Iconic LoL ADC makes LCK history with impressive regular season performance

When fans think of the best AD carry players in League of Legends history, only a few names come to mind. One talented star who has continued to etch his name into the history books is Dplus KIA’s superstar marksman Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu, who broke an impressive LCK record this summer.

The 26-year-old veteran finished the 2023 Summer Split with the highest average damage per minute in the history of the league, racking up a whopping 730 DPM through the regular season, according to competitive League stats aggregate Oracle’s Elixir. He had 31 percent of his team’s total damage and 34.8 percent of his team’s total kills, pushing DK to yet another playoff appearance.

Deft was also the DPM leader last season, where he dropped an average of 664 damage per minute with DK in the spring. He played a majority of his games on Lucian that split and helped guide DK to a fourth-place finish with a 12-6 record.

Although Deft was a huge factor in his team’s success, another important stat to note in the face of his record-setting damage output is his lack of reliance on resources and how he didn’t require a ton of gold to succeed. Throughout the season, Deft only needed 27.1 percent of his team’s total gold share, placing him behind five other LCK marksmen in the standings.

Even with lower amounts of farm and resources, the talented AD made the most of what he had, lighting up later teamfights with perfect positioning and smart timing. This season, for example, he piloted a plethora of different champions including Aphelios, Kai’Sa, Ashe, and Draven, all of which require expert mechanical prowess to carefully avoid enemy abilities while staying in range to deal the most amount of damage that he can while remaining safe.

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DK will need Deft to continue this fervent pace in the bottom lane as they barrel into the playoffs, where they’ll be facing off against T1 in the first round. You can watch these two behemoths in action when they take the stage tomorrow at 3am CT.