T1 have secured a win against Hanwha Life Esports today after being defeated by them in the first week of League Champions Korea. While the games were far from perfect, T1 took the series with a 2-1 score.
T1 started the series with rookie jungler Choi “Ellim” El-lim but subbed in their starter jungler Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan after they lost the second game to HLE.
The first game was the Kim “Canna” Chang-dong show. He played Ornn in the top lane and dumpstered HLE’s top lane Maokai. He was zoning out the enemy champions in teamfights and landed crucial ultimates.
The first game began with a solo first blood kill in the top lane by Canna. His Ornn was a menace against HLE’s Maokai who couldn’t predict Canna’s movements. This solo kill set the pace for the remainder of the game in the top lane.
The game ended after a teamfight for the Infernal Dragon, which went to T1’s favor. Even though HLE picked up a swift kill on Teddy’s Ezreal, who was out of position, the T1 squad wiped them out regardless due to Faker’s damage on Azir.
HLE adjusted their draft in the second game and while T1 brought out the Ornn again, they were unable to execute it properly this time due to Faker and Teddy feeding in both the mid and bottom lane. Ellim picked Kindred but was unable to do anything with his carries feeding and so they lost the second game.
The third game began with a substitution for T1, who brought in their veteran jungler Cuzz instead of the rookie Ellim. This worked out in their favor and the in-built synergy from playing with Cuzz the entire season could be seen.
The mid-jungle synergy of Faker and Cuzz worked out perfectly well in T1’s favor. They secured a huge early advantage for Faker, who converted it into multiple objectives for T1. This snowballed their entire team and they were able to a timer on the clock for HLE.
HLE did not give up and regrouped for the mid-game, putting up a good fight when T1 engaged on them. Even though T1 had double the kills at one point, the gold lead was insignificant. HLE’s fate was sealed after a botched ultimate by their Varus. T1 reacted to this by engaging as soon as HLE missed their ultimate and Faker’s Azir took over the fight, getting a quadra kill in the process.
T1 will be tested next week, where they’ll fight GenG for the top spot in the standings.
You can tune in on Wednesday, April 1 to see who will come out ahead out of this battle of the titans on the official LCK broadcast at 8am CT.
