Cover-Credits:
The Youtube handle of League of Legends Esports – LoLEsports – posted a video of T1’s attack damage carry (ADC) Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong ranking some of the iconic plays that the players of T1 and the then SKT Telecom1 (SKT T1) showcased over the years in pro play. Some of these clips included penta kills, flashy outplays, and also featured T1's flawless Spring Split in 2022 in the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK). The clips featured members of the old roster including Bae "Bang" Jun-sik and Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan.
What were the clips that were ranked by Gumayusi?
Faker, what was that?
This clip is arguably one of the most iconic 1v1s that League of Legends esports has ever seen and it features Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok and Ryu "Ryu" Sang-wook piloting Zed. The clip has veteran LCK casters Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles and Erik "DoA" Lonnquist featured in it. This match was the last one of the 2013 LCK Summer finals between KT Bullets and SKT T1. Back in the day, when a series reached game 5, it would be played Blind Pick-style which meant that teams could pick up the same champions and that’s how both Faker and Ryu locked in Zed.
The clip starts off with Faker walking from under the enemy inhibitor tower and being burst down to almost a quarter of his HP but then he outplays Ryu’s full HP Zed in a legendary fashion and kills him.
Faker’s Shockwave will find them all!
This legendary clip is from the 2017 Worlds Group Stage and the match was between China’s EDward Gaming (EDG) and SKT T1. At 29 minutes in-game, SKT T1 is down by 10K gold and they did not even have a single kill on board against EDG’s 9 kills. After pushing the bot wave, EDG walked all the way to mid-lane through the river and pushed it without proper vision of SKT T1’s members. Leveraging this, Faker who was playing Orianna, used his R - Command: Shockwave and ulted four members of EDG. On the back of this mechanical play, SKT T1 picked up four kills and closed in on the gold gap.
Wolf’s game-winning engage
When someone talks about Zyra, one always classifies her as a poke support but never in a million years would someone call her 1v5 engager like Alistar or Leona. But in the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) Finals between SKT T1 and G2 Esports, Wolf’s Zyra engage made history.
It was game 2 of the series and SKT T1 was on the blue side of the map, while G2 played red. The match had reached a stalemate point where both teams were almost neck and neck in gold and the kills were also very close. Wolf walked to the Raptors’ pit near the mid-lane outer tower, while G2 members were sieging it and flashed into them to root them with his perfect Zyra combo. T1 ended up acing its opponents and even picked up Baron Nashor on the back of this iconic play.
Bang’s pentakill on Lucian
This pentakill stems from a very back and forth team fight that took place between SKT T1 and Fnatic (FNC) at the MSI 2015 Group Stage. It portrays how slowly and differently League of Legends was played back in the day and this could never be pulled off in today’s meta. Despite being down in kills and gold, SKT came out ahead after orchestrating a flawless fight in the mid-lane. FNC also had a good team fight but Bang’s Lucian outlived all the damage and came out ahead and secured a stylish pentakill.
Gumayusi lives with insane ADC positioning
This clip is not a very flashy outplay or an insane pentakill that Gumayusi pulled off. However, it shows Gumayusi’s mechanical ability to position himself correctly whilst kiting away from enemies and using his abilities efficiently. The match was between KT and T1 in the 2022 Spring Split. Gumayusi landed multiple Jinx zaps and placed the perfect flame chompers and also burst down KT’s Ahri. Thanks to Gumayusi and Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, T1 was able to turn around a one-sided fight into a win.
Gumayusi’s ranking
Gumayusi was very humble while ranking his own play amidst all the other legendary ones. The following is the order in which Gumayusi ranked the above-detailed plays:
SSS tier - Faker’s outplays on Orianna and Zed
S tier -Wolf’s engage and Bang’s Lucian pentakill
A tier - Gumayusi’s positioning against KT
Gumayusi also talked about T1’s perfect run in the 2022 LCK Spring Split and what it meant to him to be playing for arguably the best League of Legends franchise in the world.
Fans can watch T1 and Gumayusi in the ongoing MSI 2022 where the team shall first take on G2 Esports in the opening match of the Rumble Stage. The T1 and G2 rivalry is one to watch closely since it is always entertaining, competitive, and down to the wire. Fans can watch the MSI games live on LoLEsports and on the Twitch and Youtube channels of Riot Games once the Rumble Stage kicks off. Even if you miss a game, you can watch the video on demand (VOD) on the LoL Esports VODs and Highlights channel.
