LCK: Dplus KIA avenge T1 defeat from the first round and jump to third place

The final day of the sixth game week of the regular season, offered a duel between two heavyweights and embarrassingly playing Korean LCK.

The second half of the regular season is underway. While we already have a clear picture of the first two teams that will advance to the playoffs, the other four spots are being fought for. The traditional battle between Dplus KIA and T1 was also a face-off between teams that are still searching for a face.

While T1’s problems are quite familiar – from the injured Faker to the departure of Bengi to lackluster performances, for Dplus it is all about consistency, which the team has lacked since the spring. While both teams can challenge the weaker teams in the league, they are far from stabilizing and gaining form.

T1, after turbulent performances, came to life and managed a rematch with Nongshim RedForce (2-0). Therefore, this duel was approached with higher expectations to see if the considerable shortcomings and communication errors could be eliminated.

The first game corresponded to this. T1 were able to eliminate the pressure from their opponent and held a slight lead due to the opponent’s inaccuracies. However, this game highlighted another problem that T1 faced.

The team is unable to take advantage of advantages and leads, hence the inability to close out the game victoriously. It was this problem that managed to get Dplus back into the game.

Add to that Poby’s incomprehensible mistake of going out of nowhere to meet his opponent, and the whole thing just illustrated more woes for the global giant of League of Legends. Dplus didn’t refuse the offer and went up 1-0 after a game where they weren’t the better team.

The first win since 2021 for Dplus KIA

The second game was much more active on the part of Dplus. Although Oner picked his dreaded Lee Sin, Canyon taught him a lesson in efficiency and counterjungling. Still, T1 did not wrap up the game and tried to keep up with their traditional opponent.

The match eventually went over forty minutes, with Dplus unable to end the game in their favor for long. Several futile sieges on Nexus T1 were always able to fight off and breathe big turnovers.

After all, Dplus finally managed to destroy the opponent’s Nexus with all their strength and after a long time we could see both satisfaction and smiles on the stars of the team. No wonder. Dplus KIA last defeated T1 in the semifinals of Worlds 2021 (3-2).

So in the context of the playoff battles, Dplus KIA’s win over T1 adds more peace of mind to the Dplus players, and a lone third place in the table. T1 dropped to fifth place and will play Hanwha Life for fourth place on Friday. This game will also be very crucial for playoff seeding.

Source: LCK, Leaguepedia, LCK Global