Becoming the first team in LCK history to play on home ground was no small challenge for Faker and his teammates. Moreover, their opponent this time was KT Rolster – the “fierce rival” in the legendary “telecom war” of the Korean League of Legends. Even when going through ups and downs, KT still knows how to make T1 struggle and is not an easy opponent to defeat. The pressure of playing at home, combined with the not-so-great performance of the players, led T1 to become the first team in LCK history to lose on their own “home ground”. At the same time, KT also ended their losing streak against T1 since the LCK Summer 2023 playoffs.
T1’s defeat certainly came down to two factors: KT’s players performed well and T1’s players lost themselves. In League of Legends, a loss is a collective responsibility. However, according to some viewers, the player who had the most disappointing performance in the match against KT was none other than Keria – T1’s Support. On the Chinese audience’s HUPU website, Keria received a score of only 3.9 – the lowest among the 5 T1 members.
In fact, in the match against KT, Keria was completely outperformed by BeryL. Even when playing a champion that allows for more initiative like Rakan (in game 2) or Alistar (in game 3), Keria had many extremely harmful awkward moments. Moreover, when it comes to roaming, Keria was clearly less proactive than BeryL. In just the first 10 minutes of the match, BeryL had at least 3 opportunities to let Deft play freely and roam to the Mid Lane to threaten Faker and disrupt Oner’s jungle path. BeryL’s significantly greater initiative helped KT control all 4 Dragon buffs in game 3, making Faker’s early game extremely difficult.
However, it must be fairly acknowledged that Deft – BeryL played exceptionally well in the last match. The pressure from this duo made Keria hesitant to leave his position. As a result, he was already at a disadvantage in the laning phase, and the gap widened as they entered the crucial teamfight stage.
– If Keria and Oner continue to play like this match, I feel they will have to leave next season.
– Oner is not that bad, Keria is the one who is lacking.
– That was just one of Oner’s not-so-good games, but he is still a good player. But Keria was just too poor.
T1’s defeat is still a collective responsibility. But perhaps each player needs to carefully review their gameplay. The LCK Summer 2024 group stage is still long, and the opportunity for T1 to correct mistakes is still evident. However, this depends on them not making any more mistakes again.