Achieving a three-peat World Championship wasn’t enough for T1, and they have added another silverware to their trophy cabinet by taking down Hanwha Life Esports in a 3-2 scoreline to get the team’s first-ever KeSPA Cup in the organization’s history.
Keria’s Alistar paved the way for T1’s win in the first match, where he kept a strict vigilance on his former T1 teammate by helping the team neutralize the threat and keep him out of the match. The match’s tempo was always controlled by Faker’s squad, where Doran and Peyz did well on their champions to win those crucial teamfights in the endgame. Oner’s off-meta Jayce jungle pick also helped T1 to clutch those fights with a lot of poke damage.
While the first match’s tempo was relatively very slow and methodical, similar to how LCK teams play in Korea, the second one was very quick, under just 25 minutes. Zeus picked up his Nidalee in the top lane, which had a 100 percent win rate coming into the match.
While the Aphelios and Blitzcrank duo controlled the early game, Oner was just as influential on his signature Xin Zhao. He not only played a key role in teamfights but also prioritized objective control, constantly keeping pressure on HLE and setting up favorable engagements that allowed T1 to close out the second game with confidence.
In the decider match for HLE, they finally showed up on the big match with a solid comeback against T1 on the backs of Zeka’s Taliyah and Kanavi’s Vi. They controlled the tempo in the early game and slowly gained control via teamfights and objective control with the Chemtech soul, which helped them close out the match to remain alive in the finals.
The fourth game was an outright bloodbath, with a staggering 69 total kills between the two teams. Faker locked in Yasuo, and the match swung back and forth with neither side able to establish full control as they remained evenly matched throughout. In the end, Gumayusi’s Miss Fortune created the crucial opening for HLE with his ultimate, even as T1 secured the Hextech Soul, allowing them to close out the game and push the series to a decisive final match with everything on the line.
The deciding game featured a series of unconventional picks, with Kassadin and Shen on the board and T1’s bot lane opting for the rarely successful Zeri-Yuumi combination. Despite its mixed history, the composition flourished with Peyz at the center, as T1 looked unbeatable around his carry performance. Drawing on his past success with multiple Zeri pentakills, T1 overwhelmed HLE from start to finish, leaving no room for a comeback.
“This was my first time participating, and being able to win the KeSPA Cup makes me extremely happy. On top of that, our team competed with a new member, and securing the championship in our very first tournament together makes the experience genuinely rewarding,” Faker said in the post-match interview with the squad. Peyz was also named the Finals MVP, marking the KeSPA Cup as his first official tournament since the Red Bull League of Its Own.
T1 and the rest of the teams have wrapped up their competitive schedules for 2025. As the holiday season approaches later this month, teams will turn their attention to rest and preparation before returning to action for the LCK Cup in 2026.
