LPL Special World Championship
In the past, the LPL has always been famous for its large number of foreign players, with most of them coming from the LCK. In fact, in recent years, the LPL has always been considered a good land for LCK players who could not find a place in the Korean LoL scene. The unquestionable skill base, combined with discipline, are things that Chinese LoL previously lacked. It is worth mentioning that in the past, the LPL teams that won the World Championship all had at least 2 Korean players in their squad. There was even a time when Royal Never Give Up was nicknamed “Royal Legion” because they were the only team among the top LPL teams that did not use foreign players.
RNG was once called the “Royal Legion” because they were one of the rare top teams in the LPL that did not use any foreign players.
However, at CKTG 2024, LPL will have an amazing change. Specifically, of the 4 teams participating in CKTG this year from China, only Tarzan (Weibo Gaming) and Scout (LNG Esports) are from Korea. The rest, Top Esports and Bilibili Gaming both use 100% domestic players. This is a positive sign showing that currently, LPL is also producing talent. But in addition, it is also a warning sign for LCK.
But in CKTG 2024, only 2 LPL teams will use foreign players and each team will have 1 person.
Good news for LPL is bad news for LCK
But when the LPL started using more domestic players, it also meant that the LCK was lacking talent to the point where no players could go abroad. Even in the LPL, the Korean foreign players they had, if not taking a break (TheShy, Doinb), could not find a place in the top teams (Rookie). Even Fisher had to return home to find a place to compete.
Fisher also had to return to LCK to find opportunities.
Not to mention, this also shows that: LCK is currently extremely short of young players. In the past few years, the number of players promoted from Challengers teams has not been impressive. Perhaps there are only the 2k2 generation of T1, or Peyz of Gen.G. The rest are only at an acceptable level like the Kwangdong Freecs players.
LCK has not produced as many talents as before.
This is a truly alarming situation for the LCK as in the near future, their veterans will have to leave and the players in the middle stage will also get old. Without a suitable successor generation, the LCK may face many difficulties, directly affecting their achievements in the international arena.
