T1 a team destined for International success

South Korean League of Legends has always been synonymous with greatness. With some of the best players and teams the world has ever seen, the LCK quickly became regarded as the best regional League in RIOT Games record-breaker MOBA League of Legends.

Samsung White, Samsung Galaxy, Damwon Gaming, and of course the 2013, 2015, and 2016 SK Telecom 1 are some of the best teams to ever play the game we all love to watch and play.

SKT1, now known as T1 has always been among the best teams in the world, and is the most decorated League of Legends organization in the entire globe, with three World championships, 10 LCK Titles, and two MSI titles. So it should be a surprise that T1 is a team destined for international success correct?

Well since rebranding to T1 the organization hadn’t found the success they previously had, despite having won the spring split of 2020, T1 saw DWG KIA dominate the next year and a half, winning three straight LCK Splits, a World Championship title, and defeating them in the Semifinals of the 2021 Worlds championship where DWG KIA eventually lost to EDG and wasn’t able to replicate the back-to-back Worlds championship title that only T1 has been able to achieve.

The new Superteam in the LCK

With DWG KIA suffering some heavy roster changes, and Gen.G assembling an all-star squad everyone thought that this was going to finally be the year of Gen.G. After all on paper a roster of Doran, Peanut, Chovy, Ruler and Lehends screams LCK title and international success.

However, the Superteam that we got wasn’t the one that was advertised but a new dynasty in the making. T1 rookies were no longer that, inexperienced players with Faker at the wheel, now Faker once again had some world-caliber players on his team, and normally when that happens it is not fun for other team or their fans, I am the living proof of this because as a Gen.G fan believe me it wasn’t fun see T1 steamrolling over everyone in the league.

This team went 18-0 in the regular phase of Spring Split, becoming the first team in the history of the LCK to go undefeated in the regular phase. In playoffs, they only dropped a map in the final to Gen.G and showed why they were the true super team in the LCK.

T1 roster was full of talent from the top to the bottom of it. Faker might not be in his prime but he is still easily a top 3 mid laner in the LCK.

Keria and Gumayusi proved to be the best bot lane in the world, and in the laning phase, they were unmatched, creating some big leads on the bottom side of the map.

Oner continued to look like a much better jungler for what this T1 team needed, and his playstyle versatility really helped the team.

With the passing of the Spring Split Zeus develop into one of the best top laners in the World, something only a few would have predicted at the start of the Split.

It seemed the T1 dynasty was back, they dominated their competition domestically and now will have a chance to prove their worth on the international stage at the 2022 MSI.

MSI 2022 and its struggles

Coming into MSI T1 was seen as the massive favorite to win the tournament. The group stage went without any problem, as the LCK champions won all their matches as predicted, going 6-0 and moving on to the Rumble Stage.

Here the team didn’t get off to a great start, losing their first match against LEC champions G2 Esports, in a way that many weren’t expecting. Despite a good early game, which is already synonymous with this T1 squad by now, the team fell apart in the mid-game, and some questionable decisions that you normally don’t seem them make ended up costing them the game.

The real shock came when they also dropped a game to RNG where they once again had complete control of the game but let the victory slip in the mid-game and to Evil Geniuses a result that baffled most fans since T1 was the only Major region team the North American side was able to defeat, as they have a record of 0-6 versus G2 Esports in the tournament so far.

But the Korean side was still able to finish second in the Rumble stage and made the playoffs.

Most of their problems come from having a bad read in the meta, at least so far, and their botlane isn’t performing as well as expected against some of the other botlanes in the tournament.

They have also made some mistakes in the mid to late game, which consequently lost them games that they should have won.

However, this is very much fixable. Losing in a best of one can happen, and I think some people exaggerated T1 losses in the Rumble Stage. Even during the regular Split they won drop map but would always come out on top and win the series.

I think that in playoffs we will see the true T1, a very dominant team in the early game, that gets advantages through their laning phase, and that plays the mid and late game very well, especially the team fights.

No one has been able to defeat this team in a best of five yet and I think that is going to continue to be true after this MSI 2022.

Best-of-five is a whole different game and is a game where T1 thrives. So I expect this team to come out of MSI with yet another title to add to their trophy cabinet.