After many days of celebrating the Lunar New Year 2024, the League of Legends tournaments in Asia have started to kick off again, with the first being the LCK Spring 2024. In the very first match, viewers were “treated” to an epic showdown between two teams competing for the title this season: Gen.G and KT Rolster. Of course, KT was rated lower, as they had not performed particularly well before the Lunar New Year break. Meanwhile, Gen.G was the only unbeaten team in the LCK prior to this match. In fact, among the teams that had fallen to Gen.G was the powerful T1.
However, both games saw a completely different face compared to the beginning of the season for both teams. KT played proactively, focusing and being more cautious, while Gen.G continuously struggled at every position. Even the most reliable players rarely making mistakes, like Kiin and Canyon, could not perform much. Kiin, despite choosing his champion second, was completely “outplayed” by the younger PerfecT on the opposing side. In the end, Gen.G’s unbeaten streak ended with a 0-2 defeat against KT – a score that even KT fans might not believe.
But it wasn’t Gen.G or KT that garnered the most attention; it was T1 that many fans mentioned after Chovy and his teammates’ loss. With their opening season defeat, Gen.G still ranks above T1 thanks to their previous 6 wins. However, T1 can certainly rise as their first opponent after the Lunar New Year break is Dplus KIA – a team that has significantly weakened and is currently sitting in the lower half of the standings.
More importantly, Gen.G has shown they are not an unbeatable team. T1, with a slightly higher overall skill level than KT (based on the recent encounter between the two teams), has solid grounds to find ways to counter the reigning LCK champions when the two meet again in the second round.
Of course, it is still too early to confirm anything. But at least, the grounds for T1 to rise in the standings have become clear. The ball is in their court; whether T1 will rise remains to be seen in the performance of Faker and his teammates.