The best team in Europe, G2 Esports, faced off against what is probably the best team in the world, T1, featuring superstar Faker, in League of Legends. The semifinals of MSI 2022 were highly anticipated, but the series clearly went in favor of the Koreans. Match 3 was particularly brutal: T1 won in 20 minutes. That is the maximum penalty.
What a game that was!
- On Saturday morning, May 28, at 10 AM CEST, G2 and T1 met in the semifinals of MSI 2022 in Busan for a best-of-5 series. The winner of the match would face RNG on Sunday, who were already waiting in the finals.
- G2 Esports is the European champion. The team revolves around two experienced veterans: mid-laner Caps and jungler Jankos. They are complemented by new talents on the bot lane and German-Turkish Broken Blade on the top lane. Before the tournament, they promised to kick T1 out of the tournament.
- T1 is the Korean champion: in the mid lane is the “unkillable demon king” Faker, who managed to win 3 world championship titles in the early years of League of Legends, but has been waiting for title number 4 since 2016. The new highlight of the team is now the bot lane with ADC Gumayusi and exceptional support Keria, who was named the best player in South Korea in 2022.
How did the series go? The series clearly went in favor of T1:
The Koreans won Game 1 in 24 minutes, with Faker (5-1-2) and Keria (0-1-10) stamping their authority on the game once again. G2’s jungler, Jankos, struggled to find his footing and ended up with 0-5-6 on Jarvan.
This is seen as a brilliant play by Faker as he escapes certain death, leaving Caps looking foolish with his “Flash in the wrong direction” – Caps expected Faker to jump over the wall traditionally, as is customary:
Match 2 was somewhat balanced: the game lasted 32 minutes. Here, Faker went off with LeBlanc, achieving 8-3-5. Additionally, T1 jungler Oner was a brutal factor on Lee Sin with 3-2-11. Keria also contributed to 13 kills on Nautilus.
G2 fans had hoped for a miracle after being down 0-2: after all, their team is known for “crazy comebacks”, and they prayed for a “reverse sweep”, that there would be a 3-2 for G2 after the close second match, but the opposite was the case.
Match 3 was a complete punishment for G2: T1 won in 20 minutes and only gave away 5 deaths. Faker had a score of 5-1-5 on Akali, while Keria again got 13 assists with Renata Glasc.
Especially Match 3 was a brutal affair:
Not so fast: “T1 is overrated”
How is this being commented on? People are mocking on reddit that someone could ever doubt T1 after a mixed Rumble stage.
People have said after the losses: T1 was “overrated”. That can now be easily forgotten after this performance. Once again, it shows that “Best-of-1” series have little meaning. In “Best-of-5” series, the better team is revealed.
The victory of T1 is described as a “massacre”. T1 appeared as an extremely aggressive team, and that in the early stages of a match.
For years, precisely this trait was lacking in teams from South Korea, which took a long time to finish a game and gave even inferior opponents chances to come back with their methodical, slow playstyles. The 2022 iteration of T1 seems to lack this weakness.
G2 is actually known for capitalizing on its chances in the mid and late game, where they win with superior team fights and can come back from even large deficits. However, if a match lasts only 20 minutes, there’s simply not enough time left for a comeback before the lights go out.
G2’s CEO calls T1 the best team in the world, perhaps the best of all time
After the match, G2’s CEO, Ocelote, called the current iteration of T1 “the best team in the world” – that’s “totally crazy”, he doubted whether “you have ever seen such a good team.”
The MSI 2022 now seems to showcase “LoL” like it used to: China and South Korea are battling for the championship title. Fans from North America and the USA are loud and passionately discussing, but their teams have nothing to do with the titles.
A few days ago, things looked very different, as G2 defeated T1 and RNG in their first games, but then everything went downhill:
LoL: Europe’s hope defeats unbeatable super teams, loses against underdogs and now it feels cursed
