" Su, Kim "Aiming" Ha-ram, and two-time World Champion Cho "BeryL" Geon-hee, but it simply didn't click so far.

They still managed to finish first in the Rise group, though not without multiple losses to BRO and FearX. Tomorrow they still have one last chance to reach playoffs with a do-or-die match against NS, who aren’t in great shape either. Overall, the days when DK could challenge T1 and Gen.G feel far behind, and now they must fight for Worlds qualification through the fourth seed. Their season reflects both underperformance and inconsistency, with flashes of talent but little cohesion. This last chance against Nongshim could either give them the momentum they’ve been missing or mark the definitive end of a frustrating year.