Last week, Hanwha Life Esport’s elimination in the group stage of the LCK Cup sent shockwaves through the Korean scene. After their early and unexpected exit, all players of the super roster spoke to the public at the fan meeting at LoL Park, visibly affected by the situation. Toplaner Choi “Zeus” Woo-je said he has not really realized yet that they are out: “Throughout this tournament, I think we showed too many bad performances.”
Meanwhile, new jungler Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok said he felt that things were going really well and is looking forward to the LCK regular season starting in April. Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo, on the other hand, spoke about the many issues the team faced during the LCK Cup and the regrets they have.
The reigning three-time world champion Lee “
Gumayusi” Min-hyeong stated: “
It’s extremely disappointing… I’ll get my condition back up, and we’ll work hard to qualify for MSI.” His support, Yoo “
Delight” Hwan-joong, expressed the same regrets but also shared the same ambition to bounce back in Spring and compete at MSI, which will take place at home for them in Korea.
A Punitive Format
The format is largely to blame for HLE’s elimination. The team played only five best-of-series this Winter. After their clean 3–0 loss to Gen.G during the final Super Week, HLE ended the group stage at 2–3, tied with KT Rolster and DRX in the Elder Group. All three teams had lost nine games, but HLE had only won five, compared to six for KT and seven for DRX, which placed them last in their group. On the other side, in the Baron group, HANJIN BRION and DN SOOPers finished numerically behind at 0–5 and 1–4.
However, the LCK Cup rules proved costly for HLE. Each team faced the five teams from the opposite group, and every victory earned points for its group. Carried by the undefeated runs of T1 and Gen.G, the Baron group won this opening phase, which meant that the last-placed team from the Elder group—HLE then—was eliminated, despite posting better results than several teams from the Baron group.
This format sparked a lot of debate, since despite HLE’s sometimes mediocre performances, they managed to beat BRION and DNS 2-1 each. HLE lost to T1, Gen.G, and Nongshim RedForce, which shouldn’t have been so punishing and yet placed them in the bottom position.
In the play-in, DRX will face BRO and KT will face DNS in a knockout BO, after which the winners will meet Dplus KIA and NS waiting for them in Round 2. All of these teams have a single goal: reaching the playoffs, where three teams are already waiting,
Gen.G and T1, first and second in the Baron group, and BNK FearX, first in the Elder group.
