The Recall: What we learned from LCK Playoffs, Round 3

T1 is once again the final boss — here's what we learned from the second week of the 2023 League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Spring Playoffs.

T1 (6-3) won their Upper Bracket match against Gen.G (4-4) by a 3-1 score on March 31, while kt Rolster (8-5) eliminated Hanwha Life Esports (5-7) with a 3-1 win in the Lower Bracket series on April 1. KT and GEN play on April 7 to decide T1's opponent in the 2023 LCK Spring Final on April 8, along with joining T1 at the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational.

Every player played a total of four games this week.

T1 is the only team left that's undefeated in series score and possess a top-ranking 67% game win-rate. The team leads in kill-death ratio gold spent percentage (56.2%), share of jungle CS (53.3%), and Round 3 kills (66). T1 bot laner Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong leads in average damage per minute (723), kill-share (41.1%) and KDA score and ratio -- both in Round 3 and overall (60/19/52, 5.9 in nine games; 29/6/24, 8.8 last week). His 29 kills were also the most of any player in Round 3.

Guma's partner, support Ryu "Keria" Min-seok, leads all players in total assists (111 in nine games), Round 3 assists (54), Round 3 kill participation (89.4%) and assists per game (12.3).

Like T1, KT have won two series in playoffs. The squad leads all teams in games played (13), wins (8), kills (176) and kill-death ratio (176-139, or 1.27), and had the fewest Round 3 deaths (32). KT's jungler Moon "Cuzz" Woo-chan and top laner Kim "Kiin" Gi-in are tied for the league lead with three Player of the Game awards each, and bot laner Kim "Aiming" Ha-ram's 61 kills in 13 games leads all players; however, T1 Gumayusi is only one kill back with four games in hand.

The other team left in contention, GEN, have the best average gold difference at 15 minutes (855), percentage of lane CS taken (50.5%) and the fewest deaths (99) of any team with at least two series played. GEN mid laner Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon's 11 deaths in eight games rank first among players with at least two series played.

HLE bot laner Park "Viper" Do-hyeon departs the playoffs with a few accolades of his own: best average CS per minute in Round 3 (11.4), highest average damage per minute (821, accounting for 41% of his team's damage and 44.7% post-15 minutes), and fewest deaths (5) in Round 3 -- tying KT support Son "Lehends" Si-woo.

Other notable stats

• Four players in playoffs have a CS per minute rate of 10 or higher: GEN bot laner Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan (10.5), T1 Gumayusi (10.3), HLE Viper (10.3) and Liiv SANDBOX bot laner Lee "Envyy" Myeong-joon (10).
• Rakan is the most played champion on playoffs, appearing in 16 of 25 total games and 7 of 8 games in Round 3.
• Lulu has the best KDA score and ratio (4/4/60, or 16, in six games) of any champion.
• Zeri, Malphite, Varus, Vi and Annie had a 100% pick-ban rate last week, but Annie is the only champ with a 100% pick-ban rate over all of playoffs.

All stats from Leaguepedia and Oracle's Elixir. Featured photos courtesy of the LCK/Riot Games.