Today’s cartoon is about the LCK matches being held via online for the first time in history.

In such chaotic times, even the fact that the LCK will be resuming was great news. Did it really matter whether or not it was via an online format? Spectators that regularly came to watch the games were stuck watching the games through a computer screen anyways, and teams were very cooperative with interviews as well.

When it came to online matches, there were unexpected variables that affected the teams’ wins and losses. Although this was result based, there were many matches where teams lower in the standings either pressured or defeated teams higher in the standings. It can be predicted that players, especially the rookies, that suffer stage fright from playing at LoL Park are able to perform better in their practice rooms, an environment that’s friendlier to the players. Understanding how the stage can greatly affect pro players and their nerves, there must be some correlation to their performance.

However, there are things that left the viewers with disappointment as well. Unstable servers and the player interviews are the two biggest things that come to mind. Although there are pauses due to various bugs and gear issues on the big stage, to think that such issues can come across in practice rooms that are optimally set for high performance was unexpected to say the least. There was an especially long pause in the T1 vs APK match, where due to a technical issue, not only was Chronobreak implemented, a player had to replace his PC with a back up one that was provided by Riot Korea. Although the game resumed shortly after, situations like this not only can lead to not being able to play to the players playing at their best, but also just leaves the viewers and the players leery. Compared to such an issue, the poor quality of online player interviews would be considered cute.

The fortunate thing is, even though matches were run under a tight schedule, the first week of online LCK was full of content, where they put out various video content and phone interviews, and the teams were extremely cooperative with media outlets as well. What will the second week look like? With the intensity level at its peak and improvements from lessons learned from Week 1 of online LCK, we hope that it’ll bring much joy and entertainment to all those fatigued from this Coronavirus pandemic.