On Aug 31, Hanwha Life Esports defeated Liiv SANDBOX 3-1 in the 2021 LCK Regional Qualifiers. With a game plan focused around Camille and her side lane macro, they defeated Liiv SANDBOX and headed to round 2 of the tournament, where they will face NS RedForce to determine which team gets to go to Worlds this year.

The turning point of the match was top lane, as HLE continued to pick Camille into Kennen. Kennen may have the winning matchup in the early game, but Camille outscales and gain side lane priority over Kennen, giving HLE more to work with as time passes.

However, HLE’s game plan didn’t work out in game 1. Park “Summit” Woo-tae’s Kennen snowballed the game a lot harder in the laning phase, and through a 5-man ult in a teamfight, they had a definite lead over Liiv SANDBOX. This led to HLE recalibrating for game 2 and picked Olaf in the jungle. The pick worked as HLE managed to pull off early bot lane dives, which led to Morgan’s Camille scaling well and successfully executing HLE’s game plan.

In the end, HLE took game 2 and tied up the series. Through Chovy’s outboxer style of gameplay on Leblanc and Deft’s complete lane kingdom in the laning phase on Varus, they were able to play out their team composition’s strengths, and brought the series back to ground zero.

In game 3, both teams had a clear color to their team composition; split push comp with Camille-Twisted Fate for HLE, and a poke comp with Jayce-Nidalee-Ezreal for LSB. Deft was the saving grace for HLE, as he was able to carry the team in the proper moments for HLE in game 3.

With the momentum now fully behind HLE, they managed to dominate in game 4 as well. Morgan, who looked very unstable in the laning phase, completely wiped out Summit’s existence from the game. With Deft’s ability to completely take over the game and Chovy adding to the side lane pressure, LSB’s 2021 season came to an end.

2021 LCK Regional Qualifiers round 1 results

Hanwha Life Esports 3 vs 1 Liiv SANDBOX

2021 LCK Regional Qualifiers round 2 schedule

NS RedForce vs Hanwha Life Esports - Sep 1, 5pm KST