In the fourth week of the LCK Spring 2022, T1 faced off against Gen.G Esports, a team currently ranked just behind them on the leaderboard. This matchup was anticipated to be highly exciting, even crucial for the Spring LCK championship this year, but ended up being lackluster. The reason being that almost the entire Gen.G roster had been decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic. They were left with only two starting players available for the match: Chovy and Ruler. Furthermore, Chovy had to return to the top lane to allow the young player Quid from the academy team to face off against Faker.
As a result, T1’s victory lost some of its significance. The young players from Gen.G were hastily called up from the Challengers team and had no way to compete against the much higher quality personnel on T1’s side. Not to mention, Chovy’s switch to an off-meta position further diminished his effectiveness and contributions.
The T1 players themselves admitted that they had an “easier” victory than expected over Gen.G due to the unwanted impact of the pandemic. Recently, in his interview, Marksman Gumayusi stated: “They (Gen.G) have suffered too many personnel losses due to Covid-19, so it wasn’t the exciting match fans were hoping for. I also underestimated this match, even though there were some difficulties in game 1. But facing Ruler in the bottom lane without Lehends really has no meaning anymore.”
Moreover, Gumayusi mentioned that he and the entire T1 team are looking forward to facing Gen.G in the return match when the team has all its strongest personnel. At the same time, T1’s Marksman asserted that as long as they play like they currently are, any winning streak will become feasible.
Currently, T1 is dominating the LCK Spring 2022 leaderboard with 8 consecutive victories, having defeated many strong teams such as Gen.G, DWG KIA, Nongshim RedForce… With their rising momentum, many fans hope that T1 will clinch the championship in this LCK Spring 2022, thereby helping Faker equal the record for the most LCK championships with his former coach kkOma.