The first berth at the 2022 League of Legends World Championship out of Korea’s LCK belongs to Gen.G. The Summer Split’s best team secured their place at Worlds with a win over Liiv SANDBOX in the semifinal round of the LCK Summer Playoffs earlier today.
Today’s series saw Gen.G jump out to an early two-game lead over SANDBOX before falling short in the third game of the series. Gen.G responded with a decisive 22-minute win in game four, slamming the door in the face of a potential SANDBOX reverse sweep. Gen.G mid laner Chovy finished the set with a total scoreline of 15/4/37, good enough for a KDA of 13.0 during the match—the highest among all 10 players by a wide margin.
Related: All teams qualified for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship
With their win over SANDBOX, Gen.G advanced to the grand finals of the LCK postseason. Their top-two finish in the Summer Split, combined with a second-place finish in the Spring Split, has earned Gen.G enough championship points to ensure they won’t fall below the necessary threshold to qualify for Worlds automatically. More importantly, Gen.G’s championship point total ensures that the team won’t have to play through either the LCK regional finals or the Worlds play-in stage.
In the LCK, the team that has the most championship points, and hasn’t already qualified via winning the Summer Split, will automatically qualify for Worlds by way of their total championship points. Should Gen.G fall short in next week’s LCK final, they would still finish the season with 170 championship points, more than any other team in the league who would also look to qualify through their points.
Teams who placed third through sixth in championship points will battle it out for one last shot at Worlds during the LCK regional finals later this year. Despite their playoff loss, Liiv SANDBOX will still have a chance to qualify for one of the LCK’s four seeds at Worlds through that tournament, which will take place after the conclusion of the LCK grand finals.
Tomorrow, T1 and DWG KIA will play their semifinal match on the opposite side of the postseason bracket. Gen.G awaits the winner of that series in the LCK grand finals, which are scheduled for Aug. 28.
