Match Prediction: Hanwha Life Esports - DRX | LoL

Welcome to EGamersWorld.

Professional League of Legends isn't going anywhere. On the contrary, the most exciting part of The International is just ahead.

In South Korea, the play-offs of LCK Summer 2023 - one of the most, if not the most, prestigious leagues on the professional scene - are getting ready for Long Cogner. Only the 6 most resilient teams have made it here and they will be battling it out for the top prizes.

The prizes include $293,000, but most importantly a trip to Worlds 2023. It is the trip to the home Worlds that will add motivation to the participants of the main stage of LCK Summer 2023.

Hanwha Life Esports and DRX will open the competitive League of Legends festivities. The teams will play in the first round of play-offs in a bo5 match.

The winner of the series advances to the next round of LCS Summer 2023 to face KT Rolster, while the loser will leave the tournament. Let's try to figure out who's going where.

Let's go.

Hanwha Life Esports uniforms

Let's start the analysis of the match by analysing the Hanwha Life Esports form. In this match, the team will play as favourites.

Bookmakers clearly believe in the success of HLE. The odds on the victory of the club is at around 1.2.

Given the format of the match, such a figure looks very logical. Bookmakers believe in HLE more than in DRX, because the latter do not shine with results and show a game far from stability, and HLE, being a solid mid-tier, more often get to the late stages of the regular split.

Moreover, it started to work only in 2023. Before that, in the 2022 season, HLE were the worst team in the race, twice finishing in the top 10 in regular splits.

It was corrected by 2023, after the big Reshuffle. Two reigning world champions joined the HLE roster, which significantly strengthened the club.

• HLE roster: Kingen, Grizzly, Zeka, Viper, Life.

With the addition of Zeka and Kingen to the HLE lineup, it was clearly more vigorous. So much so that they made it to the top 4 of LCK Spring 2023. The latest addition to HLE is Grizzly, a jungler who got promoted from the academic roster.

It seems to be working out pretty well. HLE finished in the top 3 in the regular season, which with teams like Dplus, T1 and other top teams is pretty good.

Hanwha Life Esports Champions

HLE utilise a wide pool of characters for the top line. The most popular are Gnar (12 matches, 75% wins), KSante (5 matches, 40% wins), Ornn (4 matches, 75% wins), and Sion (4 matches, 50% wins).

Sejuani (9 matches, 11% wins), Vi (7 matches, 85% wins), Elise (4 games, 75% wins) appear most often in the forest.

Azir (9 games, 55% wins), Sylas (5 matches, 80% wins), Kassadin (5 matches, 80% wins), Akali (4 matches, 100% wins) appear on the centre line.

Shooters are chosen as standard: Zeri (11 matches, 63% wins), Varus (7 matches, 42% wins), Caitlyn (7 games, 57% wins), Lucian (5 matches, 80% wins).

Supporting heroes are Lulu (10 games, 70% wins), Heimerdinger (7 matches, 42% wins), Lux (6 matches, 66% wins), and Nami (4 matches, 75% wins).

DRX Form

We continue the match analysis with DRX's form. Here they have to play as a number two.

Bookmakers are not ready to believe in DRX. The odds betting on League of Legends for their victory are at around 4.

We shouldn't be surprised by this plight of the reigning world champions. DRX are no longer the same as we saw last season.

A lot of water has flowed since their win at Wolrds 2022. They didn't shine on the local scene even then in 2022, and now they seem to have lost all their fervour, which is not surprising. After all, the "golden line-up" is gone, and with it the former results.

In the 2023 season DRX had the only top 9 at LCK Spring 2023. Clearly not what you want to see from a team holding the League of Legends trophy.

• DRX roster: Rascal, Croco, FATE, Paduck, BeryL .

The arrival of a new shooter after the failure at LCK Spring 2023 has had an impact on performance. At least now DRX are in the play-offs of LCK Summer 2023, although they got there with difficulty, on the borderline 6th place.

Most popular DRX champions

In the top most often played on Aatrox (4 games, 75% wins), Camille (3 matches, 66% wins), Ornn (2 matches, 100% wins), Fiora (2 matches, 50% wins).

In the woods, Kindred (4 games, 100% wins), Graves (3 games, 33% wins), Viego (3 games, 100% wins), Vi (2 matches, 100% wins) are most often played.

In the mid are classic Sylas (6 matches, 100% wins), Akali (4 matches, 50% wins), Azir (3 matches, 33% wins).

At the ADC position Miss Fortune (3 matches, 0% wins), Caitlyn (3 matches, 100% wins), Ahri (3 matches, 66% wins), Ezreal (2 matches, 50% wins) were chosen more often than others.

BeryL has most often defeated Heimerdinger (4 games, 50% wins), Braum (2 matches, 100% wins), Lux (2 matches, 100% wins), Soroka (2 matches, 50 wins).

History of head-to-head meetings between HLE and DRX

In the 2023 season the teams played each other 4 times and the result is a resounding result. HLE have won all the series.

Predicted result of the match HLE - DRX

In this match I expect a confident victory from DRX. The latter have made it to the play-offs, but they have been getting here as hard as it is possible. What to say if DRX saved KT from not getting through by beating LSB in the final match.

HLE will win without much difficulty.

Bottom line: 3-0 in favour of HLE.