How did Faker lose the LCK Summer Split 2021 final for his team?
Maksym ShylovThe LCK Summer Split Grand Final always attracts a lot of attention: good production, the best players in the world and a high level of play. However, this year, personally, the final left me with mixed feelings: yes, DAMWON KIA played very well, but T1 could take this title for themselves, but lost the final to themselves, and how it happened - we'll figure it out now.
First map
DAMWON KIA pick is late game. It is extremely important for them to realize their Camilla and not give Gwen much room to maneuver. There is also a lot of slowdown at the expense of each of the champions in the peak, and therefore it will be extremely problematic to attack or catch up with them.
T1s don't have as much of an idea at their peak as DWGs: they are essentially just a collection of signatures. Azir for Faker, Ezreal for Teddy and one of the best champions of this patch for Oner - Viego.
DAMWON KIA started active actions right from the third minute. Thanks to the vision with Ash's E skill, Canyon sees that Oner is still on the birds and will not be able to help Gwen in the event of an attack, and the lack of Jump makes any gank for her fatal. DWG open an account on the scoreboard.
The desire to regain the advantage has played a cruel joke with T1 and they make a monstrous mistake by giving Faker and both summoner spells. This is the first mistake of an experienced midlane, which, one might say, was worth the game for his team.
All of the above events allowed DAMWON KIA to gain control of the upper part of the river, which helped them to gank Gwen again. After that, it will be very difficult for Canna to return to the game.
At 8 minutes, DWG makes a mistake and decides to go to the Void Herald, who was already taken by T1. The mistake lies in the fact that they just came to him, since by displacing all 5 champions, they lost a lot of farm and the opportunity to earn tower plates for their ADC. T1 take Herald and 2 kills in exchange for Faker and return to the game a bit.
On the 11th minute, Canna had a chance to return to the fight and recoup on the line, but he missed it. The fact is that Camilla made a mistake with her E skill and Gwen had a chance to take the streak from Khan, but 2 times out of three he missed the ultimate and died again, but this time in a solo from Camilla. Parallel to this, the DWG caught Keria out of position and also killed him.
On the second Herald, the situation becomes critical: T1 are losing the fight due to a large lag and are now on the verge of losing the first map.
Despite this, T1 lags behind by only 2 thousand in gold, which is clearly not critical.
Faker decides to take the game into his own hands and after trying DAMWON KIA to take their tower on the middle lane he gives an ultimatum about three, but in the end he only succeeds in taking two, exchanging for one.
However, this did not help T1 to return to the game completely and they still lagged behind. Seeing this, DWG decided to seize the moment and quickly take Baron Nashor, which they did, and when they leave, they give a key battle, which ultimately brings them victory on the first map.
After that moment, there were a couple more fights that did not solve almost anything.
In my opinion, T1 lost this map because of a banal tilt and a desire to win back right here and now, which did not allow them to soberly assess the situation and accept the fight, but on their own terms. In addition to attacking the tower in mid, they always adjusted to the conditions that DWG dictated to them and because of this they missed the thread of the game.
Second card
On the second map, DAMWON KIA decided to make a big bet on AP damage, picking Kassadin and Ziggs. Despite the fact that many teams rate Olaf in the jungle, I do not consider him a good pick. Again, DAMWON KIA's main stake in this map is to reach late and the task of making Gwen's life as difficult as possible.
T1 decided to respond with a counter-pick Ziggs - Wayna. Trundle was taken in support of her, who makes life for the "explosive yordle" almost unbearable. Faker's team should also go late, but given Kassadin's picks, they will almost always be weaker than DWG, so I think this strategy is a failure.
The map starts again at the top. Gwen, as in the first game, is caught on an error and the inability of her forester to help her, but Canna this time was able to fight back and take Olaf back.
The pressure on the top lane continued and after 5 minutes Canyon went to gank again, but this time Canna was exchanging. Despite the relatively good conditions for Gwen compared to the first map, she is already starting to lag behind in experience, which will become a critical moment on the second map.
During this gank, the counter-pick in the form of Wayna realizes itself perfectly and Teddy almost kills Ghost in a solo.
DAMWON KIA, having no priority on the bot, decide not to shift their focus from the top and again gank Gwen. Trade 1 to 1 again.
The key fight of the second map takes place at 14 minutes. As a result of a long fight, DAMWON KIA find a profitable exchange for themselves and come out ahead in gold. The most important thing in all this is that Kassadin and Camilla received the necessary kills and earned a lot of experience and gold.
The second key moment comes right after this fight: Canyon and Khan erase Gwen in a second and now things are going very bad for T1.
On the 21st minute, Olaf realizes himself in all his glory: Canyon managed not only to survive, after he "ran" into Canna, but also helped to kill Faker. After these two kills, we can say that T1 lost this game, which was confirmed after the fight on Baron Nashor.
As strange as it may sound, but this time T1 is not particularly to blame for their loss. DAMWON KIA did too well, rendering Gwen almost useless in fights. By the end of the game, Khan was more than 3 levels ahead of Canna. Wayne worked well on the lane, but the game could not find a place in the fight, as ShowMaker and Khan were ready to fly into her and instantly kill at any moment.
Third card
On the third map, after two failures, Gumayusi came out instead of Teddy. This ADC player has shown phenomenal results in the group stage, but the team decided that they would not involve him in the playoffs, except in extreme cases. I think this was a big mistake, as many who watched LCK Summer 2021 since the group stage noticed that Gumayusi is much stronger than Teddy in many ways.
DAMWON KIA decided to repeat the success of the previous map and picked Kassadin again, but completely failed, picking one of the weakest ADCs - Kalista. Despite this, there was still hope for a good game from BeryL, since he had not yet lost a single game on his Rell.
T1 chose a hyperlate setup consisting of Jinx and Azir. Wiego, Braum and Kennen, who are good initiators, will help them reach this stage of the game.
On the third map, Canna decided to take the game into his own hands and instead of giving up the FB, he made it himself, taking the enemy team's forester. Khan is also substituted and at the end of T1 they emerge victorious from this fight, taking 3 opponents' champions.
This is the first time that T1 has gained such a big advantage, and playing against Kennen, who has received early items, is extremely difficult. This is confirmed by the fact that during the dive on the boat from T1, Diana and Renekton decided to make a return gank on Canna, but T1 did not lose his head and made a doublekill, consolidating the advantage in the middle stage of the game.
At the 17th minute, when pushing a tier-2 tower on a bot, T1 set up an ambush, which works perfectly. Faker catches two in his ult and takes it without any problems with the help of the team, but after that a real chase ensues and Khan and ShowMaker teleport to the backs of the T1 players.
Despite the success of the chase and the ace from DAMWON KIA, the T1's advantage was already too great. In the last fight on the Baron, although they gave it away, they were able to finish the map, soaking the score in the series.
It is worth noting that DAMWON KIA played this map badly: in the T1 style on the first, they tried to quickly recoup at the beginning, instead of quietly going into late and trying to win there. This leads us to the idea that it is always worthwhile to sensibly assess the strength of your peak and think before doing something. As you can see, even at the tier-1 level in Korea, they make such gross mistakes.
Fourth card
T1, in my opinion, made a mistake in the draft on the fourth map of the confrontation: the fact is that Gumayusi is very good at contact ADCs like Aphelia, Jinx, etc. The strength of this player lies in the fact that he can perfectly play a micro-moment on such champions, when the whole game depends on it, and Varus is a completely different type that does not suit this player, and besides, many have learned to play against such setups.
The peak of DAMWON KIA on this map is simply gorgeous: Ash, who is currently the strongest ADC, Trundle, who with his slowdown and control in the form of an ice column can greatly annoy opponents, Jace, who in Korea constantly flies into the ban and Le Blanc with Seraphina, which give a lot of magic damage, control and healing in a fight.
Despite all my words about the DAMWON KIA pick, at the very beginning of the map they missed the thread of the game, giving the solo to FB Gragas. However, they will soon be rehabilitated, thanks to the excellent synergy between Jace and Ash.
T1 decides to take the lead as it will be very difficult for them in late late against DWG peak. They manage to take 3 DAMWON KIA champions and earn a big advantage, which only remains to be realized.
DWG is struggling to give the T1 no room to maneuver. It does not always work out for them, but in general, the advantage does not rise above 3 thousand in gold, which is a good indicator.
One of the key moments of the map is the fight at the 17th minute, when T1 decides to push under the tower on the middle lane, but they do everything very scattered, which is why they lose Keria.
Then the teams managed to make one more murder, which practically did not affect anything. After the fifth dragon, T1 decides to find some minus that will allow them to take Baron Nashor and transfer the game to the decisive map, but Faker makes a monstrous mistake that costs them the game.
Faker gives an ult to a T2 tower, taking everyone except Canna. Gragas is left alone at the mercy of DWG, and the rest of the team is trapped from which they did not manage to get out without consequences. DAMWON KIA leveled off in gold and moved to the late, where they are stronger, which means that before the last fight, the initiative was taken away from the hands of T1.
ShowMaker removes all questions about the winner of the grand final and even with the soul of an infernal dragon at T1, DAMWON KIA win 3-1 and become the champions of LCK Summer 2021.
Outcome
T1 made a lot of mistakes during this final. Even if we consider the third map, if they did not have a big advantage during the unsuccessful dive T1, then this final could end with a score of 3-0.
DAMWON KIA didn't play perfectly either, and if T1 hadn't been nervous, I'm sure they could have won.
Faker looked very bleak throughout the grand finals. He chased the 10th LCK winner title in his career, but unfortunately failed to win the DWG. It seems to me that the reason for everything is envy, tilt and excitement: T1 lost the title of the best team in Korea and the desire to get even with DAMWON KIA, as well as the inability to do this, play a very cruel joke with them.
This was an analysis of the LCK Summer Split 2021 Grand Finals, where I went into detail about the reasons for the defeat of T1. Soon there will be a similar analysis for the Fnatic - MAD Lions match from the LEC Summer 2021 finals.
See you at Summoner's Rift!
Maksym has been working at EGamersWorld since 2017. Joining the company during his first year at university, he worked as a translator until 2022. After that, Maksym began working as an editor. His main discipline is Dota 2, and over time, Maksym's responsibilities expanded to include CS:GO, CS2 and Valorant. Additionally, as an editor, he publishes various materials on gaming topics.