HLE makes a “rare” ban pick in the decisive game against T1
The highly anticipated match this weekend is the showdown between HLE and T1. Although HLE is currently showing overwhelming strength, many viewers still trust T1, especially since they had a close match against Gen.G last weekend. However, it seems that HLE is simply too much for a player like Smash. Interestingly, HLE did something rare when facing T1: they did not ban any ADC champions in game 2 of the match.
It can be said that, historically, whenever facing top teams like T1, banning ADC champions is something that is “definitely necessary”. For instance, in the T1 – Gen.G match, there was always at least one ADC champion banned by Gen.G. Or in the T1 – DRX match, “Dragon Blue” banned a total of 4 ADCs in game 1 just to be cautious. But HLE, they banned no ADC champions in game 2.
Notably, HLE is the only team that has done this against T1 in both of their last two encounters. In the LCK Cup, in both game 1 and game 5, HLE also did not ban any ADC champions. Meanwhile, T1 had to ban 4 of Viper’s ADC champions in game 1. In fact, this time, HLE was so confident that they even let both Kalista and Ashe go for T1 and allowed Viper to use the “win lane – win game” champion, Caitlyn.
HLE’s confidence, or has T1 diminished their own strength?
HLE has reasons to be confident, as the only T1 player who could lane and make Viper and Delight worried was Gumayusi, who was benched. But this also shows that T1 has squandered a source of their strength. On top of that, T1 used Kalista and Ashe, leading to a true “disaster” for the reigning 2024 World Champions. In fact, T1 did not manage to take down even one tower from HLE in game 2.
Currently, T1 still has many strong and unpredictable opponents that they have yet to face in the 2025 Regular Seasons. However, it would not mean much if T1 itself is unstable. Once the players continuously have to rotate their gameplay based on each ADC instead of all 5 practicing different champion matchups together, then T1’s potential losses may not come as a surprise anymore.