HLE Beat T1 to Claim LCK Second Seed as T1 Fans Show Concern for Team’s Form

Hanwha Life Esports defeated T1 2-0 to guarantee they are the second seed in the LCK Playoffs, meaning they will start in Upper Bracket Round 2 of the Playoffs.

For T1, the loss was another blow to a T1 roster that has failed to build momentum as the LCK Regular Season has progressed. They will now start the LCK Playoffs in Round 1 as the third seed.

The defeat caused T1 legend Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok to share in the post-match conference, “This regular season, I don’t think we were able to show that kind of improvement all the way through, so that’s very disappointing.”

T1 under pressure after lacklustre LCK Regular Season

The loss has further piled scrutiny onto League of Legends’ most famous roster as T1’s LCK Rounds 3-4 split has hardly gone to plan.

Overall, T1 has gone 3-5 in series in the LCK since MSI, winning 42% of their games in that time. The record is the second-worst of the Legends Group, with KT Rolster significantly lagging behind the other Legends teams in the split.

The most painful moment of the split for T1 undoubtedly came at the organization’s Homeground event, which saw the LoL roster record a 0-2 series record and a 1-4 overall game record.

The team’s gameplay has come under severe criticism, with the top side especially drawing question marks from analysts and fans regarding the disconnected nature of the Top-Mid-Jungle trifecta as detrimental to T1’s efforts.

Still, is there really reason to panic for T1? The top four of LCK during the summer have somewhat produced a moment of parity between T1, DK, Gen.G, and HLE.

T1 won a series against Gen.G, DK, and KT, only losing both series to HLE, but HLE lost both of their series vs Gen.G, and dropped a series to KT and DK.

The most significant thing is that KT did finish lower, meaning T1 will advance to the Playoffs, albeit in Round 1. Whether the LCK title is within T1’s reach in their current form is in question, but history has taught us that this is a different roster once at Worlds.

Let’s be honest, though: T1 scraping to Worlds, only to miraculously return to being the best team in the world at the competition, is now a time-honored tradition.

As sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, T1 turns into a different team once at Worlds.

Besides, there is one major bright spot in the roster: Kim ‘Peyz’ Su-hwan. The ADC has been the definition of a carry for T1 for much of the year, displaying incredible mechanical skill alongside generational Support Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok.

The pair have been at the heart of what is good about T1, so if they can prevent the rest of the map from collapsing and allow Peyz to scale into the late game, T1 may have a formula for more Worlds success.