That Vayne surely had speed.
During the LCK Spring 2024 Playoffs, T1 made a comeback by winning the revenge match against Hanwha Life Esports. T1 achieved this by using pocket picks against HLE in what we can term as some of the best games of League of Legends in recent times.
The team T1 consists of top laner Choi “Zeus” Woo-Je, jungler Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon, stellar mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, bot laner Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, and support Ryu “Keria” Min-seok. They will be representing the LCK in the forthcoming MSI 2024 along with Gen.G.
The T1 team responds to queries on the media day prior to T1 vs HLE in the LCK Spring 2024 Playoffs. (Image via LCK/Riot Games)
Zeus about his pocket counterpicks: “I invested much time in training.”
During the post-match interview, Zeus discussed his choices of Zac and Vayne to counter Rek’Sai. “I brainstormed a lot about confronting Rek’Sai with various champions. I invested significant time rehearsing picks to bring out,” Zeus stated. “With Zac, I can overcome Rek’Sai, particularly in group brawls.”
T1 Zeus posing for the snapshot before the T1 vs HLE match in the LCK Spring 2024 Playoffs (Image via LCK/Riot Games)
He also won the Player of the Game (POG) award in the 2nd and 3rd games as Zac and K’Sante, respectively. “[HLE] were really sly and targeted me. In the first game… I couldn’t perform very well,” referring to the laneswap strategy that HLE began the series with, which put Zeus in a very unfavorable position. “After [game 1], I was able to oppose and perform pretty well.”
Zeus also attained his 200th victory in the LCK in this series.
The top side of T1 was further strengthened by the selection of Viego by Oner. “In this model, not many teams are utilizing Viego but I’ve always evaluated him quite highly,” states the jungler. “I believe that Viego being left available worked really well for me.”
Gumayusi had two games on Senna, pairing it with Keria’s Sejuani and Ornn. “I made certain to rehearse Senna [prior to our game against HLE],” mentions Gumayusi. Conversely, Keria noted, “We were confident against any sort of drawing we were confronting,” when asked about being a key player in the series.
LCK Spring 2024 Lower Bracket Finals – T1 versus HLE
The 1st game started off comparably normally, apart from the lane swap that HLE prepared. This put Zeus’ Twisted Fate at a inadequacy and made him virtually inconsequential for a significant part of the game.
In spite of this, T1 found appreciable leads through good macro calls and superior team fight skills. At one juncture, they were leading by over ten thousand gold. However, HLE bot laner Park “Viper” Do-hyeon had alternative plans and carried his team to a victory. Interestingly, they opted to be on the Red Side of the map for game 2.
In the second game of T1 versus HLE, the first aces up T1’s sleeve were seen: Zac top, Viego jungle, and Sejuani support. This is fairly manageable and nothing we haven’t seen earlier, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t effective. T1 balanced the series 1-1 after Viper’s poke Varus couldn’t penetrate through T1’s meatball frontline.
By the third game, HLE adapted by banning Sejuani and killing the flex pick. T1 responded by choosing Ornn support and rerunning Oner’s Viego. The Summoner Spellbook on Ornn support allowed T1 to win this game early by having two Smites on their team and stealing Baron before the 21-minute mark.
In the fourth game of T1 versus HLE, T1 finalized the deal with Zeus’ Vayne lock-in. Equipped with Ghost, he was literally making circles around HLE. T1 even treated their opponents to a bit of déjà vu:
The win ensured a 100% win rate for the Blue Side throughout the series. T1 will compete against Gen.G Esports in the Grand Final of the LCK Spring 2024 Playoffs for the 5th time consecutively. In their previous four confrontations in the finals, Gen.G secured the trophy all four times.