Welcome to EGamersWorld.
League of Legends competition season is in full swing. While Europe is getting ready for the Long Run LEC, the strongest region in the world is waking up - South Korea with LCK Spring 2024.
To deny the importance of the championships is simply foolish. South Korea is the region with the reigning world champions, which means that The International interest in what's happening at the tournament should increase in many ways. That's the way it is for me.
Opening the battles in the LCK regular season will be DRX (Worlds 2022 champions) and Nongshim Red Force. The match, let's face it, isn't the most hype match, but it'll do for the opener.
We're trying to figure out who will be stronger in the opening match at LCK Spring 2024 and start the long road to the play-offs with a win, and who will have to face Long Sogpego at the spring split with the first one in the defeat column.
Let's go.
DRX Form.
We open the match with an analysis of DRX's form. In this match the team will play as favourites, with odds to win at around 1.5.
The team had a mediocre season in the South Korean LCK. From the achievements: 5th place at LCK Spring 2022 and 6th place at LCK Summer 2022.
By any means necessary, the team made it to Worlds by finishing 2nd place at LCK Regional Finals.
Such a poor performance during the competitive year led DRX to Play-In Worlds 2022.
DRX travelled the longest road to the finals of all time. They started the World Championship from the Play-In stage.
After making it to Group B at the Play-In, the team had to go through clubs like Royal Never Give Up, MAD Lions and others.
Although DRX performed in the status of a contender for passage, it was difficult to single out the collective as the sole winner. However, that's exactly what happened: DRX took the first stage of the Worlds without a hitch, coming out of their group in first place (5-0).
In the group stage, DRX shared the lead with Rogue. What followed was a true Cinderella story.
In the quarterfinals, the team outplayed the reigning World Champions, and outplayed them. The team did a Reverse Sweep, which is rare at this level of competition. Next, The International was even more interesting: victory over LCK Summer 2023 Gen.G champions LCK Summer 2023 followed by an incredible win in the grand final against T1.
After an unimaginable triumph at Worlds 2022, DRX's fame quickly faded. First the team failed at LCK Spring 2023, finishing Top 9, then Top 6 at LCK Summer 2023 and Top 4 at the Regional Finals, ultimately failing to attend Worlds 2023.
- DRX lineup: Rascal, Sponge, SeTab, Teddy, Pleata.
The main bet for the new season is Teddy. Let's see if the big-name Korean can help DRX regain its former glory.
The most popular DRX champions
In the top most often played on Aatrox (4 games, 75% wins), Camille (3 matches, 66% wins), Ornn (2 matches, 100% wins), Fiora (2 matches, 50% wins).
In the woods, Kindred (4 games, 100% wins), Graves (3 games, 33% wins), Viego (3 games, 100% wins), Vi (2 matches, 100% wins) were played most often.
In the mid are classic Sylas (6 matches, 100% wins), Akali (4 matches, 50% wins), Azir (3 matches, 33% wins).
At the ADC position Miss Fortune (3 matches, 0% wins), Caitlyn (3 matches, 100% wins), Ahri (3 matches, 66% wins), Ezreal (2 matches, 50% wins) were the most frequently picked.
On ѕupercourt took on Heimerdinger (4 games, 50% wins), Braum (2 matches, 100% wins), Lux (2 matches, 100% wins), Soroka (2 matches, 50 wins).
Nongshim RedForce uniforms
We continue our match analysis with an analysis of Nongshim RedForce's match form. In this match they are predicted to lose and so they play second number. The odds for Nongshim RedForce to win are at around 2.7.
Nongshim Red Force is not a star-studded team. It is a solid mid-table team in Korea, or rather one of the worst teams in the best region.
In the arena LCK Nongshim RedForce have been in the LCK Nongshim arena since 2021. It also became the best in the not yet long history of this particular tag: at that time Nongshim RedForce managed to take Top 6 at LCK Spring 2021 and Top 4 at LCK Summer 2021, and there was also Top 3 at Regional Finals, but it was not enough to pass to Worlds.
Things started to get worse in 2022. Nongshim RedForce finished top-8 at both LCK Spring 2022 and LCK Summer 2022.
In the 13 competition season, Nongshim RedForce can be called the worst team in the region. At LCK Spring 2023 the team took the last, 10th place, and at LCK Summer 2023 they were not far away - TOP-9.
- Nongshim RedForce roster: DnDn, Sylive, FIESTA, Jiwoo, Peter .
The only member of Nongshim RedForce from last season is Jiwoo. The remaining 4 players are newcomers to the team.
Most popular champions of Nongshim RedForce
The most popular champion on the top line is Gnar (10 games, 90% wins). Jayce appeared 8 times and the winrate was 87%. Kenen was played 4 times and won all matches, KSante 4 times and 3 wins, Renekton 4 times and 2 wins.
In the forest were Vi (11 matches, 72% wins), Sejuani (10 games, 80% wins), Wukong (7 matches, 85% wins), Le Sin (6 games, 83% wins).
On the centre line it was Azir (13 games, 69% wins), Gragas (6 matches, 100% wins), Kassadin (5 games, 100% wins), Viktor (4 matches, 75% wins).
The most popular ADC is Lucian (12 matches, 83% wins). Next are Varus (8 games, 87% wins), Caitlyn (5 games, 100% wins), Zeri (4 matches, 75% wins).
Nami (13 matches, 84% winrate). Ashe and Lux have 4 games and 4 wins each.
History of head-to-head meetings DRX - Nongshim RedForce
The teams have previously played each other in the regional league. For example, in 2023, the team played each other 4 times, and both teams won 2 matches each.
Predicted result of DRX vs Nongshim RedForce at LCK Spring 2024
Given the close proximity of the teams in terms of performance (unfortunately, that's not a compliment at all), I would expect a long series. Thankfully, LCK Spring 2024 is playing a Bo3 series, so there is a +2.5 total, which looks like the most logical option for this matchup.
Bottom line: total +2.5.
