GenG and T1 play without an audience due to the spread of COVID-19 at LoL Park in Jongno, Seoul, on Feb. 16. (Lim Jang-won/The Korea Herald)
After a 3-1 victory against DragonX on Wednesday, T1 has punched its way to the LCK finals to play against GenG on Saturday, marking the two teams’ first clash in the domestic finals in seven years.
While the playoffs were conducted online, the LCK 2020 Spring Finals best-of-five will see T1 and GenG battling for the prize money of 100 million won ($81,000) at LoL Park in Jongno, central Seoul, starting at 5 p.m. Saturday. The teams will be playing to an otherwise empty venue, with no audience or reporters in attendance.
At stake at the Spring Finals is a ticket to the Mid-Season Invitational, the second-biggest LoL tournament of the year. Riot Games announced on March 10 that MSI will be delayed to July 3 this year as regions delayed domestic schedules due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the location of MSI has yet to be announced, the event is subject to cancelation.
The last time three-time world champion T1 and two-time world champion GenG (previously Samsung) faced each other was the 2013 winter season finals on Jan. 25, 2014, where SKT T1 K, featuring the 2013 world champions Impact, Bengi, Faker, Piglet and PoohManDu, swept Samsung Galaxy Ozone, featuring Imp, Mata, Dade, Dandy and Looper, 3-0 to go undefeated in the season.
GenG, referred to as “the fellowship of the ring” by many Koreans, gathered superstar players in each lane, including Clid and BDD, after last year’s World Championships. The team have been heavy favorites to win since the start of the season. However, T1, with a balance of rookies and veterans along with acclaimed new coach Kim Jeong-soo, beat them 2-1 both times during the regular split.
In their match against DRX on Wednesday, T1 rookie top laner Canna surprised everyone with multiple solo kills, along with diverse picks from T1, including Senna for Teddy and Bard for Effort. There is also Faker, who showed once again his diverse champion pool despite being target-banned multiple times.
GenG has had ample time to prepare for the upcoming finals since the end of the regular split on April 15. Also, unlike DRX who had to try nonstandard picks against T1, GenG is comfortable going head on.
Whether GenG comes out on top as they did in the World Championships finals of 2017 or whether T1 will win three seasons in a row and continue their dominance will be decided Saturday.
By Lim Jang-won (
ljw@heraldcorp.com)