As of now in the 2022 World Championship (Worlds), T1 is demonstrating an incredibly strong performance. In the Group Stage, the representative of League of Legends from South Korea defeated EDward Gaming, the reigning champion of Worlds 2021, in both matches. Later, moving on to the Quarterfinals, T1 again defeated Royal Never Give Up, the reigning MSI 2022 champion. This victory also made RNG the second representative from the LPL to exit the Worlds 2022.
Notably, from the Group Stage to now, T1 has used a total of 31 different champions in just 9 matches. Among them, there are quite a few champions that have not been used much at Worlds 2022, such as Soraka, Heimerdinger, Jayce, and Gangplank. In particular, the champion Jayce has only been used three times at Worlds 2022, with two of those instances belonging to Zeus, T1’s Top Laner.
Specifically, for Gumayusi and Keria, T1’s bot lane duo has utilized a total of 16 different champions in their matches. This is a significant number compared to their upcoming semifinal opponent, JD Gaming, who has only used 12 champions. Among these, ADC Hope has only used 5 champions, while the remaining 7 belong to Support Missing.
Due to the rich champion pool of T1 as a whole and specifically for the bot lane duo, Gumayusi recently expressed great confidence in his interview. The 2002-born ADC confidently stated, “We practice and experiment with many combinations in the bot lane. No other bot lane duo has the diversity in champion pool like us. This diversity is the key point in today’s match.”
With the above statistics, it is clear that Gumayusi’s assertion this time is well-founded. Moreover, even with champions that are difficult to use and lack mobility, T1’s ADC handles them very well. For example, in the second game against RNG, Gumayusi used Xayah. Despite having only one ultimate ability R – Featherstorm that provides crowd control immunity, Gumayusi was not taken down even once throughout the match.
The upcoming match against JDG will certainly present more challenges for T1 than facing EDG or RNG. However, importantly, confidence is rising for Gumayusi and the T1 team. With a combination of focus and effort, it is entirely reasonable to believe that T1 will make a significant impact against the third LPL team they face at this Worlds.