The LCK still have three more teams in contention for the Knockout Stage after Dplus KIA defeated Team BDS at Worlds 2023.
Dplus KIA defeated Team BDS in a clean 2-0 sweep to keep their Worlds 2023 campaign alive for another day while the LEC's fourth seed will be the second team to head home today. Dplus will now move on to the fourth round alongside GAM Esports, who eliminated Team Liquid earlier today. This means that both the LEC and the LCS have one team eliminated from its region.
As an org, Dplus is one of the few LCK teams to have lifted the Summoner's Cup back in 2020 but ever since then, the team has faltered through many roster iterations. Its latest squad still features three players to have won a world title, which includes a reigning world champion AD carry in HyeokGyu "Deft" Kim.
The first match of the series actually saw BDS get the first blood on Dplus but it didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Dplus still managed to get the first rift herald as well as the first turret while also keeping BDS at bay for the most part. Only Kim "Canna" Chang-dong had two deaths to his name whilst everyone else had one. Both Deft and Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu were the difference makers in the first game as they chipped in with five kills each.
Even Heo "ShowMaker" Su got involved in plenty of Dplus' skirmishes against BDS with seven assists and two kills on Neeko, playing the role of initiator to perfection. Dplus even managed to smother multiple members of BDS as only Juš "Crownie" Marušič was able to get five kills and Theo "Sheo" Borile had just the only other kill.
The second match was very much similar to the first in that Dplus was able to suffocate BDS for much of the match to get a second and final victory. It was a low-scoring match with neither team reaching double digits as Dplus garnered eight while limiting BDS to just four. Even Adam "Adam" Maanane with his GODS buff could only manage three while Sheo got the other. Unfortunately for BDS, Dplus made it another clinical performance by turning every teamfight win to an objective.
That win was also Dplus' first in the Swiss Stage after they suffered two straight defeats to be in its first elimination series. Dplus will have to win all their games from here on out with two more best-of-three series to go before the Knockout Stage.
