The classic T1 versus Gen.G matchup in the LCK Summer finals 2023 is almost pre-destined.
They met for the first time in the upper bracket semifinals where Gen.G won 3-2. Narrowly edging out KT Rolster in the lower bracket final, T1 kept their tournament hopes alive to set up a rematch with their longtime rivals.
In the finals, Gen.G triumphed again — in a sweep that LCK observer Lee “Jonna Strong” Jin-sae predicted perfectly.
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With former star bot laner Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, Gen.G picked up their first domestic win at LCK Summer 2022, sweeping T1 3-0. During LCK Spring 2023, they met T1 in the finals again, and once more defeated them 3-1 to secure a second consecutive title with a refreshed roster comprising rookie Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan and support Yoo “Delight” Hwan-joong in the bot lane.
T1 on the other hand, took a longer road to the LCK Summer finals 2023. Due to injury, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok had to sit on the bench for a few weeks, which impacted the team’s results. Nonetheless, their 9-9 match record finish was enough to secure a playoffs spot. Starting from round one, they fought through four series and three opponents to get here.
LCK Summer finals 2023 saw Gen.G executing swiftly, accurately, and lethally
Gen.G’s front to back team composition secured game one
T1 drafted Lucian and Nami to go up against Zeri and Rakan. Together with Faker’s Jayce, the plan was for these two champions to get ahead so that during team fights, they can poke their opponents down before engaging.
This did not pan out, however, for Gen.G utilized Taliyah’s pushing power in mid to rotate and reap kills in the side lanes. Snowballing from there, their comp only became tougher as the game went on with the Sejuani, Camille, and Rakan frontline beefed up.
As a result, Gen.G confidently secured all four dragons in the game into Cloud Soul. Using their AOE spells to zone out their opponents, they naturally had the upper hand in full-on 5v5 clashes, laying down multiple crowd control spells in the river.
They were so ahead that Peyz and Han “Peanut” Wang-ho didn’t even die once. The fed Zeri player and LCK Spring 2023 finals MVP finished the game with a 12/0/6 KDA, dealing an average of 768 damage per minute based on gol.gg’s stats.
Delight’s Blitzcrank delighted in game two
Gen.G deployed a similar team composition in game two with Peanut leading the charge on Sejuani. They changed things up by having Delight on Blitzcrank as a response to the immobile Lulu and Aphelios bot lane.
What’s more, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon picked his all-time signature Sylas. An off-meta champion this season, he’s only played Sylas once during the regular season, but of course, is very experienced in this Ahri matchup — and very quickly flexed his mastery by drawing first blood in a flashy combo.
Game two played out the same way as it did in game one, but with a lot more action. Due to their chosen team composition, T1 still didn’t have an answer to Sejuani: realistically, none of the champions could bring her HP down to zero.
Catching Peanut out 4v1 in river at the third dragon spawn, his life was never at stake. The moment they blew their cooldowns on him, Gen.G swiftly engaged their opponents, wiping out four for dragon and Baron.
By the 25-minute mark, Gen.G amassed a 10,000 gold lead and was in full control of the game. Blitzcrank continued to pose a threat, especially in the jungle where vision was contested.
Again on Zeri, Peyz output the most damage in the game with a 27.1% share with another flawless 12/0/3 KDA.
Welcome to the League of Draven in game three
The frequent skirmishes only intensified in game three. Knowing that they had to change things up, T1 grabbed Sejuani for themselves, so Gen.G settled on Maokai. Tired of being the sitting duck, Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong pulled out Draven for absolute lane dominance.
Gen.G responded by drafting Nilah and Rakan bot, absorbing pressure in the early game.
Because both teams kept trying to one-up each other, blood was drawn all across the Rift. Peyz finally died for the first time in this series. It was also the first time when Gen.G trailed in gold, playing on the backfoot.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, nor was it as one-sided as T1 wanted it to be. A majority of the kills still went over to Peyz’s Nilah while Chovy’s K’Sante kept them alive, going toe-to-toe with Faker, even solo killing him.
At 25 minutes, T1 held a 4,000 gold lead, which meant that Gen.G still had a fighting chance — and they found their biggest opportunity at Baron.
Possessing three dragons, T1 decided to start Baron in the late game. They intentionally disengaged from the objective when Maokai’s ultimate went forward, keeping what they thought was a safe distance.
Chovy, on the other hand, saw the perfect opportunity to flash and knock back the rooted Draven. Immediately, his entire team followed up while he zoned out and eliminated Faker’s Taliyah. Even though Peyz’s Nilah also fell, it didn’t matter because the fight was already won. With Baron, they tore down mid lane to down T1’s Nexus for the championship win.
This is the third consecutive time the LCK finals saw Gen.G and T1 go head-to-head, and so far, Gen.G has triumphed every single time. They will represent their region at Worlds 2023 as LCK’s first seed.
For winning the LCK Summer finals 2023, Gen.G take home US$150,000. Excelling on three unique champions in three games, Chovy was awarded the LCK finals MVP, receiving approximately US$3,700.
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