Legendary Korean organization T1 failed to qualify for the 2020 League of Legends World Championship after getting swept by Gen.G in the LCK Regional Gauntlet earlier. Although this result might not have been expected, the series still grabbed a whopping peak viewership of 1,044,983 people, according to Esports Charts.
The three-game sweep was more popular than the 2020 LEC Summer Finals between Fnatic and G2 Esports, which had 1,002,178 peak viewers and also ended in a pretty lopsided sweep. T1 vs. Gen.G also came close to doubling the peak viewership of the 2020 LCS Summer Finals between FlyQuest and TSM, which only reached 545,571 viewers.
These numbers make sense for a few reasons, though, especially since this was T1’s last chance to make it to Worlds 2020. The last time they failed to make the tournament was in 2018 when the team’s roster was in limbo. Now, roster switches have prevented them from reaching Worlds again.
This means that League fans won’t get to see Faker at Worlds once more. And this untimely end to T1’s season brings up questions about his future on the team. The iconic mid laner had been swapped out of T1’s lineup multiple times over the course of this season for 17-year-old rookie Lee “Clozer” Ju-hyeon.
T1 started with the same roster they used to take down Afreeca Freecs. But this wasn’t enough to beat Gen.G, who are known to win in high-pressure situations. Gen.G were prepared for T1’s draft and players, banning away crucial picks from their carries and countering their in-game plays perfectly throughout the entire series.
Gen.G took control of the series from the first couple of minutes. Even though Ruler got target banned with seven ADC bans, he managed to perform well on Senna. While he was farming up in the bottom lane, his team was dominating the top and middle lanes with Bdd getting ahead early on. His Azir is feared around the LCK and most teams either pick or ban it away. T1 decided against that, however, and paid for it with a game loss. This will be the third time that the T1 organization has missed the World Championship. It also failed to qualify for Worlds in 2014 and 2018. They were hyped up in the Spring Split, but that didn’t carry over into the summer. The team underperformed, ended fourth in the regular split, and got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by Afreeca Freecs.
It’s unknown what role Faker will be taking next year, especially with T1’s willingness to use Clozer as a starter. But the 24-year-old superstar signed a three-year extension with the team in February and even became a part-owner of the organization.