Thus, yet another clash between the two rival teams T1 and Gen.G has ended, and once again, the reigning LCK champions have emerged victorious. This time, the win was even more overwhelming with a score of 2-0 for Gen.G, with no game lasting until the 30th minute. Notably, even when T1 made different choices than usual, they could not produce any surprises and even caused the team to lose faster than normal. Meanwhile, Gen.G demonstrated exactly what they have been doing since the start of Spring: a powerful, stable collective that knows how to counter every playstyle of their opponents.
However, for many fans and experts, T1’s defeat was entirely predictable. There are too many subjective and objective factors affecting this team. Notably, just a few days ago, after the defeat in their opening match against T1, the coach of Nongshim RedForce stated that the 2023 World Champions were facing some issues with their training: “We are not overly confident that we will beat T1, but we enter the match with the mindset that we can win. I think T1 has not been training well lately. During our practice, we had many positive points. I thought if we could showcase those well in the match, we would achieve good results.”
It is noteworthy that NS is a team that placed in the lower half of the LCK Spring 2024 standings. If a team that is assessed to be much weaker can confidently believe they can defeat T1, it shows how lowly rated Faker and his teammates are. Moreover, DDoS has created another issue: T1 is struggling to adapt to the meta very slowly, even though they are known for being players who meticulously research the meta and can find various counter strategies against their opponents’ choices as demonstrated during the 2023 World Championship.
Of course, we cannot solely blame DDoS for T1’s defeat. But clearly, the inability to train normally has had a significant impact, and T1 may face many more difficult matches ahead, as they will encounter strong opponents like Dplus KIA or Hanwha Life Esports in the future.