South Korea is dominating the LoL 2022 Asian Games, winning their group and qualifying for the playoffs with a surprise Faker Yone pick.
The LoL 2022 Asian Games has officially kicked off with the first group’s match wrapping up, and South Korea has started the tournament with an absolutely dominant performance. With a 2-0 record, South Korea, filled to the brim with a who’s who of League royalty, smashed Hong Kong and Kazakhstan in their group.
Kazakhstan bore the brunt of the defeats, going 0-2 in the group. The team is largely made up of non-professional players and couldn’t stand up to both countries. Hong Kong meanwhile is largely made up of PCS players, mostly from FRANK Esports.
Despite both countries putting up a good fight, South Korea dominated both matches, with a game-ending at breakneck speed, and even an unusual pick for Korea’s star player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok.
[1-0]South Korea wins the game at 23:52, a smooth victory for the favourites of the competition.
— Kevin Kim (@KevinKim0_0) September 25, 2023
South Korea’s first match against Hong Kong was an absolute stomp. Despite not featuring their star player Faker, Gen.G’s star Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon filled the mid-lane role comfortably, even picking Azir, a champ with whom Faker has become famous for using.
South Korea dominates LoL 2022 Asian Games group
Korea defeated Hong Kong in a brisk 23:52. Hong Kong would go on to win against Kazakhstan, however, they had to place their hopes on Kazakhstan winning against Korea for playoff qualification.
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But, Korea wasn’t accepting any upsets as their match against the Kazakhs was another blowout. Korea ended the match in an incredibly quick 17:06, not the fastest match ever recorded, however, but nonetheless considered very fast for a professional LoL match.
Even more bizarre were Korea’s champ picks. Korea’s jungler Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok made a Belveth appearance, an incredibly rare appearance for the champ, of which Kanavi had only played a few times in the LPL regular season.
Most surprising of all was Faker’s pick of Yone, a mid-lane champ we don’t typically see the Unkillable Demon King play. In fact, throughout his entire career, he has only ever picked it once, in a 2023 LCK Spring regular season match against HLE. He lost that game.
However, this time Faker and his team did win the match with him as Yone, which means South Korea has qualified for the playoffs where they will go against Saudi Arabia on September 27.
