The world’s best team in League of Legends just lost its first series in half a year

Two weeks ago, SK Telecom T1’s six players held the Summoner’s Cup above their head, celebrating their second victory at biggest League of Legends tournament in the world

Two weeks ago, SK Telecom T1’s six players held the Summoner’s Cup above their head, celebrating their second victory at biggest League of Legends tournament in the world.

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But earlier today, their results weren’t quite so glorious. After barely skidding by in a best-of-three against fellow League Champions Korea (LCK) team SBENU Sonicboom earlier this week in the KeSPA Cup, the team fell 0-2 to fellow Korean side Ever today.

Ever isn’t even a top-level Korean team. The Challenger side lost out SBENU in the 2016 LCK Spring Promotion tournament on Sept. 12. Clearly SK Telecom underestimated Ever leading up to its loss.

SKT played its third-string mid laner Lee “Scout” Ye-chan in game one, where he performed poorly on attack damage champion Gangplank. And after its first loss, SKT tried to pick gain the upper hand  by putting in star Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. But it wasn’t enough.

Ever performed incredibly in a matchup that just about no one expected it to win. Mid laner Kang “Athena” Ha-woon and AD carry Lee “LokeN” Dong-wook excelled against their counterparts, leading the team to both victories.

Ever will suit back up tomorrow as it faces Korean legend CJ Entus with ₩ 40,000,000 KRW (roughly $34,000 USD) and a qualification spot to Intel Extreme Masters Cologne on the line.

Photo via Riot Games/Flickr 

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Jacob Wolf
Chief Reporter & Investigative Lead for Dot Esports. A lifelong gamer, Jacob worked at ESPN for four and half years as a staff writer in its esports section. In 2018, the Esports Awards named Jacob its Journalist of the Year.