Gen.G vs Afreeca Freecs – LCK Spring Split 2019

One of the toughest competitive Leagues in the world is the LCK. The Spring Split of the LCK consists of 10 teams that will compete against each other twice in Bo3. The top 5 teams qualify for the playoffs. The split winner will represent Korea at MSI 2019.

The series is between two teams Gen.G and Afreeca Freecs who have highly experienced and talented rosters. However, both teams have made a disappointing start to the season, losing both of their matches. Therefore, this upcoming series, both teams will be hungry for victory. For us, it will be a great practice to predict the winner of this upcoming game.

Gen.G

The S7 World Champion suffered a historic defeat in the S8 World Series. One win and five defeats in the group stage elimination is a nightmare for the Korean team. After returning home, making several adjustments and changes to the lineup, they got the second place on the KeSPA Cup. However, their game strategy basically revolves around Peanut’s ability to make a break on the map. Cuvee and Fly are more often used in team tactics. Therefore, if Peanut can play a carnivorous jungler in the new season, he will be the key to where Gen.G’s destiny lies.

Several changes in roster

So far Gen.G has had several roster changes in this preseason, and despite playing not playing that well, they managed to reach the final of the Kespa Cup especially thanks to the mistakes of KT Rolster in the semifinals. Owing to the unconvincing performances of the team, Gen.G was completely outplayed by their opponents in the finals, Griffin. Griffin defeated them 3-0 and that was not what we expected from one of the best and experienced teams of the LCK.

They even had a disastrous start to their LCK campaign. So far the team has played two series against DAMWON Gaming and SANDBOX Gaming. In both of these, they had one problem and that was not holding onto their initial lead. They made decent starts to their games by some initial objectives like Turrets and Dragon but they just couldn’t close their games. Gen.G’s roster is good and holds some of the most talented players of the game but they are lacking the chemistry. The team will be looking for motivation from their Jungler Peanut, who is a former World Champion and is currently the highest paid jungler in the LCK.

Peanut the star performer?

Peanut is a three-time LCK champion and winner of the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational. Last season, Peanut played for Kingzone DragonX and won the spring split with the team, and also finished second at the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational. However, Peanut did not get to the Worlds because his team, Kingzone DragonX lost to the current team, Gen.G in the Korean regional final.

Therefore, having such a prestigious record and an attractive salary should put some pressure on the player to shine sooner rather than later.

Afreeca Freecs

Afreeca Freecs’ lineup is split into two parts. The top three players Kiin, Spirit, and Ucal are definitely the top combinations of LCK, and they all have a lot of experience. But the combination of Aiming and Jelly may be the team’s major weakness. The result of the two newcomers is that the experience may not be comparable to the other three big stars. This is the reason that might have cost the team two losses in the initial games of the league after getting defeated by SKT1 and Hanwha. However, the Summoners Rift has three lines and the players will have the time and space to grow. Whether Aiming and Jelly can quickly gain experience is the big question. They will need to make some big plays to support the Afreeca Freecs run in the LCK which will surely be a big test for the side.

Different year, different roster

We would be a little subjective: what we like about this team is that despite the changes, every year this team manages to do two things at once: grow in the skill and stay in the fifth position. This year, the team has a chance to “spoil” their statistics and enter the top 3. In the play-off of the last split, they took third place, losing to Griffin in a tough fight, and then losing to KeSPA.

The team didn’t play with its best players at the Kespa Cup. Moreover, they received a rework in their roster by signing one of the best top laners in Korea – UcaL. Moreover, it was Freecs replacement for Kuro “Sio” Haeng with UcaL that closed one of their weakest points, if not the weakest one at all.

Bot lane the weak point

The only real weak point of Afreeca Freecs is their bottom line. They lost Kramer and TusiN, who played together for the last two years. And although the latter did not always show an excellent game, they exhibited excellent chemistry, which, if not winning, for the most part, did not lose the bot. Kim “Aiming” Ha Ran is an amateur player who is playing the professional league on his own. He played only for a year (before that, he had been practicing with SKT for several months) and by skill, he is slightly inferior to Kramer. He showed the average game with TusiN, and now he will have to play with the same newcomer who will step up his game for the new season. The team still has their coaching staff, and we want to believe in their excellent work, especially with the newcomers to turn small sparks into a big fire.

Final Verdict

The LCK is highly unpredictable and one might think that Gen.G might win it owing to their performance in the Kespa, we believe that Afreeca Freecs will prevail. They have the combination of talent and experience to get them through to the finish line against Gen.G

Afreeca Freecs Victory

Odds on bookmakers

Bookmakers	Afreeca Freecs Odds		Gen.G Odds
	European	American	European	American
GG.bet	1.74	-135.14	2.00	+100.00
Loot.bet	1.71	-140.85	2.10	+110.00
10bet	1.76	-131.58	2.00	+100.00
Betway	1.65	-153.85	2.10	+110.00