Kwandong Freecs break T1's immortal run record

As T1 made history with their incredible regular season run that lasted the entirety of LCK Spring 2022 split and then some game in Summer, it has finally been broken in an unexpected upset as Kwandong Freecs reverse sweep the reigning LCK champions 2-1. After the match, we have the final record for T1’s regular-season performance: 24 consecutive LCK matches won. It takes a lot of creativity to take down a titan of that caliber, and KDF have truly innovated the pro scene with this victory!

Summer 2022South Korea, Seoul, LoL Park

$297,000Prize Pool

10Teams

PremierTier

Gen.G

Winner

T1

2nd Place

Liiv Sandbox

3rd Place

That was a match best seen live, to be sure. In case you missed it, here’s a quick rundown of what went down in each game – spoilers ahead!

07:46Finished29.06.2022

2Kwangdong FreecsSouth Korea

1T1South Korea

Map One: T1’s first strike

The series started off with T1 displaying unbreakable dominance in Map one as Zeus‘ Gwen and Oner‘s Xin Zhao decimated KDF’s toplane. It seemed as if the series would continue looking like this for the rest of the maps as T1 wrapped the map up in under 30 minutes. KDF’s unorthodox Ornn mid pick remained ineffective throughout the entire game, seemingly allowing T1’s Azir to scale up in peace.

Map Two: KDF strikes back

However, starting in Game Two, the Freecs managed to stabilize the situation by bringing out the previously unexplored botlane carry Seraphine. The duo of fasting Senna – when the ADC Senna doesn’t pick up any CS and instead relies on her Soul Gathering mechanic to scale up – and AP Carry Seraphine completely dominated over T1’s previously regarded as the best botlane in the world.

Teddy’s fasting Ashe took T1 off-guard and secured the victory in Game Three. Photo by: Inven.

Map Three: Botlane Diff

T1 recognized Senna’s importance in KDF’s draft and took her out in the very first round of Map 3 bans. That was the moment Kwandong Freecs pulled out their trump card – fasting Ashe. This pick has been finding a lot of success and popularity in all levels Solo Queue, but its appearance on the pro scene, especially as the fasting ADC and not Support, has been most unexpected for both the spectators and KDF’s opponents. As Hoit was allowed to use his APC Seraphine once again thanks to the Ashe pick, the trend of Kwandong’s botlane dominance continued well into Game Three.

29th of June games ended up in two big upsets. The duo of previously undefeated in Summer 2022 DRX and T1 were both struck with upset losses.