Esport – League of Legends: T1 facing its history, Weibo as a spoilsport

After five weeks of vibrating to the rhythm of the World Championships League of Legends, South Korea is now waiting for only one thing: to be able to celebrate the announced triumph of T1. Led by its captain Sang-hyeok “Faker” Lee (27 years old), national pride, the most popular club in the country has only one step left to achieve the fourth title in its history. At the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul (17,000 seats) this Sunday, he will start as a clear favorite in his final against the Chinese team of Weibo Gaming, the surprise of the tournament dreaming of being a spoilsport.

A priori, T1 should not fall into the pitfall of overconfidence. Last year, at this stage of the competition, the club, with the exact same five majors, fell to everyone’s surprise in the final of the Worlds, while it was favored by predictions against DRX (2-3 ). But this year more than ever, he seems invested with a mission and delivered two almost immaculate performances against LNG (3-0) in the quarters then JD Gaming (3-1) in the semi-finals.

“I think T1 reached the level that every team is looking for, playing together perfectly, admitted Dae-in “Daeny” Yang, former coach of T1 in 2021 and now head of Weibo, in a pre-match press conference this Wednesday. I’ve tried to get them to this level in the past, but I haven’t succeeded. I think this is their best possible version. Their mechanics are top notch, their players always take the right bets, Keria’s versatility (Min-seok Ryu, le support) is crazy… It makes them very scary to me. »

T1 imposes a puzzle

Even if Weibo is very happy to place itself in the position of the outsider before this final, the speech clearly illustrates the fear aroused by T1. In training as in official matches, the last Korean hope has martyred all his opponents for three weeks, to the point of imposing his own meta (the optimal play style of the moment), focused around domination in the bottom line… Like the others, on Sunday, the Chinese No. 4 seed will be faced with a dilemma: should he copy the style of his opponent, visibly the most effective in these Worlds, or keep his identity, even if it means being asphyxiated from the first to the last minute?

On paper, Weibo, which no one expected in the final, has everything it takes to make a great story happen. Stammering in the game, taking advantage of a favorable draw, Yuanhao “Xiaohu” Li and his team only reached this stage at the cost of an exploit in the last four against their compatriots from Bilibili (3-2 ). But they showed some solid arguments to build on this Sunday: a great synergy between top and jungle and, above all, a new level of play for Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok.

For several seasons, the 2018 world champion, by far the most popular player still active in China, had lost his splendor, sometimes coming to parody his game to the limit. But his exceptional performance in the semi-finals proved that he still had more to do. “For two years I was aggressive for no reason, admitted TheShy, visibly satisfied, pre-match. But this year it’s different, I know my match-ups better and my coaching staff also helps me a lot. I came back to Worlds, got to know my teammates and grew. »

For Faker, a unique opportunity

This return to the final of gatherer However, it takes a back seat to that of Faker, the star at the heart of all the advertising promotions around these World Cups on home soil. Although he constantly tries to shed light on others, constantly reminding us that his performance is mainly due “to the talent of the players alongside him”, the legendary captain of T1 attracts all the spotlights in this pre-final. You only had to see the swarm of journalists massing to ask him a question at a press conference, relegating his teammates to the rank of stooges, to realize it.

Observers feel it well: the GOAT (the Greatest Player of All Time, best player of all time), there is a unique opportunity to win a fourth world title – an absolute record, of course -. However, he was far from it in July, when he underwent surgery on an injury to his right arm and his team, unrecognizable without him, suffered seven defeats in eight matches in the Korean league. But this forced break seems to have given him a second youth. To the point of making the best midlaner of the Worlds, five months later.

“To be able to fight for the title again is incredible, he confided to the press on Wednesday. I’m really grateful and excited. In the process of getting back to the top, I’ve been able to learn a lot about the right mindset to have… I have a clearer vision of what it means to be a pro player now. » Facing his audience for the first time at the Worlds, since he had failed to qualify for the previous editions which were held in South Korea, Faker can definitively confirm his return to the top. Ten years after his first title.

The prospect is already making all the spectators, on site and beyond, salivate. Even before the final, Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends and organizer of the tournament, was satisfied with an increase in his audiences “65% compared to last year, from the start of the Swiss round to the end of the semi-finals”. As the most popular club in the world prepares to face the most popular club in China, there should be more spectators than ever behind their screens. To witness a moment of history?