LCK Summer Split: Kwangdong Freecs halts T1’s win streak
The Seoul-based T1 began this year’s Summer Split of the League of Legends Champions Korea undefeated, posting a flawless 4-0 in the tournament’s first two weeks. However, in Week 3 on June 29, the team witnessed their fall to Kwangdong Freecs 2-1.
Before T1 was beaten by Kwangdong Freecs, the team managed to record 24-win streaks, competing with great rival Gen.G for standings No. 1 and the title. Without a doubt, T1 is the strongest candidate to win the Summer Split after winning the Spring Split back in March over Gen.G.
T1’s defeat saw them drop two positions in the standings. The team will face strong resistance from DRX in a bid to take over standings No. 2, while Liiv SANDBOX trails behind in fourth place.
Kwangdong Freecs defeats T1
Despite losing an outstanding record of win streaks and sustaining their first regular-season game defeat, the aftermath for T1 was barely even a pinch. Compared to Kwangdong Freecs, the team did manage to climb up the standings ladder, but only to eighth place over KT Rolster.
T1 is now 4-1 in the win-loss record and made 80 percent in win rate. The team posted the exact stats as DRX, while Gen.G maintains a flawless 4-0 with a win rate count of 100 percent. Meanwhile, Kwangdong Freecs is now 2-3.
T1’s lineup comprises top-laner Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, jungler Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun, mid-laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, bot-laner Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, support Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, and sub/support Kim “Asper” Tae-gi was spot on as they took over the early-game lead 1-0 following a thrilling 27-minute long game.
However, in the following game, Kwangdong Freecs bounced back to corner the crowd’s favorite squad with a fierce and hard-fought game that lasted 38 minutes. Their fortune extended to the third game with a series of great plays, especially from mid-laner Yoo “FATE” Su-hyeok and bot-laner Park “Teddy” Jin-seong.
Both FATE and Teddy’s champions were considered unorthodox picks, considering that playing Ornn as a mid-laner and Ashe for AD carry is something that most pros would avoid. Additionally, the last time both champions were used in those positions was back in 2021. Nonetheless, the team’s unique approach bore fruitful.
Aftermath
T1 was bested by Kwangdong Freecs in many aspects. Most importantly, FATE and co. had more kill count with a huge margin of 31-12, and 28 out of the total kills were made by Teddy. After posting such numbers, Teddy has earned his 1,800th career kill in LCK and had his name sitting comfortably in the fourth position on LCK’s all-time kill leaderboard.
For Kwangdong Freecs, the team still has a long way to go if they wish to make it into the Summer Split’s playoffs since only six teams will be qualified for the next stage.
As for T1, looking up the standings is such a rare occasion for the team to experience. Their previous defeat was when T1 conceded to Royal Never Give Up in this year’s Mid-Season Invitational, which cost them the tournament’s title.
The Seoul-based team rarely made performance slumps while competing in any LOL tournaments. T1 kicked off this year with a back-to-back first place in both the Spring Split and Spring Playoffs. Last year, the team wrapped as a title holder of LCK Regional Finals and third in LOL World Championship.
