LCK, the Korean league for professional League of Legendsstarts spring playoffs on March 23rd. Other regions around the world will follow quickly, with Europe's spring playoffs starting on March 25th with Rogue and Misfits competing in the first round.

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The winners of the spring championship for each region will get to go to the second biggest event of the year: the Mid Season Invitational. There are going to be many amazing players vying for that title, and fans should keep an extra careful eye on a few players, in particular. These gamers are some of the best in their region and have interesting storylines going into playoffs, as well.

Viper

Park "Viper" Do-Hyeon is the bot laner of the current defending world champion EDG. He is best known for his incredible mechanical outplays on Aphelios and Arcane protagonist, Jinx.

Before last year, Viper had never gotten a championship trophy despite his overwhelming talent. When asked in an interview what a first-place trophy would mean to him, Viper told interviewer Ashley Kang, "Perhaps the knot in my heart will finally be undone." With Viper becoming both a regional and world champion in 2021, he now faces a new challenge: defending his first-place status.

Fudge

Former top laner Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami made noise last season after quickly ascending the ranks of North American players and helping his team Cloud9 secure a Top 8 finish at the League of Legends World Championships.

This season, Fudge has role swapped to the mid lane and quickly mastered champions like Arcane's genius inventor, Viktor, and the cunning fox, Ahri. Even after the surprising departure of Cloud9's superstar head coach Nick "LS" De Cesare, Fudge and C9 have continued to be one of the two the most dominant teams in North America, and will likely be battling rival Team Liquid for a spot at MSI.

Broken Blade

Sergen "Broken Blade" Çelik is the current top laner for G2 Esports, the team with the most domestic titles in European history and Europe's only MSI champion. After the departure of team leader Perkz, G2 failed to make it to an international event in 2021.

Since then, the team hired lane dominant bruiser player Broken Blade, named after Riven, a character so beloved many want her as the star of the next big League series after Arcane. Broken Blade's carry top lane style is new to a team that usually focused on mid and bot lane and BB is looking to carry his team to another championship.

Canyon

The star jungler for Damwon Kia failed to bring his team back-to-back worlds titles in 2021, after being taken down in game 5 by Viper and EDG. After former world champions Damwon changed every team member aside from Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu and Heo "Showmaker" Su, the team is seen by most as only the third-best team in Korea.

Canyon is still performing at the level of a star player in most games, and the spring playoffs will be his chance to prove that he and star mid-laner Showmaker are still threats to take the world championship. For fans that want to follow him, Canyon's only social media account is a private Instagram account, but he has been known to stream on his Twitch.

Hylissang

When most people think of support champions in League of Legends, their minds go to cute enchanters like Seraphine and Yuumi. However, Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov is a support player that specializes in terrorizing the map with engage and hook supports like Rakan, Pyke, and Blitzcrank.

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Fnatic, Hyli's long-time team, has had a resurgence in the last few years and Hylissang's play has had him vying for the title of Spring Split Most Valuable Player. The player is famous for being one of the trickiest and most annoying support players to play against in-game, and any support player could learn a lot from Hylissang's constant map pressure.

Chovy

Jeong "Chovy" Ji-Hoon is the definition of "always the bridesmaid, never the bride." He has been on some incredibly talented teams throughout the years and always put up strong individual performances even when his teams were weaker, but has never won a championship domestically or internationally.

After playing on possibly his weakest team ever in 2021, Chovy has joined the immensely talented Gen.G Gaming with hopes of finally lifting his first trophy. Whether the mid laner who made his mark by out farming almost every opponent he goes up against finally achieves his first title remains to be seen, but this is Chovy's best chance in many splits.

Bjergsen

Often considered the best or second-best player in North American history (and one of the best Zilean players in the world), Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg is a six-time LCS Championship winner. The biggest slight on his career is despite many appearances at the world championships, Bjergsen has never made it into the quarterfinals.

After leaving the team he spent his entire career as a player and a single year as a coach with, TSM, Bjergsen has transitioned from coaching back into playing on NA superteam Team Liquid. Along with superstars like Bwipo and CoreJJ, the famous mid laner looks to win his seventh domestic title and make some noise at worlds for the first time.

 

Rookie

Victory Five's mid-laner Song "Rookie" Eui-jin is considered by most to be one of the top five players to ever play League of Legends. After winning a world championship with Chinese superteam Invictus Gaming and a semifinals appearance the following year, Rookie went through a lot of struggles with the team and is now playing for Victory Five.

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Alongside V5's star support ppgod and jungler Karsa, Rookie and V5 have secured a high seed heading into the LPL playoffs. Rookie's potential return to the international stage is very possible this season, and invested fans should certainly watch LPL playoff games to see just how far V5 can go.

Uzi

Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao is described by most as the best bot lane marksman player to ever do it. Known best for his Vayne, MSI Champion and two-time world finalist Uzi went into retirement due to health problems. However, Uzi is now back with a new team in Bilibili Gaming.

Uzi's time at Bilibili so far has been a mixed bag, with the team close to a 50 percent win record toward the end of the season. Uzi has shown that his incredible mechanical skill hasn't faded while he's been away, but the team has a lot of work to do if they're going to make it to MSI. Still, the return of one of the greatest marksmen in the game's history is something for fans to keep their eye on. Uzi has no active Twitter or Instagram account for fans to follow, but they can always catch him in interviews after games to learn more about him.

Faker

The undisputed greatest player in League of Legends history is Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok. Faker has won three World Championships, 2 MSI trophies, nine domestic championships in Korea, and has made the top four at worlds six times total throughout his career.

For all his history in the game, it's almost impossible to believe that Faker is still currently possibly the best mid laner in the world. Faker's team, T1, recently broke the record for most consecutive wins in the LCK (a record that Faker himself originally set.) As the undefeated T1 heads into playoffs, Faker hopes to make it to MSI once again and claim both his tenth domestic title and sixth international championship.

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