T1 are world champions of League of Legends
T1 won the Legion of Legends World Championship, defeating Weibo Gaming 3-0 in the final to secure their fourth world title.
T1 completely dismantled Weibo Gaming in the finals in what was a bit of an underwhelming finish to a solid tournament. T1 simply looked a step above their opponents, making the right moves at the right time to close out some pretty easy wins on every map.
With the Worlds being held in South Korea, T1 was the hometown favorite at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. The team was the only one from the region to make it to the semi-finals of the competition, with the other three teams so far from the LPL Championship in China.
Getting to the T1 final took some pretty convincing wins against two Chinese teams in the bracket stage, in the form of LNG Esports, who they demolished 3-0 and JD Gaming, who they beat 3-1. This set up a final against another Chinese team on Weibo Gaming. Many outside of Korea saw the Chinese teams as favorites to win the event, so T1 taking down so many of them shows just how strong they were at Worlds.
With the win, the T1 organization lifts its fourth Worlds trophy and its first since 2016. The organization has reached two finals since then, but lost both, including a tough loss last year where they went down 3-2 to DRX. While they can never be counted out, there was a good chance they wouldn’t even make it to Worlds this year after star player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok was injured mid-season.
Despite the somewhat underwhelming action on Rift, the Worlds final was very impressive. The opening ceremony saw the first live performance by Heartsteel, the boy band from the Legion of Legends universe, as well as a rendition of the Worlds 2023 anthem by KPop group NewJeans.
In addition to the music side of things, Riot Games also announced that the 2024 Worlds final will be held in London at the iconic O2 Arena which can hold up to 20,000 people. Following the success of MSI earlier this year, also held in London, expectations for next year’s final are already extremely high.
Worlds also hosted the unveiling of Hwei, the new Legion of Legends champion who is a painting mage with 10 skills.
