T1 are going to the Worlds final again!
This time, they’re up against Weibo Gaming in a LPL versus LCK final.
In the semifinals against JD Gaming they dictated the meta, especially at bot lane, and rounded it up in four games with a 3-1 score.
JDG were the team that knocked them out of the upper bracket at MSI 2023, where they were eventually eliminated by Bilibili Gaming in the lower bracket.
This tournament, when the stakes are higher than ever before, it is T1 who prevailed in the single-elimination playoffs bracket.
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The exact same T1 roster will make a second Worlds final in a row after taking down JD Gaming in the semifinals
T1 started to bring out non-meta picks in the very first game. Jhin was picked for the first time in the competition by Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, paired with Bard bot.
They also got their hands on Aatrox and Rell, two champions that Choi “Zeus” Woo-je and Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun excelled on in the quarterfinals.
Ryu “Keria” Min-seok’s portals and ultimates made all the difference, especially at objectives when big battles were fought.
In the late game, one last clutch Tempered Fate onto the enemy jungler Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok was all they needed to close out this chapter.
The only game that JDG took this series was the second one that evened out the score. Even then, they had to work hard for it, scaling well into the late game.
T1 made themselves heard very early on with an invade that put them up two kills to one. They drove JDG out of their own jungle in a 5v5 posturing session which casters called “level one ARAM.”
Despite playing their favored Caitlyn and Ashe bot lane special, Lou “MISSING” Yun-Feng proved that he could match the LCK bot lane and showed up big for his team by playing Senna for the first time this tournament.
The Rakan master switched gears this series, adapting to his opponents. Combined with Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk’s Kalista, they scaled well into late game, supporting their frontline as they disrupted T1’s formation.
In game three, JDG felt like they were in control in the late game. They had Baron, they were leading minions down mid lane, and they had a gold lead — all they had to do was systematically play things out.
However, everything went downhill in a blink of an eye when Faker pulled off the biggest ultimate-flash play of the series, and possibly the entire tournament.
Coming in from over the wall using Azir’s Q and E, he closed the gap on Ruler’s Varus. Not only that, he predicted his flash, and matched his own to guarantee the pushback from Emperor’s Divide.
The moment that Ruler was clipped, T1 knew that the fight was theirs. Going all in, they aced JDG 30 minutes into the game and marched straight into their base to destroy the Nexus.
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It feels like JDG never recovered after that one big play, not even in game four. On red side, T1 responded to Aatrox in the top lane with a counter-pick of their own — Yone for Choi “Zeus” Woo-je.
He only ever played this champion once in LCK Spring 2023, which resulted in a loss.
At Worlds 2023, it’s a different story. He dominated his lane against Bai “369” Jia-Hao, was constantly up in CS, and made JDG scatter every team fight.
Crumbling under the pressure, the royal road dream ended for JDG as they lost to T1 in 31 minutes.
Throughout the history of the T1 organization, even back when they were SK Telecom T1, they have never lost a best-of-five at Worlds to an LPL team, and that record remains.
The Worlds 2023 final will be the ultimate test, of course, as they face the fourth and final LPL squad after besting Bilibili Gaming, LNG Esports, and JD Gaming.
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