And yet again, a domestic showdown! Who would battle it out in this LCK Spring 2024 final for a trophy, it will be T1 versus Gen.G again.
Over the course of the tournament, Gen.G managed to squeeze by T1 in a 3-2 match to pocket up go in their streak and claim their upcoming 4th championship in the LCK.
Gen.G’s dominance in regular season and playoffs
For spring 2024 in LCK, Gen.G topped the regular season and held a second place for T1. In the playoffs, sometime in the season, Gen.G retained their control of their side of the bracket and posted two successive victories over Damwon KIA and Hanwha Life Esports to reach the final. T1 fell in the first round to Hanwha Life Esports round two, resulting to their drop down to the lower bracket. Destiny planed where they precise top DW over Hanwah to somewhat rehabilitate from heavy defeats and rival RRX since that Summer.
The Section will be a special one as this it will represent Faker’s 16th final appearance in LCK. It is also the final final after the return of the coach Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun to the coaching seat at the beginning of the season, who is coaching again the same T1 roster, which won Worlds 2023.
The event concluded when Gen.G and T1 waged two back-to-back matches starting from the LCK Spring 2024 final. Kiin managed a much resounding Equalizer statement during Rumble’s game one.
General G joined the playoff lineup by selecting Kalista on the blue side and looking for Nautilus to complete the bot lane. We will keep making progress towards our goals little by little but with a lot of determination. Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong answered by making even better top lane pick than he used to — only Draven counts for that. T1 sent Maokai and Poppy to the battle lane, those champions can be part of the tank squad. Finally they found Yordle in their position, only Keria is suitable for this pick. Especially Delight have displayed their advantage in using this support in the similar composition by winning LCK Summer 2021
Gen.G’s strategic mastery
The task was hard for “Kim Peyz” Su-hwan who was in a situation when he had to play in a very successful way, but in case he lost he’d be in danger of getting heavily punished.
In early game, during the movement of a full lane swap, Gen.G’s bot lane got relocated to top, tech player to bot, and top to mid. Led by this masterstroke, Peyz took an early bloodwork onto Choi “Zeus” Woo-je’s Aatrox. Having map advantage and lane control was prominent Gen.GM’s strategy. Instead of relying on the Equalizers alone as in the past, they were now equipped with the equipment of the Equalizers, including Gi-in’s Kim Ki’s, so that they were able to catch three dragons.
In the fourth dragon spawn, a full-fledged fight broke out which saw them outmaneuvering their opponents, very try-harding in every step. T1 rebooted Team Baron immediately and started to sneakies in Baron. As much as they held on to it and knew what they had to do, Gen.G made them pay a price instead, raising the kill score to 12-5 at the 30-mintue mark and widening the gap of gold to over 2000.
This time in T1 noticed the same movement and succeeded to be the second Baron owner , while Gen.G had no chance of surviving. In contrast, the late game objectives that T1 secured successfully cut off the last hope of the team to win the game. However, T1 didn’t go down easily, abolishing the rival team for the third time, which was actually achieved by Lee “Sang-hyeok”’s three-man kill on Azir at the Elder Dragon leaving completely out 4 players on both sides.
Eventually, it was Gen.G that drew the blood first and executed a perfectly timed team fight to the delight of their fans. T1’s reaction? First-pick a Kalista which, along with Faker’s Azir, was to start the series off. In addition to that, during the second game, the broadcaster highlighted Keria’s signature role as a Neeko support.
While I am on the Summoner’s Rift along with my teammates, Cake “Lehends” Siwoo and Lee “Chovy” Jihoon makes their decisions to go with Annie and Aurelion Sol, respectively among Corki options. Being next to pick, he picked Rek’Sai top ( it was a 14.6 patch game), as an answer to K’Sante. The warriors, Gumayusi and Keria, used their dominant power, flanked and harassed botops, securing early kills. Breath of Aurelion Sol reached its power and Primordial Dragon and Dragons soared over the opponent that grew weak in the mid game. They both succeed at kills and gold but Chovy was 4/1/0 with over 250 stacks of stardust even though and frankly was the first one to take a substantial toll on the other team.
T1 countered the midlane 3v2 engagement by catching Caitlyn below the map thanks to the jungler assistance. It made the objective go their way. However Gen.G reorganized after the fourth dragon spread, held their positions and waited to catch their opponent mispositioned – the enemy it had to be.
Chovy, once again, managed to lead the enemy team being the only surviving member and he was going to receive a 9/2/1 scores and a 350 gold bounty. T1 could not overcome the victory as long as Faker was alive. So the quarterback being a hero meant a key to win. By that time, the team cornered the Gen.G very well gathering the Baron. The top three places, sitters who feel safe in their jungles on the top floor is not to mistake. Faker has the function of assistant manager for adding twist.
He moved to the back lines with his signature Jinx and picked off Chovy’s Aurelian Sol — a fed carry by LCK standards — and gave Gen.G only a single wave clear and a slight lead. We’ve made it. T1 marched into base with their Baron buff and the minions with him, tying the match for their side. From now on, it is champion select. Gen.G refused to let Faker get away and went with Azir as their first ban, and preventing their competitor to play his signature character. This is also a twist and a spellcaster bot lane which introduce enthralls Aphelios and Lil Miss Sunshine for the first time.
Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun got things into gear with a swift jungle snipe on Canyon’s Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu too, causing first blood damage. It was their reaction time that caught the grief, as T1 had earned three kills to one. Gen.G displayed their still-limited reaction time at the second dragon, trying to revenge. Clashingly, CJChovy has obtained the first item power spike, Liandry’s Torment and with his team, they synchronised to achieve three kills which swung the momentum back into their favour. However, one oversight by GEN.G was enough to lead to their fall in game three. Lehens moved just close to Top side’s fog of the war and thus ended up with instant punishment from Gumayusi’s Lucian.
Now, the fight commenced, T1 demonstrating how to do baron nicely, abused Gawd’s unsettle issue, all the way down to mid lane to catch the Tan expert and co. one by one they chased all for the kills.
Legally speaking, they were twenty minutes away from owning the series as a clean sweep, with Gumayusi intensifying on her kill theft and general dominance over “Chemtech Soul” boasting a 700 gold lead and six slay.
