It can be said that the first week of the LCK Summer 2022 has passed without too many surprises. Strong teams like DK, Gen.G, T1, and DRX all achieved 2 absolute victories against weaker opponents. However, in the case of T1, they have yet to bring a sense of security to their fans as the team has had some poor performances and almost suffered disappointing defeats.
T1’s somewhat unconvincing performance (despite still being unbeaten) quickly became a hot topic in the Korean League of Legends scene. Immediately after the match between T1 and KT ended, the issue was raised by Korean reporters with T1’s players. Explaining this, T1’s “prince” – Gumayusi stated that the rapidly changing meta has made the team’s familiar playstyle ineffective. Additionally, T1 has also faced many difficulties in adapting to the new meta.
Q: You often lead against opponents in the early game but get turned around in the mid-game. This has happened against both NS and KT, what is the reason?
T1 Gumayusi: We have indeed made quite a few mistakes, allowing the opponents to catch us off guard and causing the match to drag on too long. The impact of the meta is also significant as we are forced to play champions that are strong in the later stages.
Q: Speaking of the meta, what do you think causes the games to drag on now?
T1 Gumayusi: In the current version, it is really hard to snowball the opponents comprehensively when you have an early lane advantage. Many games are no longer determined by who has more Barons or Elder Dragons. It is negatively affecting us, and the team is still looking for ways to adapt to the new meta.
If you have been following T1 since the beginning of 2022, you can see that this team’s laning ability is extremely good with young players who have strong skills. Typically, T1 would organize turret dives and secure major objectives with lane advantages to create a snowball effect against opponents and secure victories. This playstyle helped them win the LCK Spring 2022 and reach the MSI 2022 Finals.
However, as they entered the summer season with patch 12.10, this snowball playstyle has become ineffective as late-game champions are completely dominating. As a result, no matter how well T1 performs in the lanes, it is difficult for them to create an overwhelming advantage over their opponents due to champion limitations. Not to mention, turret diving has become much harder as the damage of these structures has been buffed.
The consequences, as we have seen, are that T1 must adapt to these prolonged matches, and with that comes a significantly greater risk. Hopefully, T1 will quickly find a solution for the new meta as they will face an extremely heavy schedule in the next two weeks against opponents like DK, DRX, and KDF.