T1 “saved” Riot and LCK Organizing Committee
As we all know, in the final match of the entire League of Legends world before entering the 2024 World Championship, T1 won a dramatic victory over KT Rolster, thereby winning the last spot to attend the 2024 World Championship. Let's not talk about how T1 will perform in the upcoming tournament, but according to many viewers, after T1 won a ticket to the biggest League of Legends tournament of the year, Riot was the first to feel relieved. Because, without needing too many more examples, everyone knows that T1 has been the “view-baiting rod” of Riot and League of Legends for many years.
T1 to CKTG 2024 benefits both Riot, the LoL community and opponents
A typical example is in the final match of the recent LCK regional qualifiers, the T1 – KT match brought in more than 1.8 million views at its peak on all platforms that the Esports Chart website counted (except for Chinese broadcasting platforms). For those who don't know, including the playoffs, the T1 – KT match had more views than the final match between Gen.G – Hanwha Life Esports.
The final match of the regional qualifiers between KT – T1 has an “incredibly” high number of views.
The two matches of the regional qualifiers with over 1 million views both had the participation of T1. And the T1 – DK match alone had nearly 3 times higher peak views than the BNK FearX – KT match.
While the views of the 2024 LCK Summer Finals were only about 1.6 million.
The T1 – DK match is nearly 3 times higher than the KT – FOX match.
The League of Legends and LPL communities also “benefit” from T1's victory.
Perhaps everyone understands that CKTG 2024 may lose some of its appeal if T1 cannot participate in the tournament from the beginning to begin its journey to defend its championship. Right at CKTG 2023, T1's matches took up the top 3 positions for the matches with the highest views. The final match between T1 – Weibo Gaming alone was the match with the highest views in the history of CKTG. Notably, it was just a one-sided match and ended quickly after 3 games.
The 2023 World Championship Final between T1 and WBG is the most viewed match in the history of World Championships.
Even rival teams from the LPL will benefit somewhat from T1's participation in the 2024 World Championship. As we know, in last year's World Championship, T1 defeated all 4 LPL teams on their journey. This year, Top Esports replaced JD Gaming, while the remaining 3 names are still present. For LPL fans, winning the World Championship is of course an important task. But on that journey, defeating T1 to “take revenge” for last year is equally meaningful. It is no coincidence that Bin is so eager to meet T1 again at the upcoming 2024 World Championship after winning the 2024 LPL Summer Championship with BLG.
Bin is one of the players who affirmed that T1 is BLG's biggest opponent at CKTG 2024
It can be said that T1's reaching CKTG 2024 has met the expectations of many League of Legends audiences around the world, not just T1 fans. And if this year, Faker and his teammates can recreate another “magical journey”, it will truly be a “blockbuster” that even the most optimistic T1 fans probably wouldn't dare to dream of at this time. But when the match hasn't started, anything can happen.
