Round 5 is still ahead, with four best-of-threes left for each team
The fourth week of LCK Round 3-5 closed out with a headline matchup between Gen.G and Hanwha Life Esports on Sunday, 17, ending in a 2-1 victory for the MSI and EWC champions. With this result, HLE now sits at 18-8 in the Legend Group standings, tied with T1. The battle for second place is important, as securing it means bypassing the first round of playoffs and needing just one best-of-five to qualify for Worlds 2025 in China. In the other series of the day, OKSavingsBank BRION clean swept Dplus KIA, giving themselves a two-win cushion over DRX in the Rise Group.
The first game started well for HLE, with aggressive plays across the map and even a solo kill from Choi "Zeus" Woo-je on Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk in the side lane. But that turned out to be the only time Gen.G’s botlaner would fall in the series. Ruler put on a massive performance on Corki, while both Gen.G botlaners finished with 100% kill participation. Game 2 opened in favor of Gen.G, who picked up early kills through dives, but this time it was HLE’s turn to fight back. Han "Peanut" Wang-ho delivered an outstanding game on Vi to even up the score.
A perfect week for T1 and Gen.G
In Game 3, Gen.G closed things out in just over 28 minutes. Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon’s Ziggs pick in mid completely caught the First Stand champions off guard. With Ziggs blowing up towers and a Sion holding the frontline, the map quickly fell apart, and Gen.G secured the win to move to 25-1 — an impressive record, with their only loss coming against T1 earlier in the Summer Split. HLE now sits at 18-8, tied with T1, who already beat them twice this split. The gap is gone between the two sides, and with four BO3s remaining — including a direct clash on Wednesday, August 27 — the battle for a direct ticket to Round 2 of the LCK Playoffs is still wide open.
DK fell to BRION for the second time this split, bringing their record to 15-11. They’ve already secured a spot in the Play-In, but the top of the group is still within reach, with BNK FearX in contention. This win is a boost for BRO, who move to 10-16 and widen the gap with DRX, now 8-18 after their victory last Saturday. Everything is still up for grabs in this Rise Group, as two Play-In spots remain to be claimed between BRO, DRX, and BFX.
The LCK resumes on Wednesday, August 20, with Nongshim RedForce facing a tough test against Gen.G.
Header Photo Credit: LCK/Riot Games
