Thoughts about T1 and DK (LCK 2022 Summer)
Hey everyone. I just finished watching the recent match between DK and T1, and wanted to talk about some interesting plays that I saw. I want to show a few examples of where T1 found openings in game 1 that eventually led to their victory, discuss DK’s draft in game 2, and show an example of DK’s draft actually working in game.
Let’s start with T1’s plays in game 1.
In this example, just by looking at kills and towers, T1 know that they are behind. They also know that they will have trouble setting up for dragon because the enemy team are able to get mid prio due to the tower advantage in the mid lane, and DK already have setup (vision denial of river and forward vision of the enemy bot side jungle). Also, T1 already have 2 dragons, so they can afford to give a few. For all of these reasons, T1 decide to trade dragon for a top side play, and since their jungler and support (and bot laner with TP advantage) get to the play first, they go up 1 kill.
Then, T1 reset and double TP to the mid wave to get mid prio for dragon setup. T1 are first to river, start dragon, and correctly turn for the fight; Faker finds Ezreal, ensuring T1 win the fight. DK shouldn’t have contested 5v5 since T1 have the stronger teamfight and DK wants to 1–3–1 with their comp, splitting up T1. Here, DK could have continued to push mid, trading dragon for tower, and/or retake vision control around baron.
Next, T1 find a timing window to continue to advance the game in their favor. When getting vision in 1–3–1, the 3-man unit (usually bot, jungle, and support) can take vision after pushing the mid wave only if they see the enemy side-laners on side waves or on vision nearby. This ensures a numbers advantage; the team taking vision has a 3v2 since the only players they can run into are the enemy jungle and support (side-laners are showing and the enemy bot laner is catching the mid wave). If they run into the enemy jungle and support, they can engage on their timing window. There are some other conditions that can be met in order to contest vision but I won’t go into that here. In this example, although it doesn’t look like it at first glance, T1 are getting vision in 1–3–1 (or 3–1–1). They recently saw Mordekaiser bot side, they see Ezreal mid, and they have top prio with Twisted Fate showing on the wave. This is their timing window to get vision and the enemy jungler does not see it. T1 engage, and with this pick are able to secure a 2nd baron.
Once they have baron, T1 correctly look to take vision of the enemy jungle after pushing the mid wave in order to set up for their push. When Ezreal shows on the mid wave, T1 engage on their timing window and win the fight (Twisted Fate and Ezreal are unable to approach the fight). They re-engage with numbers advantage and decisively close out the game.
Finally, let’s take a look at DK’s draft in game 2 and see it in action.
DK first pick Twisted Fate because it is high priority for them. T1 answer with Galio and Lee Sin, which are their same picks from the previous game, but DK have a plan for this. They take Gwen to block the Camille or at least have a counter-pick to the Camille if T1 still pick it, and they pick Ezreal since he is a safe bot laner who can farm with his Q if DK play to top side and is also safe when his team is playing 1–3–1. DK’s final two picks complete this wonderful comp. They pick Nocturne since he is really good in a 1–3–1 comp and he can delay the Galio ulti with his ulti, and Bard since he can roam and assist with top side plays; he also fits really well into a 1–3–1 comp because he can quickly roam to sides with his E and ulti to set up or respond to plays.
In this last example, T1 are looking to dive top, and DK realize this since Camille is building the top wave, Lee Sin shows top on a ward, Nautilus can be on a roam timer, and Galio fast-pushes the mid wave. Nocturne paths top, Twisted Fate hovers top, and once Bard realizes that Nautilus could be roaming, he bases to match the roam timer. Then, DK engage on T1 and use Nocturne R preemptively to delay the Galio R. Twisted Fate ultis and gets to the fight before Galio, and Bard gets to the play at about the same time as Nautilus and impacts the fight with his R, and DK successfully cover a dive and even win a fight.
While neither of these teams are complete teams by any means, these plays show that they have a high skill ceiling. T1 have strong laners and usually strong early game fundamentals. They understand how to get leads and have good macro to snowball games. These examples show that T1 are also very good at finding windows to break games open. However, T1 need to work on their stability in the mid-late game. DK have much more to work on, but this draft and their ability to read and cover that dive show that they also have a lot of potential.
