Hanwha Life Went Two Games Down to T1 and Won the Next Three, and Korea's Last Worlds Place Is Still Open
T1 led 2-0 in the LCK upper bracket on Wednesday and lost 3-2. Gen.G and T1 are already qualified for Worlds; KT Rolster, Dplus KIA and BNK FEARX are fighting for the fourth Korean slot.
T1 won the first two games of their LCK upper bracket match against Hanwha Life Esports at LoL Park on Wednesday, the second of them 26 kills to 6, and then lost the series 3-2.
The reversal was total. Hanwha Life won game three 18-9, game four 23-8 and game five 22-9. Having been outplayed for two games, they were not close to losing any of the last three.
Neither result changed who is going to the World Championship. Korea has four places this year, and Hanwha Life already hold one of them as the winners of the Mid-Season Invitational, where they beat Bilibili Gaming 3-2 in the final. That takes their slot out of the domestic pool and hands the LCK's three direct berths to the best of the rest. Gen.G confirmed theirs by sweeping KT Rolster 3-0 on Tuesday. T1 confirmed theirs without playing, because the bracket guarantees them a top-four finish and the top four minus Hanwha Life all advance.
That leaves one Korean place, and it will be settled in the lower bracket between KT Rolster, Dplus KIA and BNK FEARX. T1 beat BNK FEARX 3-2 in the first round of the upper bracket on 29 August and KT Rolster beat Dplus KIA 3-0 the following day.
The LCK playoffs are a six-team double-elimination bracket at LoL Park in Seoul, seeded from the regular season, and they decide Korea's seeding as well as its final qualifier. Gen.G play Hanwha Life in the upper bracket final on 5 September.
The World Championship runs from 15 October to 14 November across three venues in the United States. Play-ins are at the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, the Swiss stage and the quarter- and semi-finals at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, and the final at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Nineteen teams qualify, with the LCK, LPL, LEC, LCS and LCP each sending three directly to the Swiss stage.
For T1, a 2-0 lead surrendered in a bracket where nothing was at stake is either a bad night or a warning, and the six weeks before Los Angeles are not long enough to be certain which.