Entering the match against Nongshim RedForce, although Faker may not have fully recovered from COVID-19 and the recent loss to Gen.G, most people believed in a victory for the reigning World Champion of 2024. The opponent was merely Nongshim RedForce, sitting at the bottom of the standings and had lost 4 consecutive matches leading up to the T1 game. However, August 9th, 2024, in the LCK Summer Split, turned out to be truly shocking, as another surprise occurred and T1 suffered a heavy defeat of 0-2 against NS in a match where they clearly performed much worse than their opponent.
Notably, in T1’s loss to NS, they used two lineups with numerous issues. They chose a rather “strange” champion for Gumayusi – the team’s main AD Carry (Yasuo in game 1) but only had Oner’s Wukong as the sole counterpart to coordinate combos. In game 2, T1 made a more reasonable choice, but the biggest weakness from game 1, Kennen in Zeus’s hands, was still utilized. In fact, right after T1 had first pick for Zeus with Kennen, many viewers were truly astonished.
– “Kennen picked first???”
– “Kennen must be Zeus’s new ‘Twisted Fate'”
– “I have to admit this. Zeus with Kennen is a joke. They played too poorly this match”
The reason is that Kennen can be considered Zeus’s weakest champion during this Summer Split of 2024. While this champion has strong crowd control and burst damage, it is also very easy to counter. With just a Exhaust, or even a quick reaction, one can completely nullify Kennen’s skill effectiveness. Kiin, in the previous Gen.G vs. KT match, also could not utilize Kennen effectively. Yet, T1 used this champion for two consecutive games. Zeus had no impact at all in most of T1’s skirmishes throughout both games.
The loss to NS has not yet affected T1’s position, but it hasn’t helped Faker and his teammates take a step closer to completing the group stage early. They will have to wait at least two more matches, which means they won’t know their position and matchups until the last week of this crucial stage in the Summer Split of LCK this year. But at this moment, T1 fans have every right to worry as their team seems to still not fully resolve their issues.