📝 Is this their time?: T1 2025 World Finals Preview

T1 have had the best stage since their inception, and are becoming more and more of a domestic threat. However, they haven’t been able to turn that Regular Season potential into many meaningful international wins. They’re a young team with a lot going for them, though, and it will be exciting to see how they stack up on the world stage this time around.

They came into the final week of the regular season undefeated, with only Team Falcons between them and perfection. Unfortunately for T1 fans, Falcons were a far cry from the unorganised, confused team that they were at the start of the stage, and handily denied T1 their undefeated stage.

However, T1 displayed an incredibly high level of play throughout the stage, most notably defeating Crazy Raccoon in 3-0 fashion in a dive mirror. Again, though, this impressive victory has a caveat - Crazy Raccoon got their revenge in the playoffs, defeating T1 in the same 3-0 fashion, in the same dive mirror.

Key Compositions

T1 want to play around DONGHAK as much as they can, and that means playing a Winston or Wrecking Ball-heavy style. DONGHAK is one of the best in the world on those heroes, and truly has solo carry potential, but they can be outclassed when the map doesn’t favour their carry player.

DONGHAK has leaned on the Hazard in the past when plans A and B weren’t working out, and has proved to be dominant on that hero as well. However, Hazard’s recent nerf has put his viability into question. DONGHAK may have to go back to the tried-and-tested Orisa and Ramattra on those ground tank-favoured maps. He has found decent success on these heroes in the past, but when forced to square up with an elite brawl team, he doesn’t really hold up.

While DONGHAK is the clear star on this team, the rest of the roster can hold their own against top Korean talent, as showcased in the Regular Season and Playoffs.

Zest has been one of the breakout players of the stage, showcasing some impressive Tracer and Genji play, and establishing dominance over a large number of the flex DPS players in Korea. He has also demonstrated a very legit Venture, something that a lot of teams in the West are yet to utilise, despite the success the hero has found in Korea.

He and Hong “Proud” Suk-jin together make a dynamic and dangerous DPS duo - Proud was known for his time on Poker Face, but really came into his own on T1. His Freja play was especially impressive, being one of the premier players in the region. He also has an excellent Ashe, who has been seeing an upswing in pick rate since her buff in the midseason patch.

They also have Viper as a backup DPS option, or if they want to play some kind of double flex DPS composition. He hasn’t seen that much playtime this stage, but his track record still holds up as an O2 Blast alumni, and he is there if T1 needs to switch things up.

It’s fair to say that Vigilante and Skewed have levelled up since joining T1, and have been a big part of the team’s most successful stage. They have separated themselves from some of the more problematic backlines at the highest level, but the supports on Crazy Raccoon and Falcons still feel a level above. T1’s backline likes to make plays, but this occasionally comes at the cost of them being caught out more so than the truly world-beating support players on the top two Korean teams.

They have also rounded out their roster with the signing of Jasm1ne for Stage 3. He was signed to cover DONGHAK’s weaknesses on some of the ground tanks, but thus far he hasn’t served quite the same role as a MAX or Shin “BERNAR” Se-won. He only played one map across the stage, so it’s very likely that T1 will be leaning on strategies involving DONGHAK for the World Finals.

Statistics

T1 hold a respectable 65.22% map win percentage across the Stage, falling just short of Team Falcons.

As you would expect, they looked strongest on the dive maps where DONGHAK can do his thing - 100% on Gibraltar, 75% on Aatlis, and 66.67% on both Ilios and Suravasa.

Impressively, they also won 71.43% of their King’s Row games, which is an important map to have in your pool, as it is picked extremely often. DONGHAK played Wrecking Ball for several of these wins as well, which makes it much more difficult to ban against T1 on this map.

Comparatively, push was a problem gamemode for T1, holding only a 50% win rate on both New Queen Street and Esparanca. While these maps are not terrible for a dive-oriented style, brawl is probably the optimal composition to play, and that’s reflected in the results.

This theme continues on Lijiang Tower - another 50% win rate on a brawl-oriented map.

In terms of hero bans, T1 aren’t as foolproof as Crazy Raccoon when it comes to the dive matchups. DONGHAK relies on the Wrecking Ball a little bit more than Junbin does, and struggles more than Junbin does when the hero is banned. The Ball ban held T1 to just a 50% win rate across the stage.

On the flipside, the Winston ban is largely ineffective - DONGHAK will just play Ball instead, and win 75% of the time. Similarly, T1 have a 75% win rate after banning Winston themselves, likely forcing a Wrecking Ball mirror, or some other kind of dive matchup where DONGHAK clearly has the advantage.

Notably, the Kiriko ban against T1 doesn't tend to work out for their opponent. Vigilante is more than happy to flex onto Ana, and unless Shu is on the other team, he probably has the advantage in the mirror. This backline flexibility helps to enable T1 to play their signature style as much as possible, and is a very valuable asset to have.

Like the other two Korean teams, T1 have a crazy amount of potential. Unlike the other two Korean teams, it feels like they haven’t truly realized it yet. Despite a 4th place finish at the Midseason Championship, they didn’t have any particularly impressive wins, aside from a 3-0 against Team Liquid. The World Finals are a golden opportunity for T1 to show the world that they are a legitimate threat, and not just the 3rd best Korean team that lives in the shadow of Crazy Raccoon and Team Falcons.