For T1, when they are in their best form, they become an incredibly hard team to beat. In fact, T1, with Faker’s return from injury during the LCK Summer 2023, has directly reached two finals (LCK and Worlds in the same year), winning one championship. Currently, they are showcasing astonishing stability. The resilience of the young players has also been elevated to a new level after the championship at Worlds in their homeland last year. Following their victory against Dplus KIA, T1 is now leading the LCK Spring 2024 standings.
In what seemed like a one-sided match, Faker also had a particularly “comedic” moment. Specifically, in game 1, he used the champion Azir against ShowMaker’s Akali. The “Emperor of Shurima” had been weakened recently, and coupled with the playstyle focusing on making plays and building items lacking sufficient damage, Faker’s Azir had not secured a single kill from the beginning to near the end of the match. Luckily for him, while his teammates were attacking DK’s Nexus, Faker managed to take down ShowMaker’s Akali, wrapping up game 1 perfectly.
Faker shared about this moment: “If the match ended and I didn’t have a single kill, it would be a bit embarrassing for the ‘Royal Mid Laner’, right? So no matter what, I had to try to get at least one kill.”
Since Spring 2024, one of the most “familiar” champions for LCK Mid Laners, Azir, has seen an alarming drop in win rate. Notably, this champion is closely associated with top players like Faker, Chovy, and Bdd. Riot is to blame for this as they not only weakened Azir but also introduced new items that do not fully suit the Emperor of Shurima. Particularly, Azir’s “core item”, the Zhonya’s Hourglass, was removed, along with teams thoroughly researching Azir’s playstyle, which has made it difficult for this champion.
It is possible that in the future, Riot will make adjustments for Azir or items to better suit this champion. However, the match between T1 and DK has shown that the current T1 team is very confident and they can certainly improve the win rate of Faker’s favorite champion if the “Chairman” gets the opportunity to use him.