As we know, in just a few days, the highlight match of the semifinals of the World Championship (Worlds) 2023 will officially take place between T1 and JD Gaming. This is a very special confrontation, as the two teams faced each other once last year, also in the semifinals. At that time, JDG lost completely with a score of 1-3 and exited the tournament, even though they were the defending champions of the LPL. The circumstances this time are different as JDG is now considered the top contender for the championship, and Ruler is currently the most impressive player.
However, T1 also has reasons to be confident. Faker and his teammates have had a solid journey since their challenging match against Team Liquid on opening day. Notably, in their last two encounters with LPL teams, T1 has won every match without losing a single game, and particularly, they had some very “clean” games, like the match against LNG Esports where they did not allow the opponents any Dragon buffs. It can be said that the T1 players are proving they truly deserve to be the “LCK’s last hope.”
However, many League of Legends fans have noticed that there is a heavy “curse” at Worlds that may threaten T1’s journey. Specifically, according to statistics, throughout the history of Worlds, no team has ever won the championship when their region exclusively hosted the tournament. Specifically, in 2011, the tournament was not fully developed and only included teams from Europe and North America as well as two teams from SEA, and that was also the only year that a European team won when the tournament was held in Sweden.
Since then, throughout the history of this tournament, no team has been able to replicate that success. Notably, in 2014, the winning team was Samsung Galaxy White in the final held in Seoul. However, that year’s tournament was hosted in Taipei, Singapore, and Seoul—meaning Korea did not exclusively host the event. Therefore, this “curse” could very well follow T1 as they are participating in Worlds 2023 in their home country of Korea, which is exclusively hosting the tournament this year.
However, Worlds 2023 is quite special as this is the first time T1 is participating in the tournament being held on home soil. If they can rise to the championship at Busan, it can be said that T1 has created a new glorious chapter for every player and for the entire LCK region in the world of League of Legends.