How will the powerful Gen.G. and the shaky T1 and LCK be this season?
Jul 21, 2024
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With the LCK (League of Legends Champions Korea) summer season turning around, the two-way structure of Gen.G and T1, which monopolized the final stage for the past five consecutive seasons, is showing signs of cracking.
Gen.G's invincible march, which won LCK for four consecutive seasons until the previous spring season and is in its prime by winning the MSI in the international competition held in May, seems to have become stronger this summer. On the other hand, despite its good momentum to win the first e-sports World Cup held in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, T1 is shaking significantly, falling to sixth place as of Tuesday with three consecutive losses and a winning rate of 50%.
While T1 has been in a slump, Hanwha Life e-Sports, the strongest competitor in the two-river structure, is closely trailing Gen.G with five consecutive wins, while D-Plus Kia is also forming a three-river structure with Gen.G and Hanwha Life Insurance with solid power reminiscent of the successful performance of winning three consecutive seasons from 2020 to 2021. With the current momentum, it is highly likely that the final match of the so-called 'Gen-T' will fail in the sixth season. However, T1's 'winning instinct', which only won 50% in last year's summer season but eventually reached the final, cannot be ignored.
▶ Zenji's Invincible March, how far will it go
Gen.G has been erasing his defeat in LCK for over five months.
Since losing 0-2 to KT Rolster in the LCK spring season held on February 14, he has won 11 consecutive games and won 14 consecutive games in the playoffs by winning all three games until the final against T1. In this summer season, he also won 2-1 against D-Plus Kia on the 20th, adding to his 10th consecutive win. The regular league alone has won 21 consecutive games, and if the playoffs are included, it is already the 24th consecutive year this year alone. He lost the first set of games against D-plus and failed in his first challenge of winning the unforced set regular league, but it is expected that the driving force will remain as he is relieved of the burden.
Starting from the spring season, three of the winning members were sent out and newly recruited 'Giin'Kim Ki-in, 'Canyon'Kim Gun-bu, 'Rehens' Son Si-woo showed perfect teamwork with the remaining players, Jung Ji-hoon and Kim Soo-hwan, making a certain 'name value'. Above all, he was stigmatized as 'domestic demand' despite showing off his strongest performance in LCK, but it was certainly a remarkable achievement to defeat two LPL (China) teams in succession in MSI. Although he had to pack his bags early after losing his first game in the e-Sports World Cup, it can be said that it has become a blessing in disguise to focus more on the 'LoL World Championship' (LoL World Cup), which has already won the MSI title along with the summer season.
▶T1 will come back, as always
In fact, Gen.G's continued rise was expected, but T1's crisis was a bit of a surprise.
T1, which won the LOL World Cup for the fourth time in its history last year, maintained its regular season second place in this year's spring season while maintaining its winning members, was on the final stage for six consecutive seasons, ranking third in MSI and winning the e-Sports World Cup.
However, before departing for Saudi Arabia, he was unstable by losing 1-2 against KT on the 29th of last month, and then returned from the World Cup and narrowly won 2-1 against the lowest-ranked OK Savings Bank Brion, losing three consecutive games. The aftermath of the excessive schedule during the season is considerable. In the summer season last year, he lost five consecutive games and his winning rate remained at 500%, but considering that Lee Sang-hyuk, the center of the team at the time, was absent from the roster due to injury, this year's slump is unusual.
In addition, there is a high risk that the decline will continue as three of the next four games are against strong teams such as KT, D-Plus, and Gen.G. However, due to the continued sluggishness of the lower-ranked teams, it is not too difficult to keep at least the sixth place in the playoff final line, and if they rearrange their battle lines, there is a good chance that they will reach the final stage again.
However, Hanwha Life Insurance, which has always been 2% short of the final threshold, is clearly showing a different performance this season with five consecutive wins, including two consecutive wins against T1, D+ is on the rise, and KT has also won five consecutive games, according to the nickname of 「The Stronger of the Summer Season」, signaling a fierce battle in the remaining second round.
bluesky@sportschosun.com
