Recently, T1 lost to Gen.G again, marking their second consecutive defeat in three encounters during LCK 2025 Rounds 3-5. In terms of score, it may not be too severe, especially since both T1 and Gen.G have made it to the playoffs. The impact of the match on rankings isn’t significant, as finishing third in the group stage only requires T1 to play one more BO5 match. However, this match revealed many major shortcomings for T1 compared to their rival.
T1 Is One of the Few Teams Not Fully Utilizing the “Scale Late” Composition
A few years ago, when the ZOFGK roster first emerged, and Gumayusi rose as one of the best players in the league with strong “carry” champions like Aphelios, Caitlyn, Draven, and Jinx… T1 was known for their effective AD carry-focused gameplay. But as AD champions were “nerfed”, they had to shift their playstyle towards the top lane, coinciding with the meta of lane swapping. This has led to a current state where T1 sometimes forgets how excellent an AD carry they have and that they can play late-game champions very well.
In the recent match against Gen.G, while Ruler received ample support from his teammates, Gumayusi did not have the same luxury. T1 was too passive even after giving Gumayusi strong “scale late” champions like Sivir and Yunara. In fact, in Game 1, if it weren’t for Doran’s outstanding performance in the early game and Gumayusi’s contributions from the mid-game, T1 might have faced a clean sweep against their opponents.
Notably, T1 had previously played this composition in their first match in Rounds 3-5 against Gen.G and came out victorious.
T1’s Confusing Picks and Bans
There is a fact, as evident in the third game of the recent T1 – Gen.G match, where T1 “let” almost all the strongest bans available for Gen.G while using a very difficult to execute composition themselves. Notably, just because of one champion Yunara, T1 left all other “power picks” open for their opponents but couldn’t effectively execute with Yunara. Meanwhile, Gen.G picked a much easier composition to operate, and it goes without saying that Jhin and Rakan are Gumayusi and Keria’s signature champions.
This isn’t the first time T1 has made difficult picks, allowing strong bans for their opponents. From NS, KT to HLE, Gen.G, all have had at least one game where T1 was “generous” like this. And in these matches, only HLE couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity until they finally managed to win a game against T1 in their last encounter in the group stage.
Players’ Performance
T1 is a very strong team, arguably one of the strongest in League of Legends right now, and this is an undeniable fact as they are still the reigning World Champions and the MSI 2025 Runners-up. However, the performance of the players has been incredibly erratic and inconsistent at times. This is a factor that causes T1 to have inexplicable and damaging losses. For example, their clean sweep defeat 0-2 against KT last week.
This is T1’s biggest limitation compared to Gen.G, and it is clearly not something to be taken lightly. When facing extremely strong opponents, it is often the superstar moments that can determine the outcome of the match. And those superstar moments only come when players are in their best state in every aspect.