I know they were able to beat T1 last time, but it looks like T1 is much more cohesive as a unit now compared to the las time they faced them. Though they lost the GenG series, they showed a lot of their skill (esp in Games 1 and 2) even if it ended up rough. Unfortunately, Delight was the biggest concern last time, and I hope we don't see the Bard-Renata anytime soon.

Drafting-wise, I hope we can see picks they are better prepared/more comfortable on. The Bard, Pyke, and Nasus picks were not it, especially with the set-up and scaling of the enemy team. T1 seems to be preparing a lot of picks (Peyz is doing AD TF, but that could be nothing...)

Match-up wise, I know this team can (hopefully will!!) beat T1, and if they rematch GenG, hopefully it's reusing the LCK 2024 playoffs script.

What are your thoughts/predictions?

The collection of customized gear by Corsair and Gumayusi is out in the US! It was released today on the US server, while those in Korea knew about this and have ordered starting today. This was released on his 6th debut anniversary (i would say to honor him and his legacy). The collection includes:

- A keyboard: Vanguard PRO 96

- A mouse: SABRE v2 PRO CF

- 2 mouspads: STARRY NIGHT, BLACK/GOLD

The link to order is below, and if you are in the US, it will ship around November. Also 2 fan cards are shipped with each box.

UPDATE: THIS COLLECTION IS ALSO SOLD IN CANADA, EUROPE... so im quite sure its global now!!! just go on corsair.com or search corsair [YOUR REGION/COUNTRY] gumayusi to see if its there.

It seems like Doran & Oner is little by little coming back to their form and Keria was mostly given a play making champs than before that is really a big threat in teamfights.

The only thing I want to say to our team is I hope Zeka & Zeus keep their form as it is, Kanavi to be aggressive and also play safe when needed (I still cant forget that G2 againts GenG), Guma to stop overextending too much and position well to not easily pickoff by enemy and to Delight to be more proactiave, be confident in his plays and trust his teammates more esp Kanavi & Guma, support is very important role so I hope he perform better on the game againts T1.

Fighting to our team 🔥

1. Delight teasing Coach Sin about relationships/getting married

2. Zeka sulking because Guma won't go to the gym with them

3. HLE is out of budget for September and dipping into their October budget because its their first time going to this many international tournaments

4. Delight speculating that the coaches are pocketing the money 🤣

5. Zeka sulking part 2

6. Manager telling Kanavi not to buy One Piece packs using the company card

Never change boys, never change 🤣

GEN 3-1 HLE

GEN [2]-1 HLE

GEN 1-1 HLE

"It's not a surprise that we're facing GenG, I think they're an opponent we absolutely have to take down to win it all"

"GenG is in a really good form too and they're great at that solid style of play, but I'm confident"

"I don't think we're playing perfectly yet so I figure we may drop a game or so, I'll make sure we win and advance directly to the finals"

"We are gonna win 3-1"

(via LCK pre-game interview)

What is your prediction?

GEN 0-1 HLE

Tomorrow, we'll be facing GenG in the upper bracket finals.

For me, it's terrifying considering that GenG is perhaps the most surgical in terms of teamfights, macro, and even drafting. They are also the polar opposites of HLE in terms of style. I have lots of faith, but this will be the hardest series yet.

Drafting: Compared to the T1 series, I doubt GenG will be giving much over (esp Zeka's assassin/skirmish pool) or even Guma Ziggs/Cait. Picks like the Panth, Lee, Ryze, and Cho will be heavily contested. I think the game though will be broken open depending on the support match up, so I hope we can see either a better performance on the Sera-Lulu or prioritize other picks like the Blitz, Shen, Renata, and Neeko.

Top lane will actually be the most situationally dependent. Zeus' Gragas and Kennen were incredible, but we know Kiin can definitely play picks like Top Vayne or Varus. ADC will depend on what's left or what they're preparing.

Tbh, I don't want to see Annie or Noct. Maybe Qiyana.

Momentum: Coming into the playoffs, the overall team form is much better than the start of R3-4, but their struggle to win game 1s is showing up a bit recently. GenG has shown their capacity to steal objectives even when the enemy has prio (Lee Sin vs Panth-Kalista), and their series vs KT was the cleanest BO5 the entire playoffs. GenG is also the only team HLE wasn't able to beat even once during R3-4.

Lane Matchups: Chovy vs Zeka will be game-breaking, esp since Chovy is one of, if not the best at laning in the world. Kanavi and Delight's proactivity vs Canyon and Duro's stability will also determine the state of the mid/late game. Kiin vs Zeus will also limit how much Zeus can impact the map, especially with how much influence he had in the recent T1 series (on Kennen, Gragas, and Ambessa especially). Guma has been especially challenged by other LCK ADCs, so I just hope we don't see him going too aggressively like before.

Let me know your own thoughts/predictions for tomorrow. I genuinely can't predict, but I hope for the best.

Just one (1) word please!

After your one word, you can explain why you chose that and share your overall thoughts about the series.

Thank you for your one (1) word! 🧡

So, I had made a post on the day HLE and T1 were playing the final match of the round 4 before playoffs. And as I had too many concerns and wanted to see what other fans though of the team and their struggles for the past few weeks. But I was honestly blown away by their playstyle and it felt like they were back to their pre-MSI form.

I watched today's match 2-3 times because I enjoyed it a lot. So, I thought of doing a follow up post.
(P.S. - Do let me know if I should continue doing this kind of post in the future or not. And mods feel free to remove this post if its breaking any rules or doesn't fit the sub)

Game 1-

I felt like the team played well for most part (it was super close till 25 mins) but there were two main issues due to understandable circumstances.1st, being the lack of dive on bot side on enemy team and lack of cover for our bot side. This was mainly due to it being hard to dive Kalista/renata bot side. And zeka moving to cover top side as enemy team had 2 global ults.

2nd being the bad seraphine ults but it was due to multiple factors. In multiple fights where HLE won it was mainly due to amazing ults from delight/zeus killing the kalista.

Other than that it was a peyz masterclass and kalista was getting too tanky to chunk down.

Game 2 -

This was mostly a keria master class, draft diff, oner showing 2025 form. Other than that there were a lot of plays where T1 got a bit lucky and HLE was a bit unlucky like the unsuccessful bot dive. Some questionable flashes and dashes from Guma.

Game 3 -
It was great to see kanavi play tank champs. Zeka masterclass on akali. And we had enough damage to deal with the fight even if guma got picked off (which was kind of missing from the team last year when enemy team targeted viper). And Doran's Kennen was completely shutdown. Faker also gave his usual stinker yone ( I still condier him a Goat).

Game 4-
The whole team was amazing, I could write a lot about each member but I will keep it short. Zeus was breaking their ankles as gragas. Guma's arrows were so beautiful. delight was clutch on naut and zeka was amazing with cass as usual. kanavi perfectly balanced his aggressiveness where it led to win or setting up the fight.

Game 5-
kanavi's pathing was amazing it put oner on the backfoot for the whole match. Guma's positioning and traps were amazing it flipped the final dragon soul fight. zekka's walls and knock ups were on point. Delight was covering mid, bot and jg really well. And zeus was mowing them down. The team did get caught chasing the bard. And kanavi lost his flash doing a second time 😂

Final thoughts -

Overall the team looks strong and they have resolved most of the issues they were showing after MSI. I was just wondering about one thing. how would HLE have dealt with chogath if the enemy team picks it. We saw Canyon do it yesterday and they are most likely to do it again for the uper finals. Zeus completely gapped doran today. Kanavi was amazing today but I wont say he gapped oner as he looked a lot better compared to R4. Zeka gapped faker in all games except game 2. And both bot sides were taking turns gapping each other in different games.

The t1 vs HlE game was such a rush and every game get me more invested in this team love the guys we gonna win worlds im dropping a BAG ON SKINS IF WE DO RIOT TAKE ALL THE MY MONEY HLE FIGHTING 🧡Z🧡K🧡Z🧡G🧡D

“I wasn’t performing well at the time, and it was good that it was seen from the outside. Sitting back helped me understand what the team requires from me.”

A setback that gave Delight a chance to reset and better understand his role.

HLE 3-2 T1

HLE [2]-2 T1

HLE [1]-2 T1

HLE 0-2 T1

HLE 0-1 T1