In the latter half of the LCK Spring 2024 group stage, T1 faced numerous challenges, starting with a loss to Gen.G in the return match. In that defeat, T1 displayed an astonishingly poor performance. No one expected that a team considered a championship contender could fail to secure even a single kill in a match. Subsequently, T1 continued to struggle against Dplus KIA and faced another defeat against Hanwha Life Esports. Fortunately for Faker and his teammates, they ultimately managed to maintain their second-place position after the group stage of LCK Spring 2024 concluded.
One of the reasons attributed to this was that Riot had banned the champion Azir due to a bug related to the Teleport summoner spell. For those who may not know, Azir had a serious bug that allowed the champion to become invisible for a few seconds right after using Teleport. It is noteworthy that for professional players, just a few seconds can determine the outcome of a team fight, especially with Azir being a very strong playmaker. Therefore, many believe that Faker’s lack of access to Azir (which is his signature champion) contributed to T1’s difficulties in executing their familiar playstyle.
And just before the LCK Spring 2024 playoffs, T1 received good news when the champion Azir was “unlocked” by Riot. Accordingly, the version used for the playoffs will be the 14.6 update, which includes the main fixes of this version. The return of Azir is expected to bring not only technical advantages but also a morale boost for players who excel with Azir, such as Faker and Chovy.
Before the news of Azir’s return, T1 had received numerous unfavorable updates. First, the team was still being targeted by hackers. All members reported at least once that they were DDoSed while climbing ranks, which affected even the players playing with them at that time and forced T1 players to temporarily halt livestreaming for a while. Additionally, the champion Rell was heavily “nerfed” by Riot and almost completely removed from the Jungle role. Notably, Rell had been a signature champion for Oner recently. Therefore, the return of Azir could provide a glimmer of hope for T1.
In the upcoming LCK Spring 2024 playoffs, T1 will still be one of the championship contenders. With the return of Azir, T1 may devise better strategies and present a completely different face compared to their forgettable performance in the latter stage of the group phase.