As the saying goes, ‘class is forever,’ and even under intense scrutiny, he bounced back like a man possessed. T1, with Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok back in form, gave ‘North American Jam’ Team Liquid a plane ticket home.
Team Liquid showed the downfall of the ‘North American’ juggernaut, not the ‘North American Jam’, but had to accept the bitter pill of being eliminated in the second round of the loser’s bracket after a heartbreaking four-set collapse that saw them unban ‘Oriana’. T1 will now look to advance to the Loser’s Bracket Four after a rematch with ‘Europe’s’ G2.
T1 won 3-1 against Team Liquid in the second round of the loser’s bracket stage of the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) on Friday afternoon at the Chengdu Financial City Performing Arts Center in Chengdu, China. The team battled their opponents through three sets, but were able to overwhelm them in the fourth set, led by Lee “Faker” Sang-hyuk, to win the cliffhanger.
From the first game, Team Liquid banned Azir and Oriana, focusing on Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. However, T1 had an answer for that and opened the game in style.
After winning the coin toss and opting for the blue side, T1 set up a Camille-Popeye-Taliya-Sena-Orn combo and picked up three early kills by pounding opposing mid laner ‘Apa”s Aurelion Sol in the early game. ‘Apa’, who was blinked out by ‘Zeus’, racked up three kills as he was stymied by his owner’s constant line intervention.
A sharp early hold gave T1 a 3-0 lead at 7-minutes, extending their global gold gap to 2000.
There was a brief lull in Team Liquid’s relentless pursuit, but T1 kept the momentum going, flipping the kill score back to 6-5 after a mid-first turret 토토사이트 push by ‘Zeus’ on ‘Kite’ after a Callista kill, and wrapping up the first set at 29-minutes.
Just like in Game 1, Team Liquid tried a line-swap, which led to a chaotic game, but T1’s poor invade strategy forced them to surrender the initiative to early death losses.
T1 managed to fight back in the jungle engage and make up for the early losses, but Team Liquid responded by picking up the Gilcera mid to create a mixed situation. The big Samira was able to land some solid kills on T1, giving Liquid the Dragon objective initiative.
Gilcera T1 fought back, but Team Liquid didn’t back down, and the game turned into a back-and-forth affair. At the moment of crisis, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyuk’s Ari turned the tide once again with his carry. After taking down ‘Ummty’, T1 capitalized on the momentum and took the initiative until the Elder Dragon confrontation, successfully turning the tide and driving a wedge into the game.
Down 0-2, Team Liquid rallied back to take the third set, but T1 wouldn’t allow them to get any closer. As the fourth set dawned, the powerful offensive instincts we’ve come to know from T1, centered around Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, were unleashed.
Quickly pressuring their opponents and breaking the game open early, T1 pushed their gold gap to over 10,000 within 16 minutes and crossed the 8th ridge into the third round of the loser’s bracket. T1 didn’t let Liquid recover from their collapse and poured on the offense, closing out the game at 23-minutes.