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The 2021 World Championship event in League of Legends already featured multiple stages of the competition. One of the biggest LoL tournaments included the play-in stage with multiple qualification and knockout rounds, followed by the main groups stage itself, and also the final playoffs bracket.
Being one of the biggest and most popular esports events in the world, this years’ final LoL Worlds 2021 tournament, organized by Riot Games, was held offline in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The League fans from all over the globe were already lucky enough to witness a lot of absolutely stunning and highest level competitive action starting from the play-in phase of the Worlds 2021 event, where one of the best LoL teams — contenders from multiple regions competed for the right to participate in the main group stage of the LoL world championship.
One of our previous Worlds articles described the state of the Worlds 2021 groups, the story of the South Korea versus China, Hanwha Life Esports vs LNG Esports matchup and the Chinese phenomena itself. It also covered the tournament path of the best Japanese LoL team titled DetonatioN FocusMe and featured the recap of some of the play-in tiebreaker series.
In turn, the other article featured in our Worlds 2021 coverage section contained some of the detailed information about the final and most interesting play-in matches such as the Hanwha Life Esports vs Beyond Gaming matchup and also the Cloud9 vs PEACE showdown. This second article also briefly previewed the Worlds main group stage event.
Next on the list, the main group stage matches at the Worlds 2021 stage started from October 11. There, sixteen best LoL teams divided in four groups were playing each other twice in a Bo1 series format, with two best teams in each group advancing straight to the consecutive playoffs phase of the 2021 World Championship.
Speaking of the main group stage matches, one of our latest articles about Worlds 2021 was specifically dedicated to the record 6-0 groups performance of one of the best South Korean LoL teams — DAMWON Gaming. The Korean powerhouse managed to not lose a single Bo1 match in their first group A of the Worlds 2021 main groups stage event.
With this kind of results, the DAMWON Gaming team one par with the other playoffs participants at the Worlds 2021 event were through to the event’s next and final knockout stage. One of the best LCK teams, the DK team was set to meet Europe’s top contenders — the MAD Lions team, competing in LEC and originating from Spain. The DAMWON Gaming vs MAD Lions matchup was scheduled third on the list of the quarterfinal games.
Speaking of the knockout phase itself, the first match of the playoffs at Worlds 2021 event featured a very interesting pair of the South Korean contenders — the T1 vs Hanwha Life Esports matchup. But let us first just briefly talk about how the T1 squad earned their immense respect from a lot of the esports followers around the world.
As the Hanwha Life Esports‘ star opponents, the T1 multigaming esports organization is also known on the global esports stage under the name of SK Telecom T1. It is surely one of the oldest and most respected esports organizations in the world.
The South Korean giants started their path as a small professional StarCraft: Brood War esports team almost 20 years ago in 2002 under the name Orion, led by the legendary Terran player and one of the first and most known progamers Lim “BoxeR” Yo Hwan.
The League of Legends department of the famed South Korean organization, featuring some of the most legendary and iconic LoL players of all times such as Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, is mostly famous for winning the Worlds series championship for the record three times in the history of the title.
The third Worlds event held in Los Angeles, United States, which is also known as Season 3 World Championship, was won by the SK Telecom T1 K squad in October 2013. The SKT team finished the final match with a convincing 3:0 score against the former Chinese giants Royal Club in the final Bo5 match of the Season 3 Worlds series event.
Prior to the epic S3 finals, the South Korean LoL team managed to outplay their opponents in the first group A of the event, standing on par with the strong Chinese team Oh My God and boasting the solid 7-1 record. And then they overcame Taiwan‘s Gamania Bears and also another Korean NaJin Black Sword team in the 2013 event’s playoffs bracket.
Despite finishing second and losing to EDward Gaming with the 2:3 score at the Mid Season Invitational series tournament in 2015, the SKT squad once again triumphed at the main Worlds 2015 event which was played out offline in various European cities of France, United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany.
At the event, the SK Telecom T1 roster was seeded into the third group C of the European championship and, unlike all of the other participating teams who lost one or more games, the South Korean team advanced forward with the clean 6-0 record. SKT then consequentially defeated other strong squads such as ahq eSports Club, also Origen, and the scary KOO Tigers team in the final match.
The third and last first place finish at the Worlds series events for the SKT organization occured at Worlds 2016 which was held in United States. The SK Telecom T1 team grabbed more than $2,000,000 prize money for their 3:2 victory against Korea’s Samsung Galaxy.
On their way to the championship title in the playoffs bracket of the US event, SKT came ahead of formidable opponents such as Royal Never Give Up and also the ROX Tigers team.
Coming to the ongoing Worlds 2021 event, the T1 organization were in decent shape as they were slowly grinding it up and getting better and better results tournament after tournament.
They came fourth at the LCK 2021 Summer event with the somewhat unconvincing 11-7 record. The T1 team then placed second at the LCK 2021 Summer Playoffs, where they lost 1:3 to the likes of the DAMWON Gaming roster in the final match of the South Korean LoL event.
Heading into the LCK 2021 Regional Finals, Faker’s squad faced their current rivals — the Hanwha Life Esports roster. The close and full Bo5 series ended with the 3:2 score in favor of the T1 team, who then were able to qualify for the Worlds 2021 main group stage event.
In the recent matches, T1 topped their respective group B of the Worlds 2021 main group stage and the HLE squad ended up with another strong finish being 4-2 in the following group C and only losing to the opposing Royal Never Give Up squad in the Bo1 matches of the groups tiebreaker series.
Going straight to the T1 vs Hanwha Life Esports matchup at the Worlds 2021 event itself, the first game of the Bo5 quarterfinal series between the two South Korean LoL squads lasted for a little longer than half an hour. One of the T1’s three jungle players on their active roster coming straight from the T1 Academy team — Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon, managed to draw first blood of the game around the 8 minute mark.
The first kill of the game happened when the T1 support player Ryu “Keria” Min-seok who was playing Thresh this game, ended up roaming to the top side of the map, and together with the Kim “Canna” Chang-dong’s top lane Graves, three of the T1 members were able to kill the opposing top lane Irelia, controlled by Park “Morgan” Gi-Tae.
Not only Oner was able to take the Rift Herald as a reward afterwards, but the T1 team then were also able to pressure the HLE’s top lane turret and destroy most of its plates and also the bottom lane turret plates before the 10 minute mark of the match.
Taking into account the situation with the positional advantage which was strongly in favor of the T1 team, the Hanwha Life Esports’ jungler Kim “Willer” Jeong-hyeon on his Xin Zhao was only able to respond with a drake kill for his team.
The action started swinging a little in favor of the HLE team after the timer crossed the 10 minute mark of the first game. Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu’s squad were able to push bot and top lane while taking some of the turret plates of their own and the HLE’s duo additionally killing Oner’s Talon.
The underdog South Korean LoL team then were also able to take not only the bot lane turret but also secure a Rift Herald of their own.
One of the important teamfights between the two South Korean LoL teams for the control of the drake area occurred around the 17 minute mark of the game.
First, Deft’s Miss Fortune killed Canna’s Graves, but the initiative then was taken by the T1 squad and they managed to reply with quick three kills and secured a dragon for themselves. Two of the remaining HLE players were also killed afterwards.
Speaking of the objectives control, after the teamfight two of the tier 1 turrets in both bottom and middle lane were then quickly destroyed by the T1 squad. The T1 team then also secured another dragon kill as the HLE jungler was killed two times straight in a row.
The SKT squad were able to take Baron Nashor’s buff around the 25 minute mark, with the HLE team killing off the buff holders afterwards.
The SK Telecom T1 team used their buff to push the objectives around the map including another drake kill, and Hanwha Life Esports’ tier 2 turrets were all also gone before the 30 minute on the match’s timer.
It looked like the initiative in the match after the Baron Nashor kill was entirely taken by the SKT squad who seemed to be in the overall full control. Oner secured another Baron kill at the 32 minute and the tier 3 turrets were falling.
The first game of the match ended in favor of the SKT squad in less than two minutes after the second Baron Nashor’s buff was acquired by Faker’s team.
During the final push on the 33 minute, the T1 team were able to kill Willer and destroy two of the inhibitors on the bottom and middle lane. Afterwards, the HLE team could not do much, as the nexus turrets on the Hanwha Life Esports’ base were also gone, and the nexus itself was destroyed.
The first game ended with the 11-6 kill score in favor of the winning T1 team. Moreover, their objectives control was also far superior: 10-2 in terms of turrets, three drakes and two Barons against the only single drake for Willer on the 10 minute, who finished the game with the 0-5-0 score.
The gold difference was extended to a convincing 10k in the end of the first game, and the gold graph, excluding the back and forth intense action around the 10 minute of the match, was steadily progressing in favor of the South Korean champions.
And of course it was none other than Faker on his Orianna who managed to do most of the impact in the first game with over 18k damage dealt to the enemy champions.
Interestingly enough, all three games of the match lasted for more or less the same amount of time, but the T1 squad was learning every time and steadily making small steps forward and progressing more and more in each of the games played.
The second game started with turret plate exchanges and Oner’s Poppy taking control of the first Rift Herald in the Summoner’s Rift map. The 10 minute skirmish ended up with Faker’s Lissandra getting first blood reward in a first two kills of the game.
Even though the Hanwha Life Esports were given the blue side of the map this time, it seems that it was not helping them too much in this game.
After Faker secured his double kill including the first blood bonus, the LoL team on the red side started taking a lot of turret plates. The two teams were pressuring, counter pushing each other and basically base racing as the exchange of the turret plates continued after the 10 minute mark of the match.
Most of the objectives and kills were then taken by the SKT team. Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong’s Aphelios killed tier 1 turret on the top lane and Oner took drake at the 14 minute, followed by the massive teamfight on the 18 minute that was totally in favor of the red side team. Poppy took another Rift Herald and drake while Canna was killing everybody left and right on his Gwen.
After the total carnage, Oner secured Baron Nashor for the T1 squad around the 25 minute mark. SKT took a few towers and another drake. Kills and turrets were exchanged back and forth.
Almost reaching the 30 minute mark in the second game of the match, Oner took Baron Nashor’s buff and the SKT team were able to ace the entire HLE squad with Gumayusi picking a triple kill.
The T1 squad then just pushed mid for the win. They took tier 3 turret along with the middle inhibitor building and both of the nexus turrets. As the result, Hanwha Life Esports’ nexus was destroyed before the timer reached the 30 minute mark.
The even more convincing victory of the T1 squad over the likes of the HLE team was labeled by the straightforward 14-2 scoreline in terms of the overall kills. SKT’s map control was so huge that the HLE team took zero dragons and Barons to the enemy’s three drakes and two Nashor power plays.
Additionally, the other strong indicative factors were both the 9-2 turret score and also the gold lead progress staying at the 13k mark in favor of Faker’s team.
Keria’s Braum finished the game with the respectable score for the support player of 1-0-12 and Willer’s Xin Zhao instead was with 0-3-1.
With the 2:0 score in the series, the third game ended up as an even more convincing win for the three times Worlds champions coming from South Korea.
The last game of the series started with the HLE’s jugnler Willer on his Olaf quickly taking the dragon near the 7 minute mark.
And while the opposing SKT team were actively pushing the bottom lane of the map, Olaf was relentless in his early initiative and was able to also grab an early Rift Herald for his team.
The SK Telecom T1 roster continued to take bot turret plates. Moreover, the South Koren champions further extended their positional advantage on the map by diving the turret and killing the HLE’s support player Oh “Vsta” Hyo-seong on his Braum on the bot lane side. As the result of their efforts, Gumayusi’s Aphelios last hitted the bot turret before the 12 minute of the game.
Oner’s Talon secured a drake for his team and then they started taking off multiple plates from the HLE’s top lane turret. It seems that all of the action on this third and final map was only ending in favor of the SKT squad.
Talon’s team took a Rift Herald and in the teamfight they were able to swing the action in their favor by killing four champions of the Hanwha Life Esports’ roster. The red side team then continued their domination with the strong objectives control, taking one of the drakes and also multiple turrets.
Due to the confrontation that happened for the Baron Nashor area control at the 23 minute, the teamfight went in favor of the T1 team. Not only they were able to take the Baron for themselves, but also Gumayusi and Oner picked most of the HLE members off the map.
Talon took another drake and the SKT roster pushed bot turrets with the lower lane’s inhibitor also falling down. Oner then last hitted another Baron Nashor with Willer and Deft’s Varus dying in the process. The T1 members, empowered by the Baron buff, were able to push the top lane straight to the nexus and one nexus turret on top was also wiped out.
The objectives were falling as SK Telecom T1 took full control of the map. They were picking off members of the Hanwha Life Esports’ team left and right.
When in the final fight the HLE’s bot lane duo was for the last time entirely taken out of the equation, the bottom inhibitor and the nexus building itself were all taken down in the result of the SKT team pushing the game to the victory.
The kill score was 18-1 in favor of the winning T1 organization. The 60k gold earned by T1 and 44 thousand by their opponents resulted in a total of more than 16k difference. The HLE team could not get a single turret and got only one plate, while Faker’s team were able to destroy 10 of the similar enemy structures on the map and grab eight turret plates of their own.
Moreover, in terms of objectives around the map, T1 had four drake kills and two Baron Nashor buffs during the third and final game of the quarterfinal series between both South Korean teams.
One of the best players on the T1 team were Oner’s jungling Olaf and Keria’s Thresh support, who both finished the game with the quite solid scores of 5-0-10 and 1-0-13, respectively.
With this almost flawless victory in the knockouts stage of the Worlds 2021 championship, the T1 team were heading into the semifinals stage of the Riot Games’ main championship, while the losing Hanwha Life Esports squad were eliminated from the Worlds event.
And here, some of the most interesting questions already occured. Some of them sounded like: can the T1 team, considering their current shape, really win this year’s Worlds event for themselves and once again write their names in the history book of esports? And please remember that this was only the first playoffs match of the Worlds 2021 event so far.
Contrary to the first and entirely South Korean quarterfinal Bo5 series, which obviously looked pretty one sided for the likes of the fan favorites, coming next one the menu was the monstrous clash between two of the very best LoL teams from China and it was a truly epic matchup.
Easily labeled as one of the best series at this year’s World Championship, the EDward Gaming vs Royal Never Give Up showdown sadly for some of the fans meant that only one of the top Chinese LoL teams was going to proceed to the next phase of the playoffs event.
And as it also sometimes happens, it turned out that all of the prior events only marked the ture beginning of the main Worlds 2021 show so far, and as some of the hottest action at the playoffs bracket was only just starting to develop.