Faker turned into a comedic mid laner, got solo killed five times, forgot to buy a Tear of the Goddess, yet still made it to the finals.

Hello to all LPL fans and League of Legends summoners, this is Tianxia Game Report.

Yesterday, the Korean KeSPA Cup featured the decisive match between DK and T1 for a place in the finals. T1 completed a stunning comeback from 0-2 to 3-2, overturning their opponent and advancing to face HLE in the final stage once more.

Because the match was so dramatic, the performance of the T1 team attracted extensive attention and debate.

T1’s comeback into the finals, with Faker becoming a humorous mid laner.

In the match between T1 and DK yesterday, T1’s team showed completely different forms in the first two games compared to the last three. The first two games looked like they hadn’t woken up, easily crushed by DK. However, starting from the third game, T1 suddenly found their rhythm, leveling the score, and even though they fell behind significantly in the deciding game—at one point trailing by over 9,000 gold—they fought back.

Then, T1’s bottom lane seized an opportunity to win a crucial team fight, turning the game around. At that moment, DK probably thought they had it secured, which led to major mistakes and giving away two free kills in a row, causing the game to slip away from them.

This just proves that no matter how big the lead, you can never underestimate T1. This lesson has been confirmed by countless teams over the past few years.

T1 struggled but eventually advanced to the finals. Many joked that T1 used the most entertaining strategy, even suspecting the team had forum accounts to deceive haters by losing the first two games on purpose to rile them up, then winning later and causing heart attacks among their critics—maximizing the show’s entertainment value.

Faker’s performance in this KeSPA Cup was also labeled by fans as that of a comedic mid laner, with many personal mistakes.

Faker was solo killed five times and forgot to buy a Tear of the Goddess as a mage.

Faker’s form in this cup was quite poor, leading viewers to wonder if someone else was playing for him. Notably, he was solo killed three times by Zeka in the match against HLE, with his Ryze becoming a liability, contributing to the team’s loss.

In the game where he played Ryze, he intended to buy Archangel’s Staff but forgot to get the Tear of the Goddess initially, only purchasing it later.

The funniest part was in yesterday’s match against DK, where he again forgot to buy the Tear of the Goddess, shocking the audience who said such a basic mistake is rarely made even by average mage players. Compared to being solo killed, this kind of fundamental item error was even more outrageous.

He was also solo killed twice by ShowMaker’s LeBlanc, causing a quick collapse and loss in the first game.

Faker’s play in the first two games was almost like sleepwalking, but despite his poor performance, T1’s margin for error was so large that if Faker had been slightly more focused and teammates gave their all, they could still have won.

This is the confidence that comes from being the strongest team in history; when a rare comeback like overturning a 0-2 deficit happens, no one is surprised because it’s T1 who achieved it.

Reason for poor form: lack of training during the off-season.

We can speculate that Faker’s slump is mostly due to a long off-season rest and insufficient practice, along with a less serious attitude toward matches, which led to many mistakes during games.

Normally, such performance would be criticized, but considering that T1 and Faker have been competing continuously in all leagues and world events throughout the year with very little rest, it’s understandable that after winning a championship, they would take more time off.

This KeSPA Cup is directly linked to next year’s Asian Games national team selection, but it must be noted that Chovy did not participate, choosing to rest instead. In this context, Faker is still competing, and given his personal honors and status, he is very likely to secure a starting position on the national team.

Even if they lose the final to HLE, it won’t have much impact. Moreover, if Faker and T1 regain their form, HLE probably won’t be a match for them. Everyone can look forward to the KeSPA Cup final to see who will ultimately lift the trophy.