Faker and T1 make history with back-to-back Worlds titles
In one of the most thrilling Grand Finals of all time, T1 defeated Bilibili Gaming (BLG) to lift the Worlds 2024 trophy.
With the win, the T1 team of Zeus-Oner-Faker-Gumayusi-Keria become the first roster to win back-to-back Worlds titles in League of Legends history. Furthermore, the Faker and T1 have now earned five World Championships across their more than a decade long partnership.
BLG, in turn, fall just short of making history, as one of the greatest Chinese rosters of all time succumbed to Faker and T1's magic in the end despite the sure-footed 2-1 start to the series.
"This fifth title was possible thanks to all the support from my fans." - Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
A worthy end to an exciting Worlds 2024 tournament
It simply couldn't have gone any other way. Perhaps the most exciting series of Worlds 2024 came at the very culmination of the entire year of professional League of Legends.
BLG proved an incredible opponent to start the series, launching off to a 2-1 lead to stand on the brink of becoming the first full-Chinese roster to lift a Worlds trophy.
T1, however, were not quite done yet, pushing back on BLG's long-range composition in Game 4 to take us to a final Worlds-deciding game to the beat of Silver Scrapes.
Despite BLG's LPL domination all year long, that indescribable Faker and T1 magic at Worlds did not fail to shine through one final time. Even as BLG looked to have won a potentially game-winning teamfight, Faker donned the super-hero cape for the last time in 2024 to save the day for T1 and make sure BLG miss their date with history by the smallest of margins.
With a horde of League of Legends fans on the edge of their seats, T1 defy expectations for the final time in the year as the team makes the Worlds 2024 trophy the fifth in the T1 tally.
And the most incredible part? It was just one and a half months ago that T1 stood one game away from failing to qualify for Worlds 2024 altogether. Now, they're back-to-back World Champions instead.
Worlds 2024 Grand Final crushes esports record
A 5-game series to end the biggest tournament of the year, BLG and Chinese history on the line, and Faker's unending legacy put up to the test once more; was there really any reason not to watch this series?
Apparently not, as the Grand Final of Worlds 2024 between T1 and BLG has become the most watched match in esports history.
The previous record, which was also held by T1, then against Weibo Gaming during the Worlds 2023 finals, was shattered as T1 vs BLG reached a peak viewership of 6.9 million viewers. That is half a million viewers more than the previous record.
T1 and BLG have defied all expectations to end Worlds 2024, setting the bar higher than ever for what an esports tournament should look and feel like.
The greatest League of Legends roster of all time
After Zeus' addition to the roster after the 2021 World Championship, T1 has put up one of, if not the single greatest 5-man units in the history of the game.
With their victory over BLG at Worlds 2024, the Zeus-Oner-Faker-Gumayusi-Keria rendition of T1, commonly referred to as ZOFGK, has now become the very first roster in the game's history to lift back-to-back Worlds trophies.
While T1 as an organization has managed the feat in the past by winning Worlds in 2015 and 2016, the team did so by fielding different rosters.
Ever since the birth of ZOFGK, T1 has always made it to the Worlds finals. For T1, that means three Worlds finals and two World Championships in as little as three years of the roster fighting side-by-side on the rift.
There is simply no other roster in League of Legends history to have put up an even similar track record. Perhaps with their win over BLG, ZOFGK can finally be crowned the greatest League of Legends roster of all time.
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Image source: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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