T1’s Painful Defeat
Before the LCK Summer 2024 lower bracket finals took place, the most surprising result for viewers was probably T1’s 0-3 loss to HLE in the upper bracket. After T1 regained their spirit with a victory over DK, many fans believed that Faker and his teammates would successfully “settle the score” against HLE to continue competing with Gen.G. However, this did not happen as T1 faced another defeat against HLE with a score of 1-3 in the lower bracket finals.
After the match ended, many questions arose regarding T1’s ban/pick phase in this game. It should be noted that after Tristana and Corki were nerfed, Smolder became the top-priority champion in tournaments. Zeka had previously “caused trouble” for this team with Smolder in the earlier match. However, T1 allowed their opponent too much freedom in acquiring this extremely “overpowered” champion in the late game, which frustrated many fans.
T1 Oner is “crushed” by LPL fans
Naturally, with T1’s defeat, their players would face criticism from the audience. However, Oner became the focal point of criticism following T1’s recent loss, especially in the LPL region. According to shares from the Hupu forum, Oner received only a 2.5/10 rating for his performance in the recent match from fans in this region. In fact, they even had some harsh criticisms aimed at T1’s jungler’s performance.
Fairly speaking, Oner had moments of good play in T1’s recent match. Notably, in game 2, his Nidalee was very active and helped T1’s main carries gain a significant advantage. Coupled with Faker’s brilliance at the end of the game, T1 achieved an emotional victory in the second game.
However, this player could not maintain that level in the following games and allowed the opponents to continuously outmaneuver them. Especially in game 4, Oner’s excessive caution gave Smolder and Nasus from HLE time to farm and gain strength to a point that T1 could not control. The result was a bitter defeat for T1 against HLE. Perhaps this is why Oner has faced so much “hatred” from the audience.
This loss has eliminated T1’s chance of meeting Gen.G in the grand finals, and their journey to secure a spot at the 2024 World Championship has also been extended. Specifically, T1 will have to compete in the regional qualifiers (starting September 12) to earn a spot at the 2024 World Championship. Hopefully, the T1 team in general and Oner in particular will make good use of the upcoming break to improve their performance, strategy, and achieve favorable results in the upcoming regional qualifiers.