Alongside the conclusion of the LCK, the lower tier tournament of League of Legends in Korea – LCK CK Summer 2021 has also wrapped up with GEN Challengers claiming the championship title. Meanwhile, the former champion of LCK CK Spring – T1 Challengers, experienced a truly disastrous season, finishing at the bottom of the standings with a record of 5 wins – 13 losses.
Still featuring the same names that rose to glory in the spring, the abysmal decline of T1 Challengers in the summer has left experts baffled and unable to explain. The main reason suggested is likely the team’s outdated playstyle, failing to keep up with the current meta, causing T1’s players to feel completely out of place in a tournament where they had just claimed victory a few months prior.
T1 Challengers concluded the group stage with a loss to GEN Challengers on August 9. In a match where all their weaknesses seemed to be “copied” directly from the main roster: they could take the lead but made critical mistakes in the late game.
T1 Challengers even pushed directly into the base of GEN Challengers during this match, but their hesitation while attempting to destroy the Nexus turret allowed the opponents to respawn and defend in time. The subsequent developments favored Roach and his teammates as they secured the Baron buff, but Mowgli and Hoit’s failure to control vision around the top jungle area led to T1 Challengers collapsing in the following team fight.
It can be seen that, compared to the spring season, Coach Bengi’s students have shown astonishing signs of decline. Besides the issue of being out of meta, both Mowgli, Roach, and Hoit have displayed unstable performances in their gameplay. T1 Challengers still proved to be formidable in executing team fights, but their other aspects like laning, control, and finishing games were very poor.
Concluding LCK CK Summer 2021 in the last place has made T1 Challengers one of the reigning champions with the worst performance in the professional League of Legends tournament system. However, fans can find some solace as T1’s other two teams, the main roster and the Academy team, both finished as runners-up in their respective tournaments (LCK and LCK Academy) – a sign that the quality of T1’s training facility remains largely intact, despite the dismal performance of the Challengers team.