With South Korea’s LoL Champions Korea (LCK) teams falling like leaves in the wind, only a Chinese LoL Pro League (LPL) team will be left in the quarterfinals if T1 loses to LNG Esports.
KT Rolster lost to Jingdong Gaming in the quarterfinals of the Knockout Stage of the ‘2023 LoL World Championship (Worlds)’ at the Sajik Indoor Gymnasium in Busan on Thursday afternoon, with a set score of one to three.
This is the latest in a string of LCK teams to be eliminated from the tournament.
Earlier in the day, Genji Esports was eliminated in three games by Billabilly Gaming. Plus Kia didn’t even make it to the knockout stage.
With three of the four LCK teams in the Worlds eliminated, T1 is now the only survivor. T1 will face LNG Esports on May 5 in a match with LCK fate on the line.
With the news of LCK teams being eliminated one after another, fans are wondering, “What if T1 is also eliminated in the quarterfinals?”. If T1 loses to LNG Esports, the quarterfinals will be filled with only LPL teams.
Some fans are also worried about a repeat of their 2018 nightmare.
Five years ago at Worlds in South Korea, Genji was eliminated in the group stage, while KT Rolster and Afreeca Freecs (now Guangdong Freecs) met in the quarterfinals. The LCK was humiliated to lose the championship on home soil. LCK teams then went through a dark period in 2019, as they failed to enjoy a championship.
The lone LCK survivor, T1, is no slouch. Based on their best international performance to date, many expect them to make it past the quarterfinals and into the finals.
In fact, according to scrim data released by G2 Esports after their elimination, T1 won nine times against G2 Esports, dropping only one set. T1’s superior performance to any other 사설토토 team has earned them the nickname “Scream King”. One community user expressed their excitement, saying, “I think T1 can make it to the finals,” and “T1’s scrim performance is better than Jingdong’s.”