Before entering the LCK Spring 2024 playoffs, Gen.G and T1 were regarded as the top two teams. The reason is quite simple as they were the two teams leading the group stage and had an incredibly convincing performance. Therefore, many viewers believed that Gen.G and T1 would easily defeat other opponents to face each other directly in the finals.
However, a surprise occurred in the second winners’ bracket semifinal when T1 suffered a shocking defeat to HLE with a score of 0-3. Even for those following the match, the way T1 lost was even more surprising. The reason stemmed from T1 making continuous mistakes (which rarely happens) and allowing their opponents to gain complete control of the game. Clearly, for a team with a 15 wins – 3 losses record in the group stage like T1, this performance is hard to accept.
After the match ended, T1’s “rock bottom” performance was explained in detail. It is known that the T1 team has been continuously facing DDoS attacks for several months. The situation was so bad that T1 could not play ranked games or scrims for an extended period. After Riot Games provided T1 with another account, they began to scrim again, but the quality of ranked games dropped significantly, negatively affecting the players’ mindset.
It should be noted that the DDoS issue in the LCK region is not something new. According to reports from T1, they had been attacked as early as December 2023 and had made complaints to Riot Games. However, the creator of League of Legends did not take any specific measures to address this issue, allowing it to directly affect T1’s performance. As a result, right after the match between T1 and HLE ended, Riot Games faced a lot of criticism from the media and the Korean audience.
With the information released, it is highly likely that the DDoS attacks are aimed at sabotaging T1’s performance. However, there is no guarantee that other teams in the LCK will not be DDoS attacked in the future. Not to mention that the Korean server could also be targeted, so this is clearly not an issue exclusive to T1 or any other team.
With the situation of the LCK region being targeted by DDoS attacks, Riot Games needs to implement truly effective measures to resolve the issue. It would be a shame if one of the highest quality tournaments in the League of Legends scene, such as the LCK, were ruined simply because Riot did not have timely solutions.