T1 vs. Hanwha Life Esports / LCK 2021 Summer - Week 1 / Post-Match Discussion

I don't believe this roster is set to succeed and achieve their goal of being the best team in the world/winning worlds so let me explain.

T1 has recently announced that they will no longer swap out players and will stick to the same main roster, which in this case was rumored to be Canna Cuzz Faker Teddy Keria. As of right now this seems to be true as this roster is starting in their first match of the season against HLE.

Firstly, this roster has the highest floor out of any roster, considering they have veteran players such as Cuzz, Teddy, even Canna in this case as he played last year so i understand why T1 runs it. This roster will probably make top 4 in LCK and go to worlds barring some internal problems. So what is the problem with running it?

In my opinion, the starting players, excluding Faker and Keria, have showed weaknesses or poor performances in international competition (and sometimes domestically) that they were never able to fix or simply hit their skill ceiling.

Canna has heavily slumped at the start of spring and while he regained some of his form, i just think the upside of Zeus is too big to have him start over the rookie. I don't think Canna is a bad player and honestly he has shown glimpses of brilliance last summer, but does anyone seriously think that with more experience Canna will overshadow Zeus? In the end i think Zeus would fit T1 better as a dominant top player, similar to the likes of Marin 2015 or Duke 2016, rather than Canna who has been struggling in the laning phase this year and fits more of a teamfighting top laner.

Cuzz is my biggest problem with this roster. Similar to Canna, i think Cuzz is a pretty good player. However my biggest issue with Cuzz is that he only looks good when his team is doing well and when team is struggling he will never, and i mean almost never, take any risks in order to salvage (be it ganking or counter-jungling). He will farm his jungle no matter what, end early game with 0/0/0 no matter what champion he is on and basically depend on players winning their lanes on their own. Additionally T1 isn't a team which plays around jungle heavily so you need to have an active jungler in most games and let's be honest cuzz isn't canyon when it comes to it (although ideally, if u wanted to make cuzz work u should pick champions like Karthus or graves/kindred and let him farm, draft your lanes around that equally however T1 isn't known for their smart drafting so that's out of the picture). Lastly Cuzz performances internationally, albeit there weren't many, showed nothing spectatular and honestly he seems like the player who would get exposed the most by smart drafting, considering also he has somewhat of a small champion pool each split.

Teddy in a vacuum is a great player and i think most people agree to that. However he just seems to disappear when it comes to international competition and even in big games. Obviously he hasn't played too many internal tournaments, but to me it feels like its either the nerves or inexperience which kind of makes him play more reserved, less explosive. Especially his laning phase is suspect, because honestly Teddy is one of the best, if no the best, teamfighting adcs currently. Just like with Canna, In my opinion the player on the best just has bigger upside than Teddy who has already mostly shown whats his form is in crucial matches and international competition.

So what is the alternative? I think T1 should have been bold and went with the roster that is on paper the highest skill ceiling albeit inexperienced: Zeus Oner Faker Gumayusi Keria.

Zeus has played very few games and honestly played with rosters that were unstable/was never given agency to succeed so I believe eventually he would have higher upside than Canna.

Oner has honestly shown brilliance and i can't believe that they would start cuzz just because he is more experienced. Oner never played with a stable roster (and i believe he only played with Clozer) and still performed way and beyond, who would pass up opportunity to not start a rookie like this, especially in a region which seems to have weak jungle pool right now?

Regardless what u think about Faker, first and foremost starting Clozer over him is just insulting so the option here is obvious. And no matter what u think about Fakers form, or how he performed recently, he will never back down in international competition and try to make the play to win the game, which is a very important factor that majority of players lack. Latest news give more hope as well as Faker seems to be inform, so regardless of roster we will see in summer.

Gumayusi choice is probably controversial, but I see a lot of Uzi/early deft like playstyle from Guma and i think he is just a better fit for Keria who focuses on lane dominance. Given more time and playing together with a stable roster for longer, i think Guma would eventually become Gumauzi and overshadow Teddy.

Lastly, i don't think i need to explain Keria that much. Currently a strong argument for Keria being the best support in the world and regardless of roster he will start and show why he should be considered just that.

To summarize, the roster that i proposed has the highest upside/skill ceiling and consistency/experience issues can only be solved by playing with the stable roster for a longer period which players never had a chance to do. As a T1 fan i hope that next year, we will have Guma, Zeus and Oner given a chance to prove themselves as starters.

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