In just a few days, the MSI 2024 tournament will officially kick off, and the venue for the first international event of the League of Legends scene in 2024 will be in Chengdu, China. This year, of course, the two LCK teams will still be highly regarded. One is the reigning LCK champion, who has claimed victory in this tournament four times in a row—something even the powerful SKT T1 of yesteryear could not achieve. The other team is T1—the reigning World Champion of 2023. Not to mention, JD Gaming—the toughest opponent from the LPL—has already said goodbye to the tournament after losing to Top Esports.
However, for T1, winning MSI 2024 will be more significant than ever. First, they have continuously failed against Gen.G in the domestic league. Therefore, international titles will be the lifebuoy for the T1 team. Moreover, since the formation of this roster, MSI is the only tournament that the current T1 lineup has yet to conquer. In 2022, they had the opportunity to do so. But a disappointing loss to Royal Never Give Up left T1 waiting until now.
Furthermore, for Zeus himself, he needs this title even more. The recent Spring LCK 2024 finals marked one of the worst performances for Zeus. A strong showing at MSI 2024 will help the 2004-born player regain confidence for himself as well as the audience. Additionally, if he wins this tournament, Zeus will be the youngest player in the history of SKT T1/T1 to have collected all titles.
For those who don’t know, Zeus is currently only 20 years old but has already won titles from LCK, Worlds, and ASIAD. The only title he is missing is MSI. Therefore, if he wins the tournament in Chengdu, Zeus will also break the record of Faker. Because in 2016, when he won MSI with SKT T1, there was no ASIAD for Faker to showcase his talent. Not to mention, both Zeus and Faker have FMVP from Worlds, but the “Demon King” achieved this title at 20 while Zeus has owned it since 19.
Besides Zeus, Faker himself also very much wants to add the MSI 2024 championship to his collection of titles. If he wins in Chengdu, Faker will equal the number of championships with Xiaohu and become the mid laner with the most MSI titles in LCK.
T1 is fully determined and has clear goals for the upcoming MSI 2024. What they need now likely lies solely in the performance of the players to prove that the team deserves to ascend to the throne of the second largest international tournament in the League of Legends scene.