In their first
LCK Cup confrontation against his former team
T1, Lee “
Gumayusi” Min-hyeong and
Hanwha Life Esports fell 2-1 in their opening series. In a series where Lee “
Faker” Sang-hyeok was named MVP, T1 particularly shone in Game 3, which was completely one-sided.
This is, however, not the first time the two have faced each other. As they already met during the KeSPA Cup in December, HLE and Gumayusi won the first BO3, while
T1 triumphed 3-2 in the grand final, claiming the very first KeSPA Cup in the organization’s history. Since the LCK Cup does not officially count toward the LCK season, which will only begin in Spring, the first official LCK confrontation will technically have to wait until April.
The series between the two teams was hard-fought, going to a third game to decide the winner. In the first game, HLE took the win in nearly 37 minutes, with Gumayusi putting on a huge performance on Corki, dealing close to 40K damage to open the score. In the second game, Kim “
Peyz” Su-hwan and Aphelios took advantage of the new season’s buffs to even the score.
In the final third game, HLE barely stood a chance. Mun “
Oner” Hyeon-jun on Nocturne, Faker on Orianna, and Ryu “
Keria” Min-seok on Bard made the team almost impossible to beat. Standout performances also came from Choi “
Doran” Hyeon-joon on Akali, who delivered a massive showing, while Peyz demonstrated his mechanics on Sivir, allowing T1 to claim their first series win and secure a point for
Group Baron.
