We are only three months into the 2023 season, but we may have witnessed the best series of the year already in the LCK.
After KT Rolster knocked out Liiv SANDBOX in round one of the LCK Spring Playoffs, no one was expecting them to get close to T1, who only dropped one series throughout the entire regular split.
Yet, KT brought the series to Silver Scrapes, culminating in a thrilling and hectic game five. Despite the initial advantage by KT, which allowed them to take a whopping five thousand gold lead by the 20th-minute mark, T1 turned things around in less than 15 minutes,amassing an eight thousand gold lead of their own.
And yet, KT did not give up, bridging the gap once again with a couple of skirmishes and regaining the advantage with the Elder Dragon pickup.
It looked like KT made the upset of the split a reality, but T1 shattered their dreams in the end. With a bold engage by Gumayusi and Keria, T1 delivered the final blow after 54 minutes and 51 seconds of play, breaking the record for the longest game so far across the entire LCK 2023 split (including both regular split and playoffs).
The records, though, do not stop there. Game five of the series featured 60 kills, the highest in a single game, destroying the previous record achieved in the series between T1 and Gen.G, which had the kill count end at 41.
The last game between the two teams broke the peak viewership record of 2023 so far, too. T1 and KT peaked at more than 1 million viewers (1,067,175) according to Esports Charts, surpassing the previous peak by more than 300,000 viewers (the previous record was 720,712, registered in the series between T1 and DK).
With this victory, T1 will now head to round three of the playoffs, as they will face the winner of the match between Hanwha Life Esports and Gen.G. KT Rolster will have to go through the losers’ bracket—and even though they lost the series, KT showcased that they are ready to fight and they will get the chance to do so next week on Sunday, Apr. 2.
