LPL killer T1 is back. With T1 showing an uplifting move, more and more fans are expecting to win the Worlds title.
T1 advanced to the semifinals by defeating Lingering Esports (LNG) 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 League of Legends (LOL) World Championship (Walls) held at Sajik Indoor Gymnasium in Busan on the 5th.
Contrary to expectations, it was a match that ended with T1’s landslide victory. Before the start of the game, experts evaluated the power of T1 and LNG as equal and predicted a “five-pack” (3-2 or 2-3) match. However, when the lid was lifted, T1 played a one-sided game against LNG, as if to mock experts’ predictions.
On this day, T1 actively took advantage of the red camp in the ban-pick process to record three consecutive wins. In the first set of van picks, T1 chose “Sena” as its fourth pick. LNG, which expected T1’s “Sena-Tamkench” bottom duo, chose “Blitzkrank” to respond to Tamkench. After seeing this, T1 chose distant dealer champion “Nilla” rather than supporter champion to form a “Nilla-Sena” duo.
T1, which succeeded in hitting the counter during the banpick process, pushed LNG from the beginning of the line game. In the first 6 minutes, T1 “Zeus” Choi Woo-je allowed LNG “Tarzan” Lee Seung-yong to gang up and provided the first point, but later brought unilateral gains in the messenger engagement, mid and top lines. T1, which widened the gap by 4,000 gold until the 23rd minute, won the subsequent four-man fight and even won Baron and destroyed LNG’s Nexus in the 26th minute.
LNG did not show any proper response to the operation of T1. LNG, which was unilaterally dragged throughout the third set, failed to pack a single dragon buff on the day. T1’s bottom composition has taken a lot of lead and “Owner” Moon Hyun-joon’s object management has become easier as he frequently shows that he is reversely responding to “Tarzan” Lee Seung-yong’s ganging.
With T1’s victory over LNG, it succeeded in preventing the Walls semi-final matchup from becoming a “4LPL.” T1 will play against Jingdong Esports (JDG) at Sajik Indoor Gymnasium in Busan on the 12th. Jingdong is a strong Walls favorite to win every tournament in 2023 and challenges LOL’s first ever Grand Slam (Spring-MSI-Summer-Walls).
T1 and Jingdong also met in the semi-finals of Walz last year and ended with T1’s 3-1 victory at the time. Although it is difficult for Jingdong to predict the dominance of T1 as it did last year by recruiting “Night” Zudding and “Ruler” Park Jae-hyuk this year, expectations are rising because it is T1 that won a landslide victory over LNG.
In addition, T1 is characterized by no experience of losing to the LPL team in Walls. In total, the LNG competition has recorded a total of six wins (‘2013 Royal Never Give Up’, ‘2016, 17, 22 RNG’, ‘2022 Jingdong’, and ‘2023 LNG’). Attention is focusing on whether he will be able to prevent T1’s “LPL killer” grand slam.