Silver Scrapes didn't resonate in
LoL Park this Friday as
defeated
in a decisive 3-1 for a spot at the nearby-hosted Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), kicking off on June 28th in Daejeon, South Korea. This will be the first time for the LCK powerhouse at MSI, and if today's performance signalled anything is that they're definitely ready to win it too.
After a Round 2 where they looked like the most stable team in the league from start to finish, HLE lock in the LCK first seed at MSI. The stellar performance of today also feels like revenge for last year's Road to MSI match, where HLE fell short in a do-or-die series in the lower bracket final, and got denied the international stage.
For the three-time reigning World Champions, the first qualification match did surely not go as planned, but there's still a chance for them to qualify for the second LoL Esports' international event of the year. Yet, while T1 still don't know who they'll face between ,Gen.G and KT Rolster, they have a lot of work to do not to repeat today's confused performance.
A close, but not by much, match
The first two games both started slow and cautious, following almost the exact same structure where control builds slowly over time and neither side ever manages to fully break the game open in a clean way until one specific fight.
In the opening game T1 looked like they were taking over as the game reached the late stages, setting up around HLE’s base and slowly pushing into winning positions, but one late fight in front of their own base completely flipped everything and HLE stole the opener from what looked like a lost position. The following game mirrored the same pattern, just with the ending reversed,
as Kim "Peyz" Soo-hwan’s Sivir hit a massive quadrakill at a 28-minute fight that swung the entire game, allowing T1 to take Baron, take control of the map and close it out to even the series.
The next game started faster from HLE, who picked up early kills and built a small lead around the 15-minute mark, going up in skirmishes while drakes remained relatively even. HLE secured Herald and the first Infernal, and the game began to tilt around neutral fights. T1 found a strong response around the next dragon and won the fight, but failed to convert it into real map control, and HLE immediately reset the tempo by taking the next objective.
From there, the fights became more chaotic, and HLE slowly tightened their grip on the map. A key kill onto
from a bush opened everything up for HLE, which converted it into Baron and started pressuring T1 around the Rift. At the final Infernal drake
stole the objective and secured Infernal Soul, completely breaking T1’s remaining win condition. HLE pushed into the base, took inhibitors and slowly dismantled T1 to go 2-1 up in the series.
The final game gave T1 a better early start, with more stable lanes and an even opening few minutes, even after a couple of small failed attempts on the bot side. They secured both early drakes and took the fight at the second one, but only just, surviving on thin margins in a messy exchange.
And even if around 14 minutes the game was still even, T1 already looked slightly uncomfortable, struggling to turn small advantages into their usual structured macro map control. HLE gradually took over, keeping to apply pressure, choking out vision and space until T1 could no longer contest the map, closing out the series and securing their first MSI qualification.
Gen.G will face KT for the final LCK MSI spot, with the winner going on to play T1 for the last remaining qualification slot, meaning only one of the three teams will ultimately lock in a place at MSI.
