The dream is still alive and kicking for T1.
In the highly-anticipated match-up between T1 and LNG Esports, it was the LCK second seed that saw the series through in three straight games to book a spot in the Worlds 2023 semifinals. T1 will meet JD Gaming in a rematch of the Mid-Season Invitational 2023 upper bracket final, which JDG would go on to eventually win.
Unfortunately for LNG, their run at the world championship comes to a bitter end after what looked to be a promising run. And their loss also meant that there won't be an all-LPL semifinal showdown at Worlds 2023. T1 remains as the sole LCK representative despite the home ground advantage, which saw two other LCK teams drop out over the last few days.
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LNG EsportsThe featured match-up of the best-of-five series was between Sang-hyeok “Faker” Lee of T1 and Lee “Scout” Ye-Chan, arguably two of Korea's best midlaners. Having faced each other in three separate Worlds group stage games, this was the first time both players would meet in the knockout stage. And unfortunately, it was T1 who came out on top in all three games, making it look almost effortless at times.
True Blue Series
LNG played all three games on the blue side, which has had close to a 60 per cent win rate. But that didn't matter much to T1, who started the first game of the series in convincing fashion despite LNG getting the first blood. However, that would end up being one of two LNG kills for the entire game, which went to Hua-Yu “Zika” Tang.
Faker was also instrumental in the team's first game win as he secured a perfect KDA of 3/0/8. Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong also showcased great skill with Nilah in only her second appearance in-game as he also had a perfect KDA of 4/0/6. Even Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon played a pivotal role with Rell to get 12 assists out of the team's 13 kills.
The second game was marginally better from LNG but it still wasn't enough to hold T1 back. While both teams managed few kills throughout the match, Oner deserves his flowers once more as he was part of every kill that T1 had. Gumayusi also played Varus to near-perfection as he got half of the team's eight kills in the game. But it was Choi “Zeus” Woo-je who secured the second game victory for T1 as his Aatrox went ballistic in the final team fight for the drake to get the LNG team wipe.
With their backs against the wall, LNG needed to do something different and the mid-lane champion switch-around from game one seemed to be a good idea on paper. As Faker's Orianna won against Scout's Azir in the first game, putting Scout on Orianna in a do-or-die match seemed like a good gamble on paper. But it was Oner who set the tone of the third game with his solo kill first blood on LNG's jungler, Seung-yong “Tarzan” Lee. LNG would eventually get outplayed by T1 as they got held to just three kills yet again.
Zeus had another noteworthy performance, this time on Jayce as he had a perfect KDA of 6/0/3 and being a constant thorn in LNG's side. As for Faker's Azir, he managed to get two kills to go with a single death and seven assists. Ryu “Keria” Min-seok also had the same number of assists as he was the second player with a perfect KDA for T1 as they kept LNG silent for the majority of the game and series.
T1 will have to face two more LPL teams in its journey to the Summoner's Cup, starting with a best-of-five MSI 2023 rematch against JD Gaming. If they are successful, they will face either Weibo Gaming or Bilibili Gaming in the other semifinal series.
