ShowMaker and Kellin Test Positive For COVID

DWGKIA’s star League of Legends players Heo “ShowMaker” Su and Kim “Kellin” Hyeong-gyu have tested positive for COVID-19, the South Korean esports organization announced on Monday, August 1. The news comes just two days ahead of the final week of the LCK 2022 Summer regular season.

COVID-19 cases have been fairly common in the Asian League of Legends league this split, namely in the LoL Pro League (LPL) and the LoL Champions Korea (LCK). Although not as impactful as the last split, when the teams had to find replacements for infected players who weren’t able to participate in official matches remotely, missing players has never been a good thing.

The latest team to be hit with positive COVID cases is the 2020 LoL World Championship winning squad, DWG KIA, who announced its star mid laner ShowMaker and support Kellin are both infected with the virus. The news surfaced on Monday, August 1, just a couple of days before DWG KIA’s clash with Liiv SANDBOX.

“Heo “ShowMaker” Su and Kim “Kellin” Hyeong-gyu from DWQG KIA’s LCK team has tested positive for COVID-19. All of the staff and remaining team members immediately went to get PCR examined and tested negative,” read the announcement.

“The upcoming games and schedules will be adjusted accordingly to the LCK protocols and policies. We apologize to pass on this unfortunate news.”

According to the new LCK guidelines which got introduced for the LCK 2022 Summer split due to a surge of COVID-19 cases in the country, teams with infected players are not allowed to play in LCK Park. Instead, they’re allowed to compete in official matches from a quarantine facility.

LCK teams are also allowed to disagree with playing their games online while the players are recovering. In this case, they will need to find replacement players or forfeit the game. As it stands now, DWG KIA have yet to share their intentions and how the organization will react to the situation.

If DWG KIA decide to play their upcoming game in Seoul’s LoL Park Arena, the team will have to find replacements for both ShowMaker and Kellim, which the team has. If they decide to replace the support player, DWG KIA will likely call up academy player Yoon “Bible” Seol from the Academy lineup.

Although DWG KIA have yet to make an official statement, the team has moved Bible to the main roster shortly after the announcement of COVID infections. So even without an official announcement, it seems likely that DWG KIA will enter the next match with Bible as the main support.

On the other side, it’s unclear how the LCK squad will approach their mid lane situation. DWG KIA could potentially promote Jeong “Pullbae” Ji-hoon from DWG KIA Challengers to replace Showmaker, but the team has yet to do so.

Considering ShowMaker’s status as the team star player, it is likely that DWG will only replace Kellim and play with ShowMaker in the final week of LCK 2022 Summer regular season.

The LCK 2022 Summer is nearing the end, with only two more weeks ahead of the Korean LoL teams before the regular season ends. Heading into the eighth week of LCK 2022 Summer, only Gen.G and T1 are locked in for the playoffs, while Fredit BRION and Hanwha Life Esports are the only two teams who will not reach the postseason.

DWG KIA enter the final week of the regular season with a 9-5 record, three wins behind T1 and four behind Gen.G, who lead the standings with 13-1. So even though DWG KIA likely won’t be competing for the LCK regular season title, the Korean squad is on the brink of qualifying for the playoffs.

Likewise, it’s unlikely for DWG KIA to miss the playoffs as they would have to lose all of their next four matches, while Kwangdong Freecs would have to win all four.