The LCK national team controversy escalates as officials announce they will not disclose selection details, sparking accusations of a hidden agenda
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Season 16 of League of Legends includes an Asian Games esports event, with each major region dispatching a national team. This year, the LCK's national team has drawn some criticism, while the LPL has been slow to announce its squad.
Facing the selection controversy, the LCK officials have straightforwardly declared that they will not make the specific selection details public.
The selection of the LCK national team this year has been highly contentious. Looking at the roster, it is quite surprising that Canyon was chosen as the jungler—nobody expected that. Meanwhile, mid laner Chovy withdrew due to injury, and Zeka and Faker were selected instead.
Canyon has been in poor overall form this year, showing little rhythm in GEN's games and mostly farming through many matches. His personal performance has not been outstanding, yet he became the only GEN player selected.
If Chovy had been selected, Canyon's inclusion could have been somewhat justified by the need for mid-jungle synergy. But having only Canyon selected really doesn't make sense. Normally, with Zeka and Faker as mid laners, the best jungler choices would be Kanavi or Oner.
In response to this national team controversy, the LCK's governing body, KeSPA, recently spoke out, essentially dropping all pretense and directly stating that they will not disclose the selection process. Their exact words were: "Considering that making it public could affect the fairness and independence of future selection processes, we hereby restrict the disclosure of related content."
In response, netizens widely commented that the LCK has become completely corrupt, saying they have never heard of hiding content in the name of fairness.
KeSPA stated that the national team underwent two rounds of review, taking into account various player statistics, role assessments, and so on. After two rounds of review, the committee and the national team coach also comprehensively considered factors such as team composition direction and synergy communication before making the selection.
In other words, the selection team believes this choice is reasonable, but from the audience's perspective, this roster is far from being reasonable.
As for the underlying reason, it is likely related to the LPL.
The LPL has been slow to announce its roster, and rumors indicate that the Chinese representative team for the League of Legends event may not send a national team at all. If this is true, then the LCK would be guaranteed to win regardless of who they select. Under the premise of LPL's non-participation, the truth behind the national team selection might simply be a result of dividing spoils among the teams.
The biggest beneficiary here is HLE. Jungler Kanavi already won a gold medal last time, and this time they directly sent their three carry players. Then, considering Faker's influence and his personal wishes, Faker was also selected. The support position is the only uncontested one, while GEN only got one slot and sent their jungler.
The thrilling script is hard to repeat; the foreshadowing from four years ago takes effect
Personally, if the LPL truly does not form a national team for this year's Asian Games, it would be a great pity for the LPL. Eight years ago, the LPL sent its first national team, which fought hard under difficult conditions to win a gold medal, setting a promising start for cnLOL.
Unexpectedly, four years later, the LPL's selection process faced massive problems. Despite significant resource support from higher-ups, the selection team was inactive, and coach Zhu Kai's performance was a complete mess, wasting a lot of resources and time. The chosen roster was not the strongest, and due to special circumstances, the lineup was changed at the last minute, ultimately only winning a bronze medal.
The major failure last time likely set the stage for this year's non-participation in the Asian Games. To be honest, if the LPL had had a good coaching team four years ago, they would have had a chance to compete with the Korean team.
This year, if the LPL were to form a national team, they would still be capable of defeating the Korean team. BLG is in great form, with all five players selected to the All-Pro first team. They would only need to pick two more players and build the team around the BLG system. Unfortunately, it seems the LPL won't have this opportunity. The only good news is that LPL teams will have more time to rest and focus on preparing for MSI and the World Championship.
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