League of Legends Korea LCK (7/11-7/15): KT Rolster to Win this Week (and the Summer Split)

Highlights

• Rift Rivals is over and it's time for Week 4 of the LCK Season.
• The metagame remains different, but teams have started to move towards more traditional compositions.
• Betting lines are too heavily influenced by the chaos of the first few weeks.

It’s Week 4 of the summer split, and things are starting to return to normal. Now that everyone has had a chance to play plenty of games in this patch, I expect to see the traditional powerhouses continue to gain strength as their individual skill and teamwork take precedence over the new experimental strategies.

The summer split picks I've recommended in articles and on Twitter are 48-27 (+17.4 units).

If you’re new to eSports, check out my League introduction. While I focus primarily on League betting in this breakdown, it has relevance to daily fantasy as well. If you’re playing League DFS, be sure to check out my evergreen strategy pieces.

• Three biggest esports DFS mistakes and how to avoid them
• Two most important stats for League DFS
• How to build a winning League lineup

For DFS, pay attention to the Kills per Win (KPW) and Deaths per Loss (DPL) numbers for this split. In general, you’ll want to roster players on teams with high KPWs playing against teams with high DPLs. Keep in mind, though, that we are early in the season; the samples are small.

For more League action, see my other regional breakdowns for this weekend.

• North America LCS (coming soon)
• Europe LCS (coming soon)

KPW Leaders

1. Team MVP: 15.3
2. BBQ Olivers 14.5
3. Griffin: 14.4

DPL Laggards

1. KINGZONE DragonX: 16.8
2. Hanhwa Life Esports: 16.1
3. KT Rolster: 16

Bets

Afreeca Freecs vs. Griffin: Wednesday 7/11 at 4:00 a.m. ET

• Griffin: +120
• Afreeca: -150
• Bet: Griffin +115

Afreeca is the better team, and this is a great time in the season to start betting against Griffin — but I'm not going to do that, because Afreeca just got back from Rift Rivals and Griffin has had much more time to prepare for this matchup. The wunderkinds will probably fall off in the near future, but I'm sticking with them for now.

BBQ Olivers vs. Jin Air Green Wings: Thursday 7/12 at 4:00 a.m. ET

• BBQ: -105
• Jin Air: -115
• Bet: BBQ -105

These are by far the worst teams in Korea, but BBQ is the superior unit. Whereas Jin Air is going to have to make some roster changes if they want to make any sort of run at even the middle of the table, BBQ just needed some time at the beginning of the season to adjust to the new patch. The talent is there.

SK Telecom T1 vs. Hanhwa Life Esports: Friday 7/13 at 7:00 a.m. ET

• SKT: -140
• HLE: +110
• Bet: HLE +110

People are going to prefer SKT, given their better-than-expected Rift Rivals performance, but HLE has been the more consistent team this season. SKT has a higher ceiling, but that ceiling is also fairly hard for them to reach.

KT Rolster vs. Afreeca Freecs: Sunday 7/15 at 4:00 a.m. ET

• KT Rolster: -140
• Afreeca: +110
• Bet: KT Rolster -140

This is an auto-bet for me. KT is my pick to win the LCK this season, and while Afreeca has been fine I don't think we'll see them in the finals again this season. I'll go with the more aggressive team whose styles is better fit for the current metagame.

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That’s all I’ve got for Korea. Make sure to follow me on Twitter @Nty9problemsDFS, where I will post additional picks throughout the weekend.