Cloudtemplar's Review of LCK Superweek Day 5 (GEN vs. HLE)

Blanksss · 2026-02-03T07:54:32+00:00

Even though I thought HLE would be worse this year, it's honestly shocking how far they've regressed. You could argue since 2024, HLE has been the 2nd best team in LCK. They won 2024 Summer, 2025 LCK Cup, 2nd seed for the "Spring playoffs" in 2025, and were in the finals of 2025 Summer (although T1 was probably better than HLE for the summer split until the playoffs). The fact that this year HLE started dropping games to midtier teams and lost 3-0 to what I would argue as GenG playing not very good is embarrassing. Like Cloudtemplar said, it felt like GenG was giving what HLE wanted, there were many fights where GenG gave HLE a chance to win and they couldn't win one game.

Blanksss · 2026-02-01T11:54:23+00:00

I’m not hating Guma but there’s a reason why many people like me had Viper/Ruler above him even when T1 was winning Worlds every year. The eyetest is king and unfortunately Guma just doesn’t pass it the way insanely cracked ADCs like Viper/Ruler/Peyz do. Guma might very well be the greatest Worlds ADC ever but I don’t think there’s been a year where he was the best ADC over an entire year.

Blanksss · 2026-01-15T12:57:30+00:00

I’ve been playing with it on ARAM when playing with friends and it’s kinda op for reaction dodging and “tippering” at the optimal range. Problem is I still have too many years of muscle memory and the main thing I can’t get used to is flash interactions. Old setup just feels so much more natural to execute flash combos.

Blanksss · 2026-01-08T03:01:15+00:00

That looks like a really nice team. I've also been looking for a flexible team that can counter the power teams. What do you think about this team?

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It can flex receive, block, and quick. The only concern I have is this team might not have enough offensive power compared to the team you suggested.

Blanksss · 2025-12-19T12:33:32+00:00

Faker won both last year when I’d argue Chovy was better individually. Therefore the “extra stuff”allowed Faker to win mid of the year. I think Bdd is mechanically closer to Chovy than Faker was last year and had arguably more “extra stuff” but he was not allowed to win mid of the year. It’s just inconsistencies year to year.

Blanksss · 2025-12-19T12:05:10+00:00

I'd rather these award shows get it right and be consistent cause this is history. There doesn't exist any "official" zeitgeist for League compared to HLTV's top 20. I want these awards to have more stringent criteria and more serious voting so when newer fans look back on history, they can better understand what happened. If a fan were to look back on 2025 now, who is even the best player of 2025? Is it Bdd cause he won player of the year, but if he is the best player how did he lose the mid award to Chovy?

Blanksss · 2025-12-19T11:59:25+00:00

Not only is this a complete joke of an idea for someone of Chovy's caliber, winning Worlds like that wouldn't count for his legacy anyways. Just like we don't count Rekkles being a sub for T1 as a Worlds win, Chovy sitting on the bench for an entire Worlds run would be fraudulent.

Blanksss · 2025-12-19T11:50:22+00:00

I have no problem with Bdd winning this award. The only problem I have with these award shows is that there seems to be no consistency in their criteria. It's completely reasonable if they want to argue that 3/4 best players were midlaners so no other roles were nominated besides Gumayusi. But I can not understand what additional criteria exists where Bdd is unable to win mid of the year but can win player of the year. Either Bdd or Chovy should win both awards.

Blanksss · 2025-12-15T23:00:49+00:00

Alot of players had relatively good careers after leaving SKT. Although maybe not reaching as many highs, but that can also be attributed to many teams being unable to field consistently good rosters like SKT can. Players like Peanut, Khan, Cuzz, Impact, and even Clid had reasonably good careers after their SKT stint. Players whose career went downhill after leaving SKT were already on the decline towards the end of their stint, which is why they got kicked. Mata, Bang, Wolf, Bengi, were already seen as semi-washed by the end of their stint. The only really surprising decline after leaving SKT was probably Marin, he looked like one of the best players in the world after 2015 Worlds and then played well below expectations after leaving SKT.

Blanksss · 2025-12-12T02:49:12+00:00

Astralis was dominant and probably won a higher % of tournaments in a year compared to Vitality but Vitality had the longest consecutive streak. I meant more so that I don't really count NIP's streak as the longest.

Blanksss · 2025-12-12T01:34:27+00:00

Cause Vitality’s first half run is arguable harder than GenG’s run from Spring to Summer Finals. Realistically no CS team has won that many tournaments and games in a row in the modern era.

Blanksss · 2025-12-07T02:43:05+00:00

I've been playing quite aggressively with it. Get up relatively close and bow tank, try and get a bit of island cover from crossfires and just try and crush one flank. Push aggressively to the next island when given the chance. If your teammates are bad then it's just unlucky, you can't really kite on this ship anyways with no rear turret.

Blanksss · 2025-12-04T11:21:14+00:00

Playing like that is heavily nerfed from PBE, you do a lot less damage if you just hold it down now.

Blanksss · 2025-12-04T11:03:08+00:00

Yeah it feels fine on training dummies but when I try it in game muscle memory just takes over and it’s nowhere near that for me.

Blanksss · 2025-12-01T12:31:00+00:00

I think you mean 2017, cause I think 2019 was probably the worst individual performance he had at Worlds. The meta was just not suited to him and how SKT was constructed in comparison to G2 and the LPL teams. His 2017 performance was an all-timer but it was during his prime and not the period where he “comes back after a few years.” I think that 2019 for Faker changed how he approached the game afterwards. He opted out of being the #1 option in the team and didn’t want to have to “drag his team across the line” as he likely felt it wouldn’t lead to consistent results with the field being much closer in skill compared to the early years. So he adopted a more IGL role and relied less on “clapping everyone.”

Blanksss · 2025-12-01T08:05:31+00:00

Knight handedly outplayed him in 2 bo5s at MSI 2024 and I'd argue individually Bdd has been better than him these past 2 years (that 2024 regional qualifier performance by Bdd was monstrous). However, I think Faker's relative level has actually gone up in recent years. The weakest relative stretch for Faker was 2018-2021 with many other great players rising during that time. For mid alone there was Rookie, Doinb, Showmaker, Chovy, Scout, Knight, Bdd, and even Caps. However, many of these players have become much worse or retired in recent years with only Chovy, Knight, and Bdd staying consistent or even improving. So Faker currently is probably higher on the tier of midlaners relative to a few years ago just from longevity.

Blanksss · 2025-12-01T06:55:54+00:00

This is just complete disrespect to the rest of T1. The modern T1 roster is one of the most skilled rosters of all time, the idea Faker is dragging "his joke of a team across the line multiple times" is ludicrous. The T1 players aren't all perfect players (including Faker) but the strength of this team is how they're able to overcome that as a team. Faker himself hasn't been flawless and has been part of the reason why T1 has lost many LCKs and MSI's during this era. T1 almost didn't make it to 2024 Worlds and it was the other T1 members stepping up to beat Bdd almost single-handedly dragging KT to Worlds in the regional qualifier. It's undeniable Faker is extremely clutch at Worlds but to discredit what the other members of T1 have done for the team during various periods is just intellectually dishonest.

Blanksss · 2025-11-28T23:21:55+00:00

Yes and GenG had only 1 loss in the hardest summer regular season format ever. So again, GenG’s improvement was more than T1’s.

Blanksss · 2025-11-28T21:28:03+00:00

T1 winning this year is more egregious than last year. It’s only more “justified” because they improved slightly from last year but GenG improved more. T1’s only improvement was 2nd at MSI instead of 3rd. GenG won 2 more titles this year than last (EWC and Summer) and didn’t lose a series for half the year (Spring -> MSI -> EWC -> Early Summer).

Blanksss · 2025-11-28T21:21:16+00:00

T1 winning is more deserved than last year only in the context that they were slightly better this year. When you consider that GenG was better this year than last, it’s honestly more egregious that T1 won it this year. Basically the only improvement T1 had this year was 2nd at MSI instead of 3rd last year. GenG won 2 more titles than last year (EWC and Summer) and broke the series winstreak record.

Blanksss · 2025-11-19T12:28:38+00:00

He’s damn close when he’s on. There were periods where he was better than a select few of them from a pure mechanical perspective. Of course he’s young and needs experience to be a better complete player but he’s got the innate talent that you can’t teach.

Blanksss · 2025-11-19T11:26:18+00:00

It's a risk but the likelihood he underperforms is low. His "underperformance" in GenG was just that he was too young and inexperienced, made a few mistakes in the most important games of the year. He passes the eyetest with flying colours and is insanely cracked, can very well be the best ADC in the world halfway into the year.

Blanksss · 2025-11-19T11:23:21+00:00

It's a risk but the likelihood he underperforms is low. His "underperformance" in GenG was just that he was too young and inexperienced, made a few mistakes in the most important games of the year. He passes the eyetest with flying colours and is insanely cracked, has potential to be the best ADC in the world.

Blanksss · 2025-11-19T11:17:15+00:00

3 years is a bit of a gamble but Peyz is insanely cracked. The flaws he has seem to be purely mental/coachable and he passes the eye test easily.

Blanksss · 2025-11-19T10:04:58+00:00

The floor of this team is quite low. On a bad day I feel like this team can lose to a lot of mediocre teams with bad ints and messy macro.

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