Steal of Legends: T1 vs KT Lower Bracket Finals Recap

T1 vs kt Rolster showcased a thrilling and close series in the Lower Bracket Finals of the 2023 LCK Summer Split Playoffs! Here is how T1 vs KT performed in their fully played series.

Game 1: Can't Escape Nature's Grasp

T1 kicks off the series with a dominating victory over KT. With eight support picks banned and one picked away, Son "Lehends" Si-Woo shockingly resorted to a highly niche Singed pick. It showed promise in the early stages of the game as his Mega Adhesive prevented Lee "Gumayusi" Min-Hyeon from escaping. This provided Kim "Aiming" Ha-Ram with kills.

Aiming had an interesting item build as his first item was Stormrazor. This is usually built with high attack range champions such as Caitlyn or Jinx.

Unfortunately for KT, T1 dominated all of the team fights. Every time Moon "Oner" Hyeon-Joon summoned Nature's Grasp, T1 would fight with ease as they pick off KT's members. T1 took over the game and ended the Nexus with a gold lead of 8.3k at a game time of 31:30 minutes.

Game 2: Team Fight Domination

T1 reaches match point as they continue their lead 2-0 against KT. T1 yet again dominates KT in a heavy team fight game.

Lehends performed admirably as he continues to show he is arguably the best engage Support in the region. With his flash engages, KT was able to find picks here and there. Unfortunately for them, T1 outperformed KT in team fights. Choi "Zeus" Woo-Je notably being as key factor in their victorious fights.

Lee "Faker" Sang-Hyeok also showing outstanding performance as he successfully found important "Shurima Shuffles" that heavily favored T1. T1 ends the game with a gold lead of 11.0k at a game time of 32:09 minutes.

Game 3: 3-0 Denied

KT deny a perfect series for T1 and show a potential comeback with a score of 1-2. KT showed a much better gameplay as Gwak "Bdd" Bo-Seong and Aiming created a huge lead for themselves in the early game.

T1's draft was very damage heavy but unfortunately meant that there was little peel and engage for the carries. Oner could not find a snowballing lead and even lost a 1v1 against Aiming! Faker and Gumayusi did their best but unfortunately could not compete against the great gold disparity.

KT showed that not even T1 is safe from being completely dominated. KT ends game 3 with a gold lead of 11.9k at a game time of 27:48 minutes.

Game 4: Fortunate Series of Events

KT tie the series 2-2 as they win a thrilling victory over T1. In a very close and long game, the margin for error was thin. KT and T1 had back and forth fights throughout each phase of the game. This left neither team with an obvious advantage over the other.

Faker showed that he was able to create incredible and near-impossible engages with Pop Blossom and Flash. However, Bdd became used to this pattern of behavior and was able to outplay Faker by using Charm just before the engage. Finding this prediction lead to KT conquering the final minutes of the game.  KT destroyed the Nexus with a gold lead of 8.1k at a game time of 37:13 minutes.

Game 5: Steal of Legends

T1 closes out the series 3-2 with a bang! In another very close game where even the smallest of mistakes could swing the game around, T1 were able to beat KT.

Faker once again created incredibly Pop Blossom engages synergizing with Oner's Paranoia. KT also had a synergy of their own with Moon "Cuzz" Woo-Chan's Heroic Charge and Bdd's Event Horizon.

Bdd had a spotlight of his own when he stole Baron from T1 with his Smite that he obtained from Unsealed Spellbook. There were many other steals from both Cuzz and Oner. Cuzz in the later stages of the game was able to steal and secure Elder Drake which looked to promise them the series.

However, T1 were able to maximize their damage and efficiency to limit KT's team fight power. From there, T1 played the final fight beautifully in a baron 5v4. T1 ended the game with a gold lead of 7.1k at a game time of 40:59 minutes.

Moving Forward

Congratulations to T1 as they officially qualify for the 2023 Worlds Tournament! They also advance to the Grand Finals of the Summer Split against Gen.G. KT still have a chance to qualify for Worlds as they will participate in the Regional Final. They will play alongside Hanwha Life Esports, Dplus, and DRX.

T1 performed amazingly this series. Faker showed his strong champion pool with Neeko being his greatest spotlight this series. Ryu "Keria" Min-Seok seemed to be one-tricking Lulu as he boosted Gumayusi's power level with his enchantments. Gumayusi performed amazingly as well as he was a very key and powerful damage dealer in every fight. With his fast Flash and Cleanse reactions, it was hard to nail him down. Zeus and Oner triumphed in team fights as well. They positioned as much as they could to peel for their back line while disrupting the enemy team. T1 showed that they are a very strong team who want to win. The question is will they be able to defeat the titan team Gen.G?

 

 

Featured Image Source: Riot Games