The LCK Round 4 began this Wednesday, August 20, marking the start of the penultimate week of the regular season. As usual, the opening series featured a Rise Group clash between DRX and DN Freecs, which was unsurprisingly won by the 2022 World Champions. The second series also ended in a dominant victory for Gen.G, as expected, against Nongshim RedForce, who are still winless this split in the Legend Group.

Once again, the Freecs came close to taking a game—or even a series—but ultimately collapsed. In Game 1 against DRX, DNF had the better early game but fell apart in teamfights. Game 2 was much tighter between the two compositions, and on a topside river fight, the Freecs nearly aced DRX with four players still standing against only toplaner Lee "Rich" Jae-won. But the Matriarch of War completely turned the situation around, cutting the enemy numbers down to just a Sion and saving DRX. From there, they secured the game, the series, and a well-deserved MVP for their toplaner.

Ambessa Medarda

The match between Gen.G and NS started with a fairly close Game 1, but in the end Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon’s engages on Azir combined with the damage from his AD carry’s Corki proved decisive. Game 2 was a complete stomp: all three Tier 1 towers fell before the 15-minute mark, and two Tier 2 towers were down before 17 minutes. Nongshim managed to briefly close the gap with a surprise Atakhan call and a catch on Ruler by Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon’s Ambessa, but it wasn’t enough. Gen.G closed out the game and the series to claim their first win of Round 5.

In the standings, Gen.G are already guaranteed to finish first in the Legend Group and currently sit at 26-1. Nongshim remain bottom of the table, falling further away from the crucial fourth playoff spot and looking more and more likely to end up in the Play-In stage. In the Rise Group, DRX badly needed this win to stay close to the top-three pack, with fourth place also meaning elimination.

Tomorrow, August 21, the day will kick off with KT Rolster facing Hanwha Life Esports. HLE will look to bounce back after two straight losses, while KT aim to secure back-to-back victories. Afterwards, OKSavingsBank BRION will take on BNK FearX in a crucial series for the Play-In race in the Rise Group.