by The 2023 LCK Spring split will kick off on January 18, with the first week of the group stage kicking off with Dplus KIA taking on DRX in the first series of the split. The 2023 season will once again have 10 teams take their place in the split, with the only change with any of the organisations being DAMWON Gaming changing their name to Dplus KIA, due to their sponsorship agreement with KIA.
Of the 10 participating teams, there were three major players in the off-season making wholesale changes to their roster, being Freecs, DRX and SANDBOX Gaming. The biggest moves came from the 2022 League of Legends World Champions, DRX, as all bar one of their whole championship-winning roster did not re-sign with the organisation, leaving them with no option but to go out and find a whole new roster to go with their lone returning player, Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee.
However, DRX weren’t the only ones to make big changes to their starting five, with Freecs signing a new top- and mid-laner, as well as a new support for the upcoming LCK Spring split. The last of the three big movers this off-season is SANDBOX Gaming, who signed a new assistant coach along with an AD carry, top-laner and jungler, as they look to continue their push for another top four placing this split.
Esports betting sites have last year’s LoL World Championship runner-up, T1, as the favourite at +200 to take out the LCK Spring, closely followed by Dplus KIA (+300), Hanwha Life Esports (+400) and LCK reigning champion, Gen.G (+550).
LCK Spring 2023 Top Tip – T1
The current favourite and our top tip, T1, will be looking to win a seventh LCK Spring title and fourth in the last five years. Entering another year and another LCK Spring split, there isn’t another roster in the LCK that has the stability and overall player ability as this T1 roster does, which makes it hard to tip against them.
After beginning their Worlds 2022 campaign as somewhat of an underdog – due to their thrashing in the LCK Summer 2022 grand final at the hands of Gen.G – the three-time world champions made it to the grand final and were only one win away from taking home a fourth world championship, losing 2-3 to DRX. However, this T1 roster has managed to keep their star-studded roster together with the ever-ageless Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok signing a new contract in the off-season.
When you combine Faker with one of the up-and-coming rising star in the bot-lane, Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, and with his support, Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, it gives this team and their supporters a heightened level of confidence before every tournament that they will participate in this year.
