On January 17 (Vietnam time), LCK Spring 2024 will officially kick off, with one of the two opening matches being a showdown between T1 and Gen.G. The team that wins this opening match will have a very good foundation to start the new season. Notably, Gen.G and T1 are both reigning champions, but Gen.G has undergone many changes in personnel. However, their two talented and long-term developing players, Chovy and Peyz, are still donning the jersey of the current LCK champions.
Of course, at this point, without saying, the audience can already guess which name is being highly rated. T1 is continuously refining its roster day by day and is currently at its peak. Moreover, T1 has not made any changes during the end-of-season transfer window of the last 2023 season. Meanwhile, Gen.G no longer has captain Peanut, Top Laner Doran, or Support Delight. The current Gen.G roster is very strong, but there is no player yet who can truly take on the leadership role like Peanut did before.
However, looking beyond the current roster, since officially rebranding as T1, Faker and his teammates have almost always won their opening matches of the season. Specifically, from 2020 until now, T1 has won 9 out of 10 opening matches in various seasons. The only exception was Summer 2020, which was one of T1’s most tumultuous years. It was this poor performance in that Summer that led to much skepticism about Faker and speculations that he was past his prime.
Of course, in the total number of seasons in which T1 has won opening matches, they haven’t always had the best results at the end of the seasons. However, past matches have shown that T1 always has solid preparations and good starts. Furthermore, aside from a few years like 2020 and Spring 2021, T1 has at least reached the finals in all other seasons, even during the period following the “mid-season coaching change” with Coach Daeny.
With the upcoming clash against Gen.G, T1 will also have the opportunity to assert its position after the glorious achievement at Worlds 2023. For Gen.G, a win for the new roster will be tremendously beneficial, especially after the drama created by the team itself over the past time.