After more than 3 years, T1 is absent from an LCK final
The 2024 LCK Summer Finals was truly special, witnessing perhaps one of the biggest surprises in recent years, when the mighty Gen.G was “shut down” by Hanwha Life Esports, their domestic championship streak. The surprise was because, before this grand final, HLE had been defeated by Gen.G in every BO3, BO5 they faced, most recently the winner's bracket final.
In addition, the 2024 LCK Summer Finals also marks the first time since Summer 2021 that T1 has not appeared in a final of a domestic tournament.
T1 missed out on an LCK final for the first time since Summer 2021
Although T1 has a history of not performing well in the Summer tournaments, this year, the defending Worlds 2023 champions are facing much more difficulties. Not only Faker's injury but also the performance of other members.
However, T1 still has a chance to participate in CKTG 2024 when they only need 1 win in the regional qualifiers to be done. But when T1 did not participate in the LCK Summer 2024 grand finals, Riot and the LCK Organizing Committee had to accept the “consequences”.
And immediately there was a change that BTC LCK and Riot were not happy about at all.
T1 still proves to be very attractive
It is not difficult to see that Gen.G and HLE themselves have dedicated a very dramatic match. However, the appeal of T1 is something that no other team can replace, at least at the present time. LCK and Riot understand that when they look at the statistics from Esports Charts for the highest total views of the grand final match. Accordingly, the HLE – Gen.G match has a total of more than 1.6 million views.
But here's the thing: the 2024 LCK Spring Finals, also 5 games, had over 2.6 million views. Of course, these numbers don't include the Chinese broadcast platforms.
The grand final was intense with all 5 games but only got over 1.6 million views at its peak and less than 100k more views than the loser bracket final which only lasted 4 games.
Obviously, the difference of more than 1 million views is worth worrying about for Riot and the LCK Organizing Committee. Even T1 – Gen.G did not have a tense match pace in all 5 games like the recent Gen.G – HLE match. And as statistics also show, except for the grand final, the remaining 4 matches in the top 5 matches with the highest peak views of LCK Summer 2024, all had T1.
At the present time, perhaps not only the League of Legends audience but also the LCK Organizing Committee and Riot, are eagerly waiting for T1 to pass the regional qualifiers to reach the upcoming CKTG 2024.
