T1 Sets the Most Embarrassing Record in League of Legends History
Losing to HLE at this point is no longer surprising, but the manner of the defeat is what matters. And clearly, T1’s loss to HLE couldn’t be more feeble and embarrassing. Notably, in their most recent encounter, T1 nearly defeated HLE with the same lineup. Furthermore, Faker and his teammates have also set a “memorable” milestone.
Specifically, in the second game of the match, T1 was unable to secure any towers from HLE, not even a single Rift Herald, Dragon, or Baron. T1 couldn’t secure any of these objectives. It’s safe to say this was a comprehensive defeat for T1. Moreover, T1 is the only team among the top four (HLE, Gen.G, DK, T1) to set such a “memorable” record when facing HLE in the last three years (since HLE began rebuilding their “star-studded” lineup).
In addition, since T1 began implementing the duo Bot Lane marksman strategy, this is also the first time this combo has failed in LCK while being used by T1. In Summer 2022, they were “shut down” in their winning streak against Kwangdong Freecs, and at that time, this playstyle was nearly “retired.” And all these “records” were set by T1 right after Faker celebrated his 1000th match in LCK history.
Perhaps T1 Management Has Collected Enough Data
There’s an undeniable fact that T1 management benched Gumayusi and brought in Smash, but he mostly played champions that Gumayusi either used or excelled at. Names like Kai’Sa and Ezreal were barely touched or only used when the opponents intentionally “let” them through. Meanwhile, Zeri has long been “out of meta” and isn’t easy to operate.
When T1 had Smash utilize the Support marksman playstyle that made the Guma-Keria duo famous, T1 fans could no longer remain calm. At this point, many fans of the team are probably hoping that T1 will quickly end this pointless rotation to salvage the upcoming season.