No room to breathe. The battle for the mid-table in League of Legends 1 is literally ‘epic’.

After 23 rounds, the K League 1 leaderboard is a mess. Leaders Ulsan Hyundai leads the way with 53 points, while second-place Pohang Steelers (41 points) are playing catch-up.

There’s not much separating third through ninth place. FC Seoul and Jeonbuk Hyundai are tied on 37 points, followed by fifth-place Daegu FC (33 points) and sixth-place Gwangju FC (31 points). The seventh through ninth places are tied at 30 points. Daejeon Hana Citizens, Jeju United, and Incheon United are all tied for third place with multiple points.

Only seven points separate third-place Seoul from ninth-place Incheon. It’s only two or three games away from being tied or even reversed. One loss and they’ll drop down the standings, and one win and they’ll surge up. It’s been a while since the quarterfinals, but even the third and fourth place teams are still not guaranteed a spot in the Final A. Incheon, in ninth place, is still in the running for Final A.

Compared to last year, we can see how tight the battle for the mid-table is this year. At the end of the 23rd round of the 2022 season, which was judged to be as close as ever, the difference between third-place Pohang (37 points) and ninth-place Daegu (27 points) was 10 points. The difference between Suwon FC (29 points), which was in the Final A, and ninth place, which was guaranteed to stay, was two points. That’s a lot of points, but this year it got even more complicated.

As one K League coach said, “My blood ran dry. Every year we say it’s an epic competition, but this year is really difficult. I don’t think there’s a day when I can relax,” he sighed.

On the other hand, the relegation zone seems to be sticking as we pass the midway point. While 10th-place Suwon FC (20 points) has stagnated, 11th-place Gangwon FC (16 points) and last-place Suwon Samsung (15 points) have not changed their positions.

Suwon FC hasn’t been able to break out of its slump, with two draws and five losses in its last seven matches without a win. They haven’t won since Suwon Samsung on March 3. The gap between Gangwon and Suwon is shrinking.카지노

Gangwon and Suwon Samsung are showing signs of rebounding after changing coaches. Gangwon hasn’t won since Yoon Jung-hwan took over, but they’ve accumulated points with three draws and three losses. The Suwon Samsung recorded their first win under Kim Byung-soo in Round 22, beating leaders Ulsan. However, the three teams are far from certain to stay in the competition. Suwon FC alone is 10 points behind Incheon. Gangwon and Suwon, in particular, cannot realistically hope to break into the single digits on their own. They need to work hard to avoid direct relegation.