MSI champion suffers a shocking upset! T1全员爆发, Doran defeats Zeus' Swain, advancing to the semifinals

Greetings to all LPL viewers and League of Legends summoners, this is the Game World Hub.

The EWC World Cup kicked off its quarterfinal stage today with the first match being an all-Korean clash between HLE and T1. Despite most spectators expecting HLE to secure an easy victory, T1 mounted a stunning comeback, sweeping their opponents 2-0 to advance.

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In the second game, T1 employed a dual-AP composition to dismantle HLE's top-lane Swain, delivering a clean and decisive sweep.

HLE's Swain reappears, T1 responds cleverly

During the critical phase 2 of the draft, T1 selected a lineup with two AP carries, featuring Jayce in the top lane and Xin Zhao in the jungle, while HLE opted for a Swain-based composition. The HLE lineup also had decent tempo potential from the mid-jungle-support trio. Comparatively, HLE had stronger scaling in the late game, while T1 needed to establish a solid early-game rhythm.

Once the match began, the first incident occurred in the mid lane. After a skirmish between the mid laners, Faker was left with low health and was picked off by the approaching jungle, but Oner quickly arrived with support to secure a kill on the blind monk.

Shortly after, T1 initiated a tempo play, diving the tower to eliminate Swain. HLE retaliated in the top lane with a counterattack, killing Doran. However, T1's reinforcements arrived and traded two kills, bringing the score back to even. The kills then escalated alternately. HLE won a teamfight in the jungle around Swain, and Gumayusi secured many kills, building up a strong lead.

Doran seized an opportunity in the top lane to initiate a kill on Delight, winning another teamfight and establishing a certain advantage.

In the subsequent dragon teamfight, both sides exchanged three-for-three. T1 held the dragon advantage, and after securing the dragon, their pursuit was sloppy but resulted in no casualties. Both teams entered a farming phase.

T1's relentless assault secures the win, MSI champion eliminated

In a crucial jungle teamfight, T1 proactively engaged, with Poppy making a brilliant entry to kill the blind monk first. Faker's Akali dashed in, forcing Guma's flash, then followed up with a second R to secure the kill. Zeus attempted to counter with Swain, but the backline was in poor shape and all low on health, allowing T1 to clean up with Swain being picked off from behind.

After winning the teamfight, T1 immediately grouped to secure the Baron buff. However, during the Baron-boosted push, Kanavi caught Faker in the jungle with a surprise engage. T1's reinforcements arrived and killed the blind monk first, but then HLE's team joined the fight and won the skirmish, though they could not secure any objectives.

Later, both sides contested the second Baron. HLE chose to start Baron, and T1 immediately engaged. Doran was caught first but flashed in to chunk Guma's health. Peyz's Taliyah flanked and damaged the blind monk. In the initial moment, T1 had a huge advantage. After being reduced in numbers, HLE opted to flee, but T1 chased them down one by one and ended the game with a single push.

This match created a major upset in the current EWC tournament: HLE, the freshly crowned MSI champions, were eliminated in the quarterfinals by T1, especially considering T1's relatively poor form in the group stage prior.

Top-lane superstition strikes again: Doran overcomes Zeus

After this match, a hot topic of discussion was the intriguing top-lane pattern. In previous league seasons, whenever Zeus faced Doran, he was often suppressed by him. Recently, Doran had been in poor form, so many expected Zeus, who had just won the FMVP, to easily prevail. Instead, Zeus became Doran's "power bank."

In both games, Zeus failed to gain any significant advantage over Doran. In particular, Doran's Jayce performance in the second game was, in my opinion, quite impressive.

The main reason for T1's resurgence was the return to form of their top, mid, and jungle positions. During MSI, these three roles had been alternatingly problematic. As for Faker, his performances in the earlier matches of this World Cup were also subpar, but in the crucial match, he exploded, picking his high-win-rate Akali this season and delivering results.

On HLE's side, their mindset in the first game clearly seemed off, as if they hadn't anticipated T1's strength. When they started playing seriously in the second game, it was already too late. T1 responded with an even stronger performance, sending HLE packing in the quarterfinals.

In the other concurrent quarterfinal, GEN swept JDG 2-0 from the LPL, with Chovy leading a comeback in the second game. As a result, only two LPL teams—BLG and AL—remain to compete in the upcoming matches.