KT Rolster to Face Possible Elimination From the LCK

For the first time in franchise history since qualifying for the League of Legends Championship Korea, KT Rolster will have to play in relegation in order to remain amongst their peers. 

Less than a year removed from their most recent 1st place finish as the champions of the 2018 LCK Summer Split, KT Rolster finishes the 2019 Spring Split with an abysmal 4-14 record. Their poor performance in 2019 so far has landed them in 9th place, which will see them fight through relegations in order to maintain their spot in the LCK for the Summer Split. 

What is Relegations?

In most leagues like the LCK, or LCS, all spots in the schedule are earned. At the end of predetermined stages, the bottom teams will be entered into a tournament with the top contender teams. This is called relegation for league teams, and promotion for challengers. The top two teams from the re-assignment tournament will earn spots in the top-tier league. 

After losing their final game against DAMWON Gaming, KT Rolster officially land in relegation alongside last-place Jin Air Green Wings. 

There is no for sure opponents for them yet, as the Contenders Korea league still has one more week of stage play yet to be held. As of standings right now, it looks like KT and Jin Air will be playing APK Prince and the ES Sharks in their relegation tournaments. 

A History Dissolved

The KT Rolster name has been known and feared in the Korean League of Legends scene since they were founded in 2012. They have made multiple appearances at the Mid-Season Invitational, and Worlds. They have even won the Korean Regional Finals once, back in 2015. 

This will be the first time that KT Rolster will have to fight for their lives in the LCK. After losing almost their entire starting roster at the end of 2018, there isn’t a whole lot of confusion as to why they are in this position. Rush, who was just eliminated from LCS Playoff contention this weekend, went to North America to play with Echo Fox. Both mid-laner and bottom carry PawN and Deft went to rival Kingzone DragonX. While their support Mata went to SK Telecom.

This re-built team around top-laner Smeb is going to need a lot of work, or a lot of new faces in order to compete in the LCK once more. As far as their relegation tournament goes, KT Rolster will most-likely earn their spot in the league back. 

For now, the LCK Spring Split Playoffs are about to kick-off, without KT Rolster taking part. So there's bound to be a new champion in town come the grand finals. In addition to that, we've got tons of great League of Legends going on in the LCS and LEC.