SofM Accused of “Disrespecting” T1 – TES
At the 2024 World Championship, SofM takes on a new role alongside being a co-streamer for the tournament. However, since Vikings Esports ended their journey at the 2024 World Championship quite early, SofM was able to keep up with the matches in the Swiss round. With Riot’s new rules, from the very first rounds, there have been some extremely exciting matches, notably the highly anticipated matchup: T1 – Top Esports. But perhaps no one expected that this match would land SofM in hot water.
Specifically, as is well known, SofM is famous for not holding back when co-streaming, showing no mercy to any team. He clearly analyzes each situation, and in instances of mistakes from both sides, SofM will “fire” hard. However, in a situation where SofM criticized both T1 and TES, he faced significant backlash from T1 fans who felt he deliberately used T1 to “gain fame” and belittle the team that is still the reigning champion of the World Championship with harsh words.
The Reality of SofM’s Critique
However, if one watches the full stream of SofM, it becomes clear that he assessed the quality of the entire match rather than specifically disrespecting any one team. According to SofM’s explanation, when comparing the T1 – TES match to the subsequent Gen.G – Weibo Gaming match, he deemed the quality of this match to be low due to both teams lacking many high-level macro plays. Moreover, both TES and T1 made several mistakes, and only the team that made fewer mistakes emerged victorious.
Recently, in the TES – Gen.G match, SofM himself admitted that TES did not perform well against T1. And if T1 had not made too many mistakes while having the advantage, the LCK representative would have been the winning team.
Furthermore, SofM is watching the matches as an audience member with much more experience in professional play than many other viewers, having been trained in one of the strongest League of Legends environments. Of course, SofM may have also received feedback from the audience, and he will know how to adjust appropriately in the remaining streams at this year’s World Championship.