LCK Spring 2024 can be said to be one of the seasons witnessing T1’s most ups and downs. This is because this team, once the “king of the League of Legends” after winning the 2023 World Championship, has “fallen” right in their opening match against Gen.G. While Gen.G is indeed very strong, no one expected T1, full of momentum, could suffer a defeat. Not to mention, after a series of highs with 12 consecutive wins, it was Gen.G that brought T1 back down to earth. The remaining phase of the group stage, right up to the match against Dplus KIA in the playoffs, saw a T1 struggling, fumbling in their own playstyle.
Recently, some netizens from China summarized T1’s playstyle in just a few lines in a post. The post read: “If Keria carries the team, the opponents are extremely weak. If Zeus carries the team, the opponents are decent but not significant. If Faker and Oner carry the team, we are preparing to compete for the championship, the opponents are very strong. If Gumayusi carries the team, then it’s hopeless.”
Although this comment is humorous, it is actually quite accurate for T1 or any team in the current meta. And the reality proved that when Keria had a high POG score, as well as in matches where his Support AD playstyle thrived the most, opponents could hardly match T1. Meanwhile, when facing slightly tougher names (DK, HLE, or KT), Keria also finds it hard to create the usual surprises. This also applies to Zeus when his Aatrox was locked down in the backline against HLE in the recent LCK Spring 2024 group stage.
Meanwhile, as long as Faker – Oner, especially Oner, plays like he did at the 2023 World Championship, the other lanes become very easy to play. Faker has shown how well he can ‘carry the team’, like in the miraculous Quadra Kill in the final against Gen.G. And in that final, when Gumayusi was the last hope, despite dealing decent damage, the T1 AD carry truly found himself powerless.
In recent patches, the AD carry has been heavily “nerfed”, making this position require as much equipment as possible and players with enough skill, experience, and composure to choose good positions and deal maximum damage in fights without being targeted too much. In the first playoff match against HLE, Delight’s task was very simple: focus all possible firepower on Gumayusi before fights and force T1 to always be in a 4v5 situation, lacking damage.
Gumayusi himself has once acknowledged: “The AD position is like this, if we use ramen as a metaphor, the AD is like the egg. The Top Lane, Mid Lane, and Jungle are like the water, noodles, and seasoning, but sometimes the AD can go without. Of course, if both are ramen, having an egg makes it much better, but that’s how it feels. The Support is like the vegetable pack. For example, if you have two identical bowls of noodles, the one with the egg is better. That’s when the role of the egg is shown. But if there’s little water, no seasoning, or the noodles aren’t cooked, what good is the egg? It has no benefit at all. But if everything is ready, then the egg will become important. Otherwise, it doesn’t mean anything.”
Indeed, for T1, when the AD carry has to step up and ‘carry the team’, it means that the early and mid-game positions have not been performing well (hence the need to shift playstyle and focus resources on the AD carry). If the game hasn’t slipped out of control, then everything is fine. But if the opponents are too strong, Gumayusi will find it hard to create surprises if the opponents are teams that play tightly like Gen.G or HLE.
More than anyone else, Gumayusi understands the certain “disadvantages” he has to accept. But perhaps, for the AD carry born in 2002, as long as T1 secures victories and titles, personal factors become less important.