T1 were just one loss away from missing Worlds 2024, with the team having missed several chances to qualify. And, though they’ve made it to the international, the way they did it raises some questions about how well they’ll be able to defend their title.
Though they ended in third place in the LCK Summer Split, the way in which they did it didn’t inspire confidence. Back-to-back one-sided losses against Hanwha Life Esports straight into losing to DPlus KIA in Regional Finals and taking it to the very last game against KT, T1 just barely scraped their way in.
But, they made it to Worlds 2024.
A sigh of relief was let out not only by the members of the team, but also their massive fandom and likely Riot Games who see just how much viewership this team brings in.
According to Esports Charts, the viewership for T1 vs KT topped the viewership of the grand final by just a hair, peaking at 1.69 million compared to Gen.G vs HLE’s 1.62 million.
What’s more, this is Faker’s ninth career Worlds qualification, with him having never finished below fourth place. Expectations for the team are still sky-high, and making it there was the bare minimum for this team.
When they won, the team wasn’t celebrating. They were just relieved.
With three other extremely strong LCK teams going to the event, along with other strong teams from the LPL and even Team Liquid, a team that managed to take a match off T1 at the EWC, will be there. This is only the beginning of a very long climb for T1.
Now that T1 have secured their spot, all 20 Worlds spots are filled. They were the very last team to qualify, and they couldn’t have cut it any closer.
With the event starting in less than two weeks, T1 don’t have much time to refine their strategy and figure out how to boost their performance to the level they’ll need it to be at in order to take another title. However, considering how DRX won Worlds in 2022, nothing is impossible.
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