The 2023 Season Kickoff Event for the LCK was held at LoL Park on Jan. 10. It was a battle between Team Deft and Team Faker for the opportunity to design their own emotes. After the main event, the players on the winning team played 2v2 and 1v1 games to decide the Player of the Game.

Team Deft and Team Faker were decided last December, as Deft and Faker gathered to pick their teammates for the event. The two players picked their teammates from the other LCK teams — one player from each team for the event.

Prior to the main match, the two teams played Mundo Dodgeball to decide who gets side select. Team Deft won the top and jungle matchups, but Team Faker won the mid and bot duo matchups to gain side selection. They picked blue.

In the first game, Team Faker picked K’Sante, Sejuani, Azir, Ashe, and Heimerdinger, and Team Deft picked Fiora, Maokai, Ryze, Varus, and Karma. The first game was fierce, as both teams played seriously, despite the event being an exhibition match. Team Deft went ahead with the dragons, but Team Faker evened the game by winning a big teamfight. However, as Team Deft stole the dragon soul, they won the final teamfight to take game 1.

Team Faker smiled in the second game. The early game skirmishes were quite even, but Team Faker was able to secure more dragons. After a big teamfight win in the bot lane, Team Faker completely dominated the game, and they finished the game in 30 minutes with a massive lead.

In game 3, the balance toppled in the bot lane as Deft gained a double kill in a 2v2 fight, and got an extra kill as Cuzz ganked the bot lane. This lead made Deft’s Kai’Sa almost invincible, and he destroyed teamfights after teamfights. When he was cut off, Chovy’s Kassadin took the key and steered the team to victory, and Team Deft took game 3 to win the match.

The last event of the day was the POG selection match among the winning team. As Team Faker spectated comfortably, Team Deft fought to select the final Player of the Game. The first game was a 2v2 between Morgan-Chovy and Cuzz-Peter. The team who gains two kills first or destroys a turret would win the match, and it was Cuzz and Peter who gained two kills.

As the team captain, Deft had the privilege of selecting his opponent in the next round, and he picked Cuzz. In a Gragas mirror match, they plotted schemes against each other while shaking up the opponent in the comms, and it was Cuzz who smiled in the end. The final game was between Cuzz and Peter. Cuzz picked Darius, and Peter picked Warwick. Cuzz drew first blood rather easily and gained the second kill soon to become the POG.