T1 overcome Dplus in LCK Summer playoffs thanks to Faker

T1 came very close to missing another edition of Worlds after their best player, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, suffered a wrist injury that kept him away from the game for weeks.

T1 finished the group stage of LCK Spring in 1^st place with a record of 17 W – 1 L. But in the Summer Split, their record for this stage was 9 W – 9 L. That’s how much Faker means to this organization.

We’re at a point where playing without him feels completely impossible. This constitutes a competitive advantage for him in LoL’s professional scene, but it puts T1 at severe risk. Given that this company has various investors, the incident might make some of them consider selling some of the shares.

It’s hard to sleep at night when you know that millions of dollars depend upon a single person, who happens to be slightly injured and in an uncertain state of health.

[2023 #LCK Summer Roster]

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

— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) June 5, 2023

T1’s victory over Dplus

Upon returning to T1’s main roster, Faker had a simple job to do. He’s one of those players to whom any coach would give just basic advice: “Be yourself.” On a good day, Faker is very hard to beat.

Luckily for T1, the first match was played against Dplus, which isn’t one of the giants in the region. They used to be, but not anymore. This strong team is nowhere near T1’s level if T1 play their A-game.

The best-of-five series ended after the first four games. Both teams came prepared and were extremely stubborn in their picks.

Dplus picked Rakan, K’Sante, Azir, and Sejuani three times. Meanwhile, T1 picked Aatrox three times, Xayah four times, and Jayce twice.

The rest of the picks were more flexible and showed that T1 have a great ability to improvise, depending on what is needed. It’s certainly helpful to have players like Faker on the roster, who can play absolutely anything.

T1 won game 1. After that, Dplus managed to make a comeback by using a draft that was nearly identical to that of game 1. But in games 3 and 4, T1 gave them no chance. What’s interesting is that every single game lasted between 30 and 40 minutes, which is a clear indication that the two teams were good enough to resist the other’s tactics quite well.

It remains to be seen what T1 can do. They will need to finish in the top three if they want to go to Worlds.

Header: T1