Afreeca Freecs started the League of Legends season on a positive note with a three-series win streak. But since then, they’ve imploded and started losing games left and right. The team that once challenged T1, DragonX, and Gen.G are now on the verge of missing the playoffs in the 2020 LCK Spring Split.
While today’s game should’ve been a one-sided affair against APK, the ninth-place team in the LCK Spring Split standings, Afreeca Freecs seemed to struggle for some odd reasons.
During the first game, they picked snowballing champions but were unable to execute the tactic properly and finish the game early on. As a result, APK picked safe tanks and dragged the match out until late game where Afreeca Freecs had no chance of winning fights. When the game got to Ocean Dragon Soul point in favor of APK, Afreeca Freecs tried to pull off one last heroic play but failed miserably and lost the game.
Afreeca Freecs adjusted their draft in the second game and picked a more balanced composition with a better frontline and mid to late game scaling. While, in theory, they should’ve easily won due to their better individual performances, APK’s jungler denied them that dream. He played an extremely aggressive Trundle, constantly invading Afreeca Freecs’ jungle and ganking their lanes.
The game continued to be a blood bath, reaching over one kill per minute of game time with both teams trading objectives left and right. Afreeca Freecs’ chance of winning slowly dwindled as they fell behind in gold. After a bad fight around Baron, all players on Afreeca Freecs outside of Ornn died and they lost the game.
Lately, there have been a lot of upsets in Korea’s LCK and China’s LPL and there’s one common factor behind them. The rookie squads that have recently joined the leagues seem to be able to take on the veterans who have a ton of experience. This might be due to burnout from veterans or due to the hunger of the newcomers to prove themselves in the local and international scenes.
Afreeca Freecs missed the 2019 Spring Split playoffs but barely managed to grab a spot for the 2019 Summer Split playoffs. If they continue their current performance, they might be overtaken by Damwon Gaming, who look much more coordinated than Afreeca Freecs.
Afreeca Freecs will face Damwon on Friday, April 3 at 7am CT. The winner will most likely be the team to grab the last Spring Split playoff spot. Tune in on the official LCK broadcast to see if Afreeca Freecs can turn things around or if Damwon will prove to be the better team.
