On July 7, in the semifinals of the 2024 Esports World Cup League of Legends project, the popular team T1 successfully defeated the North American powerhouse TL in a thrilling reversal battle and successfully advanced to the final stage. This series not only showcased the resilience and strength of the T1 team in the face of adversity, but also sparked a lot of discussion in the Korean esports community about the legendary Faker. T1 faced an unprecedented challenge in three rounds of intense matching, as TL had a number of South Korean players, including former World Champion impacts and CoreJJ.
In the first game, the two champions showed off their champion skin heroes, and with the excellent performance of APA's mid-laner Ryan Giggs, TL took a huge lead, and T1 fell behind all but in the middle. Only Faker's Tsar held the lead, but even if the team got the Ancient Dragon, it was still a lack of output and was beaten 0 for 5, and the equipment in the other lanes was too far behind.
However, T1 didn't give up and quickly made tactical adjustments, quickly taking the lead in the second game with a three-shooter. T1 chose to actively help Zeus in the early game, but his Zeli was quickly sent back, but fortunately, Faker and Oner actively led the tempo to stabilize the situation in the middle game, and finally snowballed to win.
When it came to the crucial tiebreaker, TL put T1 at a disadvantage in the early stage with its exquisite line change and early operation, Zeus was forced to kill twice by Yueta at the beginning, but TL wanted to kill Faker in the middle of the game, and that wave of losses caused them to rush to the dragon, only to be snatched by Oner and began to collapse. T1 came back from a trail of 4,500 gold to end the game with a 28-minute teamfight and advance to the finals.
There is no doubt that in this series, T1 was able to win entirely in the midfield, especially in the middle. Faker's performance once again proved his strength and influence as an esports legend, but it also sparked fierce controversy on Korean esports forums. As a four-time world champion, Faker has a huge fan base in South Korea, but at the same time, it is also accompanied by many doubts and ridicule from black fans, and many Korean players do not like Faker. After all, T1 has lost to GEN in the LCK finals four times in a row, and GEN has won the finals in Chengdu MSI.
However, before the start of this Esports World Cup, South Korean viewers were counting on GEN to win the championship, after all, T1 only lost to KT in last week's game, but they didn't expect T1 to become the only seed in the LCK region, and also entered the finals stage, and is about to face TES from the LPL region. When T1 became the last hope in the LCK region, many viewers who originally pinned their hopes on GEN even vented their emotions on Faker, and even cursed T1 for losing to TES.
However, in this controversy at the Korean Open, there are also many sensible voices who have come forward to defend Faker. An old video of the well-known streamer Dopa was resurfaced, and he bluntly pointed out: "Although people are always slandering Faker, LCK still has to rely on him to play at critical moments. This idea quickly sparked a heated discussion on the forum, garnering more than 600 responses in a short period of time, and a heated debate broke out between Faker's fans and black fans.
"Faker's mentality is really too strong, if I were him, I might not be able to hold on to it for a long time", "Faker can always prove himself on the big stage, that's why he is called the first person in history", "I can understand the heart of other players to support, but I can't understand the behavior of supporting other players by belittling others", "Last year's World Championship was the same, what if fans quarreled with each other all day long, and in the end, all fans still had to hope for Faker". Many fans have expressed their admiration and support for Faker, and some have mocked Chovy, who has repeatedly performed poorly in international competitions, calling him "888Ruler88", which means that Chovy's only semi-finals in the World Championship were won by Ruler.
At the same time, there are also voices pointing out that the performance of each player should be viewed rationally, and the player you like should not be supported by belittling others. As T1 advance to the finals, the controversy over Faker will continue to ferment, after all, they have only won a major tournament in recent years, and they will definitely be sprayed if they lose to TES. But in any case, Faker has proved his worth and status with his practical actions, and has become an indelible legend in the history of esports, which is the best interpretation of dreams and perseverance. In the early morning of July 8th, let's see who can complete the cup between TES and T1.