On Jan. 13, the opening day of the 2022 LCK Spring split saw not only Korean politicians appear at LoL Park, but a clean sweep from both series as well. Liiv SANDBOX, a team recently formed from a group of young prospects, managed to 2-0 DRX, a team that’s heavily occupied with veterans. T1 defeated KDF 2-0, in a dominating fashion that matched their presence as the strongest contender to win the Spring split.

LSB faced off against DRX in game 1. Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon picked Graves, while Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon picked Tryndamere; it was a matchup where both players decided to not take Teleport. While the laners were more focused on farming in the laning phase, DRX had priority throughout the map, and successfully managed to secure the first Rift Herald.

However, despite being pushed back, LSB managed to get three dragon stacks. With Tryndamere continuously catching out the enemy Graves in the side lane, LSB kept their hopes alive. At that point, DRX was desperate to get Baron to secure their lead. However, even with a 6K gold deficit, LSB managed to win the Baron teamfight and take the Baron. It was not long until DRX’s Nexus fell, and LSB took game 1.

DRX chose the blue side again for game 2, and went into the game with a similar team composition from game 1. However, LSB’s early game went much better in game 2, as Akali managed to get two kills in the early Rift Herald skirmish. At this point, LSB held onto their lead tightly, as they seemed to be able to read every move that DRX was making. Despite DRX showing moments of hope here and there, LSB closed out their lead and took the series 2-0.

In the second match of the day, T1 faced off against Kwangdong Freecs, a team with multiple ex-T1 players. Naturally, the point of the match came down to the bot lane, as it was a battle of the current vs former T1 players. 

As the battle in the bot lane was expected to be heated, there were a lot of kills traded in the bot lane. Both team’s top sides got out of lane without much action, but the dragon teamfights were what changed the flow of the game for T1. It was a clear display of supreme team synergy, as T1’s tight macro that has been honed out of experience seemed to be paying its dividends. Despite Kim “Kiin” Ki-in’s efforts of creating variance through Teleport, T1 showed no weaknesses in their gameplay. It was not long until they took down the enemy Nexus and took game 1.

Game 2 saw T1 slowly bleed out KDF from the get go. T1 successfully pulled off bot lane dives with the priority that their bot lane got, and the snowball kept rolling from there. It only took T1 22 minutes to get all the dragon stacks and an 8K gold lead, and without any major hitches along the way, T1 closed out the series 2-0 and started the split very strong.

2022 LCK Spring split day 1 results:

T1 2 - 0 Kwangdong Freecs

DRX 0 - 2 Liiv SANDBOX

2022 LCK Spring split standings:

1st Liiv SANDBOX 1-0 [+2]

1st T1 1-0 [+2]

3rd DWG KIA 0-0

3rd Gen.G 0-0

3rd Nongshim RedForce 0-0

3rd KT Rolster 0-0

3rd Hanwha Life Esports 0-0

3rd Fredit BRION 0-0

9th DRX 0-1 [-2]

9th Kwangdong Freecs 0-1 [-2]