T1 took down Nongshim RedForce today 2-1 during the fourth week of the 2021 LCK Spring Split. The series was intense and featured the debut of T1’s top laner Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, who became eligible to play in the LCK last week.
Going into this League of Legends match, both teams had a lot on the line. While NS were looking to prove themselves as a middle-of-the-pack team, T1 were trying to avoid spiraling to the bottom of the standings after questionable losses over the past few weeks.
Keria and Faker were T1’s MVPs in today’s series following their Leona and Orianna performances, respectively. Keria’s Leona was swiftly banned in the second game after he had great initiations on the NS roster, which allowed T1 to snowball in the first game. Orianna, on the other hand, was banned by T1 in the first two games of the series and was first picked for Faker in the third. The champion has a great laning phase and teamfight potential and scales well with the new itemization in League.
This matchup started with a statement game from T1. Zeus in the top lane was popping off on Gnar, constantly outplaying his opponents in dire situations. After a stellar early-game play by him to turn around a one-vs-two fight, T1 snowballed the game out of control. Keria, in particular, used Leona’s ultimate as soon as it came off cooldown to engage on mispositioned enemies to pick up easy kills. Zeus went 3/0/8 on Gnar, while Keria produced a 1/1/10 scoreline.
The second game was a complete 180, though, with T1 getting outplayed early on in every lane. Teddy was subbed in for Gumayusi and he played lackluster, mispositioning in teamfights and wasting his ultimate a couple of times. NS capitalized on T1’s indecisive actions and equalized the series in 35 minutes.
The third game looked scary for T1 early on, but they bounced back during the mid game. While they did let NS pick up a couple of early drakes and towers, it didn’t matter in the end once T1 grouped up and outplayed them in teamfights. With Faker’s Orianna controlling the pace of teamfights, T1 secured the series.
T1 have looked shaky so far in this split, constantly changing their roster in hopes of better performance. But the iteration that won today felt cohesive and looked great, even if it was against a weaker team.
Following this victory, T1 (3-4) climb to seventh place in the 2021 LCK Spring Split. While they still have a long road ahead of them before they reclaim their throne, this series was a good start after their recent losses. T1 will be back in action again on Saturday, Feb. 6 against Fredit BRION at 2am CT.
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