The three-time world champions faced off against their respective region’s 8th seed in the Quarter Finals of Worlds 2021.
Not even Chovy, the Mid Laner who has played (and arguably carried) on three different teams in the past three years, can take down the three time world champion. Faker and T1 take a clean sweep win and advance to #Worlds2021 Semi-finals.
Game 1
The first match saw both teams taking a slow start to the match to build up some gold and level their champions. Waiting patiently to catch the other team out, the first blood, taken by T1, occurred fairly late after a triple jump on Morgan 8 minutes into the match.
Hanwha Life Esports brought it back quickly after though, taking a kill themselves along with a tower and dragon.
The first team fight occurred 16 minutes into the match. A lengthy one, T1 chased HLE members around the map and ended up having it in their favor 3-1, managing to also claim a dragon out of it. Gold stayed pretty even throughout the first game up until around this point, when T1 began to take kills around the map and extended their gold lead to an important 3K and another couple towers.
It only got more difficult for HLE as time progressed, T1 kept getting kills and claimed a second objective.
Roughly 25 minutes into the match, T1 took the baron but at the cost of losing three of their members in a risky contention by HLE that nearly saw them overcommitting and getting ACEd. Regardless, T1 still led in every aspect, ahead by 6K in gold, 2 in towers, and 3 in kills.
The baron buff aided T1 into pushing the mid lane and breaking all the turrets and opening a way into the enemy’s base, and there was nothing HLE could do about it.
T1 then stole the 3rd objective from the hands of HLE, and as they found themselves on the closer side, they hurried into HLE’s base, took down the mid-lane turret, and trickled the top lane's to half health.
The LCK 4th seed took an uncontested baron with a man and champion level advantage. With another baron buff, T1 slowly made their way into HLE’s base and pushed all the way through to the Nexus, and claimed the first match victory.
At the end of the match, T1 had 10 turrets (compared to HLE’s 2), a 10K gold lead, and an 11-6 kill score.
Game 2
The second match saw a very similar start to the first. Both teams were eager to take the first blood, but that only happened after 10 minutes into the match in a team fight that HLE had to back out of after losing 2 of its members at the hands of Faker. With the double kill to start, T1 put themselves in a great position to expand on their lead early on into the match. They did not hesitate to spawn the rift herald and take down a top lane tower. They created a 2K gold lead 12 minutes into the match and claimed the first objective as well.
Later on, HLE attempted a jump on T1 but were punished by it, losing them 3 members and having to give up a mid-lane tower. It seemed doomed just 20 minutes into the game with T1 having a now 5K gold lead and a kill-score lead of 5-0.
T1 kept claiming objectives and there was nothing HLE could do about it. Every play had to be precisely thought out for them because every death and every mistake further lowered their chances of turning the game around. T1 took down two dragons and eventually the baron. Even with that, HLE managed to successfully start a “team fight” that ended in an equal 1-1 kill-death.
At this point in the match, T1 had taken down 6 of their enemies’ towers and had all 3 lanes opened into the enemy base. HLE managed to keep them at bay for some time but had to eventually leave their base and contest the baron. As Morgan failed to steal it, T1 took down the baron and ACEd Hanwha.
With all five members alive, they made their way into HLE’s base and melted down the towers, claiming the game 2 win.
A much more dominant showing, T1 had a 13K gold lead, took down 9 towers, claimed all the objectives, and led a solid 14-2 in kill score.
Game 3
Down 0-2, Hanwha Life Esports saw themselves in a difficult position to play in. It has not seemed like it is in their strength to win against T1 today, let alone reverse sweep them.
Regardless, they kept their calm and played a similar start in game 3. They were able to take a rift herald but for the 3rd time, they lost out on the first blood, this time even later into the match, after 11 and a half minutes. T1 also managed to claim a bot-lane tower and a dragon along with the kill.
HLE’s first crucial mistake came from a poorly placed rift herald. As a result, they missed taking down a T1 tower. Again, T1 saw themselves with a 2K gold lead early on in the match.
Extending their lead, they stole the second rift herald from HLE and took a 3-0 team fight in their favor. Just 17 minutes into the match, they were at a 5K gold lead and again, HLE seemed to have no chances of bringing it back. T1 just kept pushing their enemies’ towers and had 4 while keeping all of theirs up.
The final nail in the coffin was the 23-minute baron team fight, that once again, HLE failed to steal and ended up getting ACEd. T1 played the safer route and used their baron buff to tear through HLE’s base but not over committing to end the game early.
They waited for the second baron, and as soon as that came around, it was a disaster for HLE. T1 claimed it and made their way back to HLE’s base to claim the win and complete the clean sweep to advance to the Semi-Finals.
In a very dominant series and especially game 3, they saw themselves at a 16K gold lead at the end of the match, claiming most of the objectives, leading in a kill score of 18-1, and once again maintaining all of their turrets while destroying 10 of HLE’s.
Want to Watch?
Royal Never Give Up (RNG) and EDward Gaming (EDG) will take the stage next on the 23rd.
It will be a close series, but EDG is set to edge it out 3-2 in my opinion.
As for T1, they advance to the Semi-Finals and will face the winner of Mad Lions vs DAMWON Gaming KIA on the 31st.
Catch all the World's 2021 action on Twitch at: twitch.tv/RiotGames or on YouTube at: YouTube.com/c/LoLEsports
For the full schedule, check out LoLEsports.com/schedule
