T1 are struggling in LCK Summer 2023

We rarely see Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok struggling in LCK these days. His team has been stable for the last few years and the roster has not changed significantly since 2020. This should give T1 a big advantage over the other competitors.

In LCK Spring 2023, T1 finished 2^nd after heavily dominating the group stage (17 W – 1 L). Gen.G defeated them in the Grand Final of the playoffs (3-1).

At MSI 2023, T1 finished 3^rd after getting defeated by both Chinese teams. JDG beat them in the upper bracket Final while Bilibili Gaming defeated them in the lower bracket Final.

However, despite this disappointment, T1 still managed to win against Gen.G Esports during the tournament and looked ready to win the regional battle in the Summer Split. But something went wrong for T1 in this split. Not completely wrong, because they’re currently 6 W – 2 L. But wrong enough to make them worried.

They are now ranked 3^rd in LCK Summer, a competition they had probably set out to dominate. What’s worse, their first two defeats came against Gen.G Esports and KT Rolster, the two teams who are currently sitting above them in the rankings table.

Gen.G won all of their first eight matches while KT Rolster won seven of them. The one they lost was against Gen.G.

[2023 #LCK Summer Roster]

CONTINUE ON.#T1WIN #T1Fighting pic.twitter.com/pZr1Au18Rj

— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) June 5, 2023

T1’s defeats

T1 suffered their first defeat of LCK Summer 2023 right in the first week of the competition. After beating Hanwha Life Esports, a match in which they had to make a comeback from 0-1, they faced Gen.G. This time, their comeback couldn’t be finalized.

Gen.G won game 1 using a combination of Lucian, Gnar, and Neeko. It only took them 26 minutes. Faker’s team hit back in game 2 with champions like Viego and Zeri. But their mistake was to try to play a similar strategy in game 3. This time, Gen.G were ready and defeated them using Jax and Annie.

The other defeat registered by T1 took place in the 3^rd week of the competition and it was quite brutal.

KT Rolster used Viego in both games, knowing that T1 like to pick this champion. T1 chose to play well-known combinations of champions in response but didn’t execute their strategies very well.

In game 1, their Neeko plus Renekton strategy fell flat after the 25-minute mark. In game 2, KT dismantled them using Aphelios, another one of Faker’s favorite picks.

Header: T1