HLE’s Draft Shows T1 Is “No Longer a Fearsome Factor”
While the T1 – Gumayusi drama is still hot, the League of Legends community has noticed a special factor in the drafts of teams facing T1 at the LCK Cup 2025. Notably, right from the match against Gen.G, these “unusual” bans appeared, most prominently in the recent T1 – HLE match.
Specifically, in all 5 games, HLE only banned Marksmen in 2 games (Kalista – Zeri in game 2 and Kalista in game 4). These are two champions that are quite strong according to the meta, and one of them can be considered quite comfortable for Smash. HLE also had the least bans against T1’s Marksman position at the LCK Cup 2025, despite being the team that played the most games against T1 (5 games).
In contrast, Dplus KIA (T1’s opponent on the opening day of the LCK Cup 2025) banned at least 1 pure Marksman champion in all 3 games. In the decisive game, they dedicated 3 bans to Gumayusi’s position.
In T1’s last 3 matches, only Gen.G continued to ban heavily against Smash’s Marksman position (4 bans/3 games). Even Nongshim RedForce only banned in this position 3 times/2 games.
On the other hand, T1 themselves banned 4 Marksmen in game 1 against HLE. This can be seen as quite surprising. Because T1 only banned once against the Marksman position (in game 3) during their loss to DK. Even when facing HLE in last year’s Summer Playoffs, T1 only banned a Marksman once (Jhin from Viper in game 2).
When T1 still had Gumayusi in their lineup, their opponents always had to dedicate many bans to this position. But clearly, when the opponent has a player who is almost certain to lose to their own team member, top teams don’t need to waste too many bans in this position anymore, especially when Fearless Draft has helped them limit their opponent’s power considerably.
T1 Is Going Against the Playstyle That Brought Them Success
While it’s true that T1 no longer has Zeus at this moment, previous matches, especially the one against HLE, showed that Doran can also deal damage. However, if using Smash, T1 can only play a “Marksman-centric” composition. This way, opponents can easily counter T1’s playstyle. And the unpredictability of Keria or Oner also diminishes as they have to spend more time on their Marksman.
But nevertheless, T1 has completed the LCK Cup and will soon enter the Regular Seasons. Whatever choices they make, this team will receive corresponding results for their 2025 journey.