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We continue to break down what's going on in the LCK Summer 2024 regular season. The final week of regular season matchups is heating up.
On the first game day of week 9, we have two matches to look forward to. One of them is the T1 vs Freecs match.
At first glance, T1 and Freecs can not cause The International heresy, and all because of the critically large difference in the level of the teams. However, in fact, T1 has big difficulties at LCK Summer 2024, so also Faker after COVID. Anyway, let's see what will happen in the match T1 - Freecs and who will take the victory.
Let's go.
T1 Form
Let's open the T1 vs Freecs match with an analysis of T1's form. In this match they will play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.3.
T1 won the LCK Spring 2022 and then three consecutive top 2s: MSI, LCK Summer and Worlds 2022.
The curse of top-2s carried over to the 2023 season as well. At the Long Run of the Year, Faker and company took 2nd place at LCK Spring 2023, and then finished third at MSI 2023.
- T1 line-up: Zeus, Oner, Faker, Gumayusi, Keria.
LCK Summer 2023 was a real challenge for T1. The team made it to the play-offs, but did it with difficulty, taking 5th place in the group stage with the score 9-9.
There were problems for the main protagonist - Faker. The legendary mid laner injured his hand and it obviously affected the overall playing conditions of T1. But now Faker is kind of back on track.
The Faker factor has played out. T1 defeated a serious opponent in the person of Dplus and made their way to the next round, where their opponent will be KT Rolster. The latter, by the way, chose T1 as their opponent.
Next up was no less capable opponent than Dplus. Faker and company played against KT Rolster and won that match with a score of 3-2.
The opponent in the match for the play-offs for T1 was Gen.G. The first tried, and even started the game with the score 2-1, but it didn't work out: Gen.G camebacked, and Chovy was better than Faker.
In the grand final match T1 almost lost to KT Rolster after an excellent Long Sogpeg 2-0. They were saved by Gumayusi, who pulled it off on the 5th map with his Xayah.
However, it didn't allow them to win the final. T1 faced their nemesis Gen.G, where they crushingly lost 0-3.
T1 opened Worlds 2023 with a game against Liquid. Being the clear favourite of the series they closed the match against Liquid in their favour, but it was not an easy win: Liquid held on for 36 minutes and Ledge only 1 kill. Everything was decided in the final midlane brawl, after which T1 closed the series.
In a 1-0 basket, T1 ran into their own kryptonite - Gen.G. Faker and company started great, but the first LCK team was the first to adjust the pace of the game to their own and eventually win the match.
Next up, T1 faced Cloud9. Perhaps, it was the most defeated match of all that I had the chance to watch on this Worlds. Naturally, it ended in T1's favour.
After trampling Cloud9 T1 started to beat Bilibili Gaming, and they succeeded. T1 easily defeated the vice-champions MSI 2023 with the score 2-0.
In the play-offs, T1 played against LNG. Scout, who was not unreasonably named the best player of Worlds 2023, was like that until the 5th of November: T1 wiped out LNG, closing the series with a score of 3-0.
In the semi-finals of Worlds 2023, T1 faced perhaps the top contender to win the championship, JD Gaming. As formidable as the Chinese were, they were unable to outplay the experienced T1. As a result, Faker and company won the match with a score of 3-1 and T1 for the sixth (!) time made it to the grand finals of the most important League of Legends tournament. And then won it for the 4th time, which is an absolute record in competitive League of Legends and in esports in general.
After an excellent Long Cоrnеg regular season, LCK Spring 2024 T1s slipped a bit in the regular season, finishing 15-3 and in third place. T1 started the championship playoffs with a match against Hanwha Life Esports and surprisingly for me, they blew the game wide open, losing it 0-3. In the lower play-offs T1 played against DPlus KIA and beat them 3-0. Next, they defeated their HLE opponents 3-1, thus becoming the second and last Korean team at MSI 2024.
T1 made it to the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 after finishing in the top 2 at LCK Spring 2024. At the MSI 2024 MSI Play-In, T1 easily took the two series 2-0 and advanced to the Bracket Stage. They started off the Bracket Stage with a nerve-wracking 3-2 win over G2 Esports. In the match to advance to the top 3 T1 faced BLG and lost rather toothlessly with a 1-3 score. Next up was a match against Liquid, where T1 won 3-1. After that they played against G2 Esports in a rematch of the first round of MSI 2024 and again they won, but this time cleanly - 3-0 in favour of T1. But in the next match T1 could not win: BLG outplayed T1 with the score 3-1.
To play at Esports World Cup 2024, T1 interrupted their performance at LCK Summer 2024, where they had a 5-1 record.
In between LCK Summer 2024 matches, T1 tasted Riyadh, where they became the champions of Esports World Cup 2024 with a prize money of $1,000,000. They defeated TOP Esports in the grand finals.
The LCK Summer 2024 T1 is pretty tough at LCK Summer 2024. As of week 7 of matches, they have an 8-6 score and a top 4 ranking.
Most Popular T1 Champions
Fiora (5 games, 60% wins) was the most often sent to the top line. There was also Jax (3 matches, 100% wins), Camile (2 matches, 100% wins), Irelia (2 matches, 100% wins).
In the forest Maokai (7 matches, 85% wins), Sejuani (4 games, 75% wins), Viego (2 matches, 100% wins).
The centre line was occupied by Azir (5 matches, 80% wins), Sylas (3 games, 66% wins), Kassadin (2 matches, 100% wins), Ryze (2 games, 50% wins).
Shooters: Varus (4 games, 50% wins), Lucian (4 games, 100% wins).
Sapports: Nami (3 games, 100% wins), Ashe (3 games, 0 wins), Varus (2 games, 100% wins), Miss Fortune (2 matches, 100% wins).
Form Freecs
We continue the analysis of the match T1 - Freecs with the analysis of Freecs form. In this match they will play as a clear outsider with the odds of winning at around 6.
Freecs are one of the weakest teams in South Korea, although they are one of the oldest. They have been playing on the LCK since 2016, but they have not managed to achieve any results.
The most successful year can be called 2018, when Freecs were twice in the top 3 at LCK (2nd place LCK Spring 2023, 3rd place at LCK Summer 2018) and made it to Worlds 2018. And there managed to reach the play-offs, but Ledgeili Cloud9, finishing in the top 8.
In the following years, they managed to reach the top 4 of LCK series tournaments four times. They finished Top-4 at the 2019 LCK Regional Finals, LCK Summer 2020, Top-3 at the 2020 LCK Regional Finals, and Top-4 at the 2022 LCK Spring.
In 2023, the Freecs failed in both LCK splits. First, they finished in the top 7 at LCK Spring without making it out of the group, and then they finished in the last, 10th, place at LCK Summer 2023.
- Freecs roster: DuDu, Cuzz, BuLLDoG, Leaper, Andil.
Freecs decided to strengthen Cuzz in the new season. The other four played for the club last season and the season before that.
Freecs will make their debut at LCK Spring 2024 with a match against T1. Obviously, they simply have no chance of winning there. Next up is HLE. Freecs have a busy calendar, nothing to say.
However, a difficult Long Corner did not prevent Freecs from reaching the LCK Spring 2024 play-offs. It was difficult, but they took 7 matches out of 18 played, took the top 6 and got to the main stage. However, we didn't manage to go further than the first round: as a result - top 6 LCK Spring 2024.
The team has a score of 6-8 before the Long Copeg of the 8th week of LCK Summer 2024.
Most popular Freecs champions
The most frequent guest is KSante (10 games, 8 wins). Gnar (6 matches, 50% wins), less frequently Sion (2 matches, 100% wins) and Renekton (2 matches, 50% wins) appear.
The ubiquitous Maokai is ignored in the forest (he appeared only once and lost). But Vi (6 games, 100% wins), Elise (6 games, 60% wins), Sejuani (4 games, 75% wins) get quite a lot of attention.
The centre line is occupied by Syndra (7 games, 85% wins), Ryze (4 games, 0% wins), Talliyah (3 games, 66% wins).
From shooters like Lucian (5 matches, 80% wins), Varus (4 games, 75% wins), Zeri, Sivir and Caitlyn appeared 3 times each and only Sivir didn't win a single game.
Sapports: Nami (7 games, 85% wins), Ashe (4 games, 50% wins), Yummi (3 games, 33% wins).
History of head-to-head meetings between T1 and Freecs
In 2024 the teams have played each other three times and all 3 matches were won by T1.
Predicted result of Freecs vs T1 at LCK Summer 2024
Based on the current situation, it's hard to "blindly" believe in a T1 victory. In a normal state of affairs, they should have no problem outplaying their opponent. Right now, betting on a 2-0 T1 win is a risk, but I'll take it.
Bottom line: 2-0 win for T1.
