Faker Becomes the “Target” of T1 – Smash on the Day Gumayusi Was Absent
The match against HLE could be described as a “disaster” for T1. Indeed, even as the year 2024 approaches, T1 had never lost to any opponent in such a humiliating manner. It seems that only HLE, among professional teams, has been able to make T1 look this vulnerable. Clearly, the blame rests on all team members, including the coaching staff and players. However, T1’s anti-fans continue to find a new “culprit” whenever Gumayusi is absent, and that is none other than Faker.
Specifically, there have been posts highlighting Faker’s KDA of 0/7/1 in game 2 against HLE. Moreover, these anti-fans even dug up old posts where Faker shared about his time being absent from T1 to only criticize or mock the team’s performance.
This Time, Even Faker’s Fans Will “Criticize”
The reality of the match showed that, with Viktor’s champion being quite dependent on time to scale, it was evident that Faker couldn’t do much differently. Before this, the opposing team had Sylas in Zeka’s hands, and T1 had already lost all three lanes before Faker achieved his “disastrous” KDA. Moreover, Oner seemed nearly unable to move to the lanes to support Faker when Zeka and Peanut were too strong.
Furthermore, League of Legends has always been a team game, and from the beginning, any missteps can significantly affect the match. Therefore, if there is any blame to be placed, the primary responsibility falls on T1’s coaching staff. They had employed a difficult-to-execute strategy (Corki) in game 1 for Smash, and afterward, the duo strategy with Xayah (which required significant lane coordination) failed miserably, even though it was clear that Smash’s weakness was in the jungle.
Wrong decisions can lead to a series of consequences, and this failure against T1 was a comprehensive failure. In this loss, no one can be absolved of blame. However, if Faker were to defend Smash, even his own fans might make these anti-fans “pay the price” for their actions.
