The German Twitch streamer Elena “Thunny” S. had the evening of her life on Sunday in League of Legends. This was not planned: She had to step in for her ill partner Broeki. Thunny appeared alongside the German Twitch streamers from NNO at a major event in Paris. She played against the world champions in LoL, T1 with superstar Faker, and triumphed.
This was the event in LoL: On the evening of December 15, 2024, an event by Red Bull called “League of its Own” took place in Paris. The world champion in LoL, T1, competed in League of Legends against 6 different teams, each in a single match. These were show matches with some special conditions to make them more exciting.
T1 is the most popular e-sports team in League of Legends worldwide: Their players are stars, foremost Faker. He is a five-time world champion and has been the face of LoL for over a decade. This event had also taken place in 2023: At that time, T1 dominated the competition, and NNO also lost to the world-class players.
The event was a massive deal in Paris: About 18,000 spectators were in the hall.
Agurin is considered the best player of NNO and demonstrated this in the match:
Streamer steps in for her boyfriend, who fell ill just before the event
What was the streamer doing there? The streamer team NNO from Germany, which includes the biggest German Twitch streamers, competed. Thunny is actually not part of the active team and usually serves as the manager of NNO.
However, her partner Daniel “Broeki” Broekmann, whom she almost pressured into a proposal, plays there as ADC. Broeki fell ill at short notice (via X) and Thunny quickly stepped in for him.
So it was against T1 and Faker, who almost fielded their best lineup. Only the supporter Keria was missing; Untara (27) played for him, who actually works as a content creator for T1 and is a trained top-laner.
However, Faker switched from mid to top lane and played against Tolkin, who must grin every time he talks about Faker. Tolkin repeatedly emphasizes the outstanding importance that Faker has for his own life and how much he reveres the South Korean.
Additionally, there was a “Nemesis Draft”. NoWay selected the champions for T1, while Faker chose the champions for NNO. A wild mix was played:
- Thunny ended up on Seraphine, a champion she apparently felt comfortable with.
- Faker had to cope with Riven and struggled against Tolkin’s Camille on the top lane.
- NoWay dominated with Heimerdinger in the mid lane against a quickly frustrated Gumayusi.
A wild match swings back and forth
How did the match go? The match was wild, but from the beginning, NNO appeared to be on equal footing and fought back vigorously. Especially the jungler Agurin took the match into his hands repeatedly and was able to secure important kills for NNO.
NoWay surpassed himself with Heimerdinger in the game and became a damage machine. Tolkin managed several great plays on Camille, including solo kills on Faker.
While the laning phase offered slight advantages for NNO, it seemed during the teamfight phase like T1 could barely win the game through superior teamplay and escape with a black eye: The South Koreans had pulled ahead by 5,000 gold.
But NNO managed to turn the game around in a fantastic final spurt:
Here is the brilliant trap:
NNO sets a trap and the world champions fall for it
This was the decisive scene: The decisive scene was a trap that NNO set for the world champions on the top lane. Tolkin baited the T1 players scattered as a “decoy”, while the rest of the team jumped out of the bush and ambushed the Koreans, who had been baited: The lonely Faker could no longer defend the base against the attacking German streamers, and the game was indeed won for NNO.
German streamer in the spotlight of the international e-sports scene
What was Thunny’s reaction? Thunny immediately announced her retirement as a professional player on Twitter.
On Reddit, people are excitedly discussing: Thunny is indeed “Seraphine” herself and can now claim to be the only woman who has ever defeated T1 – and that with a 100% win rate.
There is also gossip in other threads: A team of streamers defeats T1, and they even had a woman on their side!
Even her boyfriend graciously congratulates. He writes that it is better for him that Thunny, as the only woman, is in the spotlight than if he himself had stood there.
In all the excitement, one must put this into perspective: It was a “show match”, and T1 played with significant handicaps. But it was still a nice and successful evening. More about Thunny can be found here on MeinMMO: “I’d rather sit on a glass” – Because Germany won, a Twitch streamer must now propose
