T1 first met G2 Esports in the opening round of the MSI 2024 Bracket Stage.
This meant that Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok would once again be going up against his mid lane LEC rival, Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther.
Everyone was hyped up for the series, and it certainly delivered, going to Silver Scrapes with T1 ultimately coming out on top. Read our full recap of G2 versus T1 quarterfinals match here.
In the next round, T1 were knocked down to the lower bracket by Bilibili Gaming. They then defeated Team Liquid 3-1 to reach round three of the lower bracket.
Overcoming PSG Talon and Top Esports, as fate would have it, G2 once again set up a rematch with the LCK second seed.
Despite hopeful fans who longed to see a repeat performance and a possible 3-2 victory in favor of the LEC squad, T1 silenced the arena in a sweep.
Faker spoke to Laure “Bulii” Valée in a post-game broadcast interview to share his thoughts on the series, translated by Park “zeetwo” Jeesun.
T1 Faker is feeling it this MSI 2024 as he looks towards rematch with LPL team Bilibili Gaming
Laure opened the interview, commenting that the outcome of T1 versus G2 Esports was very much expected.
“I think it was a great experience for us to get to play against G2 in the prior match. After that, we were able to form a really good game plan and we had everything in our head already, so we were able to play accordingly,” Faker reflected on the rematch. “Ever since that [first] G2 match, we were able to step up so much.”
During the series, it was apparent, especially in game two that G2’s plan was to shut Faker down in the mid lane. They burnt his Flash at level one and went back for a second gank into a guaranteed kill.
However, he persevered, scaled, and in fact, single-handedly ended the game in a thrilling Nexus play. Read our full recap of T1’s 3-0 victory here.
“I always understand that there could be criticism. Even before MSI started, I already had the expectation that this could be a really rough tournament for me, personally,” Faker said. “I try to concentrate as much as possible and display the best form possible and not pay attention to the other things.”
When asked about what goes on in his head during meditation on stage, he replied, “I have so many thoughts when I’m on stage so I just try to close my eyes and go over all those thoughts.”
Lastly, Laure asked the legendary mid laner to compare this MSI 2024 run with last year’s Worlds 2023 experience where T1 also stood as the last LCK team standing in the way of LPL teams.
“This is very interesting to me as well. This is a great experience for us. Just like last year’s Worlds, I’m happy to go through this miracle run with my team,” he replied. “We’re having a good time and stepping up so much as a team. I have a really good feeling about MSI too.”
Keep up with MSI 2024’s schedule, scores, and results here.
Watch MSI 2024 live on Riot Games’ official Twitch and YouTube channels.
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