Zeus – T1: Just Winning the LCK Cup 2025 May Not Prove Anything
In November 2024, Zeus left T1 in one of the most sensational transfers in the team’s history. At that time, amidst the debates about the “rationality” of Zeus’s decision, many fans were eager to see one crucial thing: Without T1 and especially Faker, could Zeus still make a mark?
About four months later, Zeus brought home his first title without competing alongside Faker. However, that title was the LCK Cup – a tournament considered a warm-up and a testing ground for Fearless Draft, a new mode in professional League of Legends. Of course, there was plenty of praise for Zeus. But perhaps, just winning the LCK Cup 2025 may not be enough.
First of all, it’s worth noting that Zeus had a very slow adaptation to his new team. By the time the LCK Cup 2025 started, HLE lost two crucial matches against Gen.G and Dplus KIA. These early defeats raised doubts about the team before Zeus regained his form and truly contributed to the overall gameplay of the LCK Summer 2024 champions.
Moreover, one important point: although he is away from Faker, Zeus’s new team is still one of the top League of Legends teams today. They still have a strong leader (Peanut), a reliable bot lane duo (Viper – Delight), and a Mid laner capable of creating surprises (Zeka). It can be said that HLE is as strong as T1 during the 2024 World Championship, and this is a stage where they can compete freely rather than under the pressure of titles like at Worlds.
Another factor to consider: have HLE’s main rivals in the upcoming Regular Seasons (Gen.G, T1, DK, KT) truly shown their full strength? T1 is experimenting with Smash – a Marksman promoted from Challengers. Meanwhile, DK is being quite extravagant with “unorthodox” picks. As for Gen.G, players like Canyon and Chovy often make mistakes in matches. Therefore, the question of whether the top LCK teams have competed with their best is still open.
Of course, Zeus has been outstanding as the FMVP of the LCK Cup 2025 and he continues to perform well with all champion matchups. But this is also the same Zeus who fought alongside T1 at the 2024 World Championship. Back then, he could utilize everything from pure tank champions to Fighters and became one of the two main damage sources for T1. Thus, Zeus is simply maintaining his level rather than showing significant improvement.
The answer about the relationship between Zeus and T1 may lie in the 2025 Regular Seasons and subsequently MSI – Worlds
With the First Stand featuring only five teams and a short competition period, it will be hard to further evaluate Zeus even though this is an international tournament and doesn’t even count towards a team’s overall achievements in 2025. Thus, the real arena for Zeus to prove he can thrive and conquer titles is the Regular Seasons and then MSI – Worlds.
Of course, Zeus is an incredibly talented player, and that is beyond debate. But if Zeus truly wants to assert that “everything is fine without Faker,” then the upcoming major tournaments will be the real peaks he needs to conquer compared to the current LCK Cup 2025.