T1, the reigning Worlds 2023 champions, broke their LCK cold streak at the Esports World Cup with a dominant performance throughout the tournament and the first EWC LoL title.
They didn’t have an easy bracket run, either. After beating BLG, Team Liquid, and Top Esports to take the title, Team Liquid looked like T1’s most challenging opponent.
Though he’s a relatively new mid laner, APA managed to hold his own against Faker in all three matches. This certainly brought hope to Western fans despite TL getting knocked out.
Ultimately, T1 would win their last series against Top Esports, with Faker picking Yasuo for the first time since 2022. The surprise pick let him run TES over, ensuring fans that Faker still has it all these years later despite ongoing problems with his wrist.
T1 are currently tied for fourth in the LCK standings when it comes to their domestic league. Meanwhile, Gen.G is dominating the region with a 12-0 score domestically.
However, things couldn’t have been more different at the Esports World Cup. Gen.G got knocked out 0-2 by Top Esports in the very first round, with the community split on whether or not this loss should invalidate Gen.G’s path to the Golden Road, a highly sought-after achievement in League of Legends.
Even if Gen.G does dominate LCK for the rest of Summer and wins Worlds 2024, it’ll be hard to forget their misstep at this tournament.
With this win, T1 will walk away $400k richer with the first prize in their hands, as well as the first EWC title. Though this is yet another huge international win for T1, an organization with a long history of excellence in LoL, many fans of the team chose not to watch the tournament.
Humanitarian concerns have been raised about the Esports World Cup’s participation in Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, to the point that it wasn’t immediately clear whether Riot would allow LoL to be played at the tournament in the first place.
In 2020, the LEC was forced to cancel their partnership with NEOM after near-universal backlash from fans, something that wasn’t mirrored in 2024 when the Esports World Cup came around.
