LCK Spring Split 2019: Week 3 Results and Recap

Week 3 of the LCK 2019 Spring Split began on the 30th of January and the week was certainly full of exciting and extremely close games!

From the hyped match that was Griffin VS. Sandbox to a complete fiesta in the matches between Gen.G and KingZone, find out the results of LCK Week 3 here! (Warning – there are spoilers ahead!)

LCK Week 3 Day 1

DWG VS. SBG

Winner: SANDBOX Gaming

The first match of Week 3 was between the two rising underdog teams from Korea’s Challenger series – Damwon Gaming and Sandbox Gaming. Cho “Joker” Jae-eup pulled out his Galio support once again and with Kim “OnFleek” Jang-gyeom on Lee Sin and Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon on LeBlanc. Sandbox set themselves up with a great long-range engage composition. Sin “Nuclear” Jeong-hyeon on the side of Damwon seemed to be having an off-game and Sandbox repeatedly punished his poor-positioning, killing him off, accelerating their early game lead and eventually securing the baron in a close smite battle. Sandbox was, however, slow to close out the game, as it wasn’t until their third baron that they were eventually able to secure a win vs Damwon.

AFS VS. JAG

Winner: Afreeca Freecs

Of course, Afreeca’s Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon pulled out his innovative picks once again, this time in Jarvan Aery support. Fortunately, he managed to make the pick work, helping to secure two kills in the early game when a fight broke out around the cloud drake. His Jarvan effectively just became an engage bot, merely engaging with his ultimate but instantly dying, which meant the Afreeca squad must collectively follow up.

After a few great engages, Afreeca pulled ahead with a 4k gold lead and secured the baron. But in a messy rush to end and a 5 for 3 team fight in the favor on Jin Air. Jin Air saved their base and even claimed an elder dragon, swinging the game’s momentum into the favor, and they eventually started up the second baron as well. However, Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong was out-smited by an Ezreal ultimate from Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram and Afreeca ended up winning the game with miraculously stolen baron buff.

Unfortunately, Game 2 was much less exciting than game 1, with the game being incredibly one-sided in the favor of Afreeca Freecs. Spirit played Jarvan support again and was able to lead the team into a great early-game counter-gank play, with Kim “Kiin” Gi-in on Vladimir teleporting bot for a four-man wipe and Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon even solo-killing Grace in the mid lane. With a clean ace at 11 minutes, the Afreeca Freecs secured a much easier win off Jin Air compared to Game 1.

LCK Week 3 Day 2

GRF VS. SKT

Winner: Griffin

To put it bluntly, Game 1 was pretty much a snooze fest. First blood wasn’t until 28 minutes despite Griffin starting with a pretty big early game lead, securing four turrets before any of the big team fights. However, when the two teams did eventually clash, Griffin always came out on top, playing their scaling composition expertly and funnelling all their kills into Park “Viper” Do-hyeon on Kai’sa. While SKT did try to retaliate back by taking Baron, Griffin massacred all of their members, with the exception of Mata – in the ensuing team fight, rendering SKT’s baron buff useless and taking advantage of their long death timers to end Game 1.

Game 2 was a bit more action-packed, with Viper on Lucian taking first blood from Mata without even levelling his Q (the man put 2 points in W) and with the help of Son “Lehends” Si-woo on Braum. In an attempt to swing things back in their favor SKT tried a three-man invade for Griffin’s red buff, this, however, failed miserably and gifted Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon’s Galio a double kill.

SKT didn’t stop trying though, and overextended for a kill onto Lehends and some turret damage but gave away three kills in return. With their massive lead and their deadly Nocturne and Galio ultimate combo, Griffin pretty much steamrolled Game 2. This rewarded Chovy with an impressive 100 KDA (a first in the LoL pro scene!) and demonstrated that they can play all types of compositions, from early game focused to late game focused.

GEN VS. KT

Winner: Gen.G

Gen.G headed into Game 1 with a rough start, with Song “Fly” Yong-jun getting solo-killed by Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong even with the nerfed Ignite, and Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin dying to Eom “UmTi” Seong-hyeon’s gank in the top lane. Things didn’t get any better either, as Han “Peanut” Wang-ho’s Nocturne engages proved ineffective with his instant deletion and KT’s Jeon “Zenit” Tae-gwon slowly getting fed on Vladimir in the bot lane. Kills were traded here and there but ultimately, KT won the team fight that led them to secure the baron and ended the game after a 4 for 1 team fight win.

Kim “Roach” Kang-hui was substituted in top lane to replace CuVee in Game 2 and the player change was certainly a smart decision as Roach and Peanut secured first blood off of Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon in the top lane at 2 minutes. Roach was eventually able to solo-kill his lane opponent as well. All of Gen.G’s early lead was produced in the top lane, having secured rift herald and the first turret top as well.The mid-game however, turned into an absolute fiesta as even though Gen.G secured the baron, they were wiped out while trying to push with the baron, allowing KT to come back into the game.

While KT pushed to end, they overextended and Gen.G ended up on top by picking off the scattered KT members and secured the second baron as well as the middle inhibitor. After a failed KT engage and a 2 for 1 team fight in the favor of Gen.G, Gen.G took the remaining two inhibitors and also the Game 2 victory.

Game 3 was truly a battle of “who could execute their team composition better?”, as KT drafted for a lane-dominant pushing composition – with good rotation speed in Ryze and Tahm Kench – while Gen.G settled for a good old fashioned team-fighting composition with lots of CC in Zac, Lissandra and Braum. Like most Gen.G games, Game 3 was a huge see-saw with the gold practically even throughout the whole game, until an extremely close baron fight, where Gen.G came out on top and were able to win the game and the series.

LCK Week 3 Day 3

KZ VS. DWG

Winner: KingZone Dragon X

Game 1’s early game was very back and forth, with KingZone’s proactiveness both succeeding and failing at times. Damwon’s Nuguri secured first blood on Viktor after a failed KingZone gank top, but later gave away his lead by being caught over-extended without his flash.

Things looked pretty close in the mid-game but in a 5v5 team fight, Damwon found two kills and started Baron up. LCK Week 3 seemed to be full of amazing steals as KingZone’s Park “TusiN” Jong-ik on Rakan was even able to steal the baron with an under-levelled smite (spell-book rotated), although none of the KingZone members were able to stay alive with the stolen baron buff. The steal however, seemed to swing the momentum back into KingZone’s favor, as KingZone won all the proceeding team fights, even securing a four-stack elder dragon. With a 3 for 0 team fight win, KingZone were able to push and win Game 1.

Game 2’s early game was all about Damwon Gaming, as the team picked off several of the KingZone members and transitioned into the mid-game with an early lead. However, while trying to pick off Heo “PawN” Won-seok on LeBlanc, Damwon ended up wasting too much time and KingZone punished by securing more turrets and out-macro’d the rookie team.

In the end, the Damwon squad all died to KingZone, with Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu dealing obscene amounts of damage on Ashe from the backline, and KingZone pushed and ended Game 2 successfully.

HLE VS. JAG

Winner: Hanwha Life Esports

Things weren’t looking good for Hanwha Life in the early stages of Game 1, having lost lanes even with a lane swap from Kang “Tempt” Myung-gu and Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk in mid and top. Jin Air built up a decent early lead for themselves, with a 1.5K gold lead and first turret. However, in a clutch team fight around Baron, Gwon “Sanyoon” Sang-yun’s TP flank on Vlad proved fatal for the Jin Air squad and Hanwha swung the game back around with a 4 for 0 team fight win and the Baron. In the end, Hanwha’s heavy CC composition countered Jin Air’s mobile composition and HLE was able to win the game with a final 3 for 1 team fight.

Game 2 started in complete opposite fashion to Game 1 as Hanwha Life played the early game incredibly well and built up a considerable lead. With a good roam from Kim “Key” Han-gi on Thresh, they secured first blood onto Jin Air’s Lee “Grace” Chan-ju in the mid lane and even get off a good dive, taking down Heo “Lindarang” Man-heung.

Hanwha seemed to play much more coordinated in Game 2, with better positioning and simply dominating both small-scale skirmishes and large-scale team fights. Combining good Sion engages and Nocturne ultimates, Hanwha executed their composition extremely well throughout the whole game which brought them a clean win in the end.

LCK Week 3 Day 4

AFS VS. KT

Winner: KT Rolster

At this point, Spirit seems to have permanently role-swapped to support, having also played Fiddlesticks support in Game 1 against KT. However, KT was successful in shutting down the unusual pick by continuously targeting the bot lane, ganking Aiming early and putting him behind with accurate plays from No “SnowFlower” Hoi-jong on Thresh.

KT’s Kingen on Vlad also popped off in the midgame, eventually one-shotting all the squishy members on the Afreeca squad. KT’s Zenit on Lucian also got pretty fed coming out of the laning phase with his ultimate constantly taking the members of Afreeca down to half health before even engaging in a team fight. KT eventually secure the Baron by winning a few team fights and closed out Game 1 in a dominant fashion.

Having found success on it in his last series, Spirit played Jarvan support once again in Game 2. KT answered pack with a unique pick of their own – Bdd on Aurelion Sol in the mid-lane. However, Aurelion Sol didn’t seem to work out as well for KT in the early game, as Bdd gave up first blood to Lee “Dread” Jin-hyeok’s Camille gank.

However, Afreeca started to overextend and play over-aggressive in the mid-game, thus getting punished by KT’s counter-engage composition in their Cassiopeia ultimate. Taking advantage of Afreeca’s mistakes and Spirit’s poor positioning, KT won a 3 for 2 team fight and secured the baron. In Game 2, KT simply out-macro’d Afreeca Freecs and with a scaling composition and heaps of AOE damage in the Cassiopeia, dominated mid to late game team fights and won the game.

GRF VS. SBG

Winner: Griffin

Early game between these two monster teams was incredibly tense, with Griffin getting first blood onto OnFleek with a clutch ultimate from Lehends on Shen. The two teams continuously traded objectives on the map as they had different points of pressure. Griffin secured the rift herald in the top side while Sandbox secured the first infernal drake in the bottom side of the map.

However, Griffin always seemed to be in control, only choosing to take the best fights and punishing Sandbox for overextending for kills. Chovy followed up well on Lehends’ sacrificial Shen engages, always getting to the back line on Akali and cleaning up team fights, eventually leading Griffin to secure both initial barons and win Game 1.

Game 2 had montage-worthy plays from individual players from both teams, with Ghost on Lucian popping off in the bot lane and Chovy playing LeBlanc. However, this time in place of Joker overextending in Game 1, Griffin’s Choi “Sword” Sung-won seemed to never learn with his mispositioning and constantly got himself caught, giving up pressure for Griffin.

In Game 2, Sandbox didn’t even need to kill the Griffin line-up, merely chunking them out enough to force Griffin to reset and allow for Sandbox to take more of the map. In a 3 for 0 team fight, Sandbox got mid-inhibitor and baron, forcing Griffin to make their last stand in their base, with Chovy even giving up his first death to OnFleek by his crumbling nexus. Sandbox proved themselves to be a true contender in the LCK by becoming the only team to take a game off of arguably, the best team in the League world right now.

For Game 3, Griffin successfully reset their mental and dominated from the outset. With OnFleek being too aggressive in an invade and giving up first blood to Chovy’s Zoe, Griffin started off on the right footing and slowly snowballed their early lead. Despite Sandbox’s proactivity around the map, Lehends was able to prevent them from getting any kills with his clutch Tahm Kench saves and with Griffin getting fed, Sandbox’s Nocturne and Galio ultimate combo seemed pretty useless as OnFleek basically got deleted in a second. After winning a 5 for 0 team fight, Griffin secured baron and successfully won Game 3, putting an expected end to the close series.

LCK Week 3 Day 5

KZ VS. GEN

Winner: KingZone Dragon X

The first series between KingZone and Gen.G seemed to be a battle of the throws, with both teams building up their own leads, only to throw everything down the drain later in the game. Things in Game 1 were looking good for Gen.G having extended their early lead into the mid-game, but with a failed flank in the mid-game, KingZone won a team fight 5 for 0 and successfully pushed to end the game at 39 minutes despite losing for the majority of it.

Game 2 was truly a battle of the ADCs with Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk showing up on Kai’sa, constantly out-damaging Deft on Ezreal and even solo-killing him twice throughout the game. With their early priority – having secured all three early drakes as well – Gen.G eventually put out a clean showing by taking the baron and ending the game after a 4 for 1 team fight win.

Game 3 was another back and forth game, with KingZone securing all the early neutrals (infernal drake and rift herald) and Gen.G trading back in kills. If you want to watch a fiesta, this game is certainly the game to watch, as there is no other way to describe Game 3’s mid-game than it just being an utter mess.

Despite Gen.G getting baron and two inhibitors, KingZone managed to claw their way back into the game with Deft basically trying to solo-carry on Kai’sa and taking advantage of some of the Gen.G’s members misplays (ahem Peanut). KingZone eventually stall-out the game long enough to secure elder dragon and after a series of messy team fights, KingZone finally secured their hard-earned win, many thanks of Deft’s impressive performance on a hyper-carry.

SKT VS. HLE

Winner: SKT T1

SKT jumped into Game 1 with an early lead, securing first blood off of Kim “Lava” Tae-hoon in the mid lane, with Kim “Clid” Tae-min pulling off well-timed ganks on Lee-sin and getting his laners ahead. Despite Hanwha Life having drafted a great engage composition with Nocturne, Kalista and Alistar, they failed to execute on their champions and SKT turned around their botched engages to win team fights. Lava and Key were constantly picked off throughout the game and SKT eventually translated their deaths into a baron and successfully pushed to end the game, even adding a death brush for safe measure.

Game 2 was about how the two junglers on each team could impact the game on their early champions in Clid’s Elise and Kim “bonO” Gi-beom’s Lee Sin. Clid came out on top by targeting Thal in the top lane, securing first blood off of him and even cheesing Thal again later to ensure he remained useless for the entire game.

SKT’s aggression in the mid lane with rift herald proved fruitful as they ran Hanwha down, with Thal’s Kennen ending up incredibly ineffective with SKT’s tanky members and mobile squishies in Elise and Ezreal. After a clean ace at 22 minutes and a 14k gold lead, SKT successfully closed out the one-sided series.

INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA – NOVEMBER 03: Supporters watch the Finals match of 2018 The League of Legends World Championship at Incheon Munhak Stadium on November 3, 2018 in Incheon, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) /

LCK Week 3 Results and Ranking

1 – Griffin
2 – SANDBOX Gaming
3 – SKT T1
3 – KingZone Dragon X
5 – Hanwha Life Esports
6 – Gen.G
6 – Damwon Gaming
6 – KT Rolster
6 – Afreeca Freecs
10 – Jin Air Green Wings

To be quite honest, nothing has really changed from Week 2 to Week 3, with the top teams being consistently dominant and the bottom teams, well, staying bottom tier. However, the one highlight of Week 3 is Griffin finally giving up a game to Sandbox Gaming, although still managing to take the series. Chovy’s KDA however, suffered quite a bit as he finally died for the first time this week, unfortunately halving his KDA, although still being the first player in history to hit 100 KDA!! As Koreans celebrated Lunar New Years this week, Week 4 will be continuing on the 13th of February so make sure to stay tuned for the next hype LCK games!

Next. Patch 9.3 Breakdown. dark

Looking to discuss your thoughts on LCK, professional League, or even simple soloQ strategies? Comment down below or join our friendly discord!

Home/League of Legends Esports

LCK Spring 2019: Week 3 results and review

By Richelle Lau | Feb 7, 2019