Pro Play By Play - T1 vs KT
Pro Play By Play - T1 vs KT
During an LCK match against KT, T1 prove why they are undefeated in the regular season as they successfully kite KT in their jungle to turn a 3v4 team fight; let’s break it down.
The Play
State of the game
At the beginning of the clip, KT have a small gold lead of around 1.5k and have just picked off Faker who was alone and over-extended in a side lane. Consequently, they turn onto the Baron in an effort to push their numbers advantage into firm control over the game. T1 were initially pushing the mid lane to try and take the tier 2 turret, but move toward the Baron as soon as they realise KT’s plan. KT is running a dive comp with a lot of CC between the Nautilus, Ahri, Gnar and Rek’Sai, while T1 have elements of a pick comp with the Thresh, Lee Sin and LeBlanc.
The first engage
The play begins with Thresh (Keria) using his ultimate on the ward that is being teleported on by the Gnar (Rascal). Though Thresh lands the perfectly timed hook onto the Gnar as he teleports in, there is some miscommunication between the T1 members as Lee Sin (Oner) uses his combo to kick Gnar at the same time:
Not only is this ineffective layering of CC, but it also leaves Lee Sin in a very vulnerable position as he is completely isolated and blown up by KT. Meanwhile, Gnar is able to escape back to his team by using his E:
Though T1 now find themselves in a 3v5 fight, they still play forward as Gwen (Zeus) pops W to mitigate some damage and Jinx chips away at the out of position Ahri (VicLa). The rest of KT move back into the jungle while Gwen turns onto the Ahri, forcing her to Flash defensively and recall out of the fight:
T1 retreat
Now that the Gwen W has expired and KT have some of their cooldowns back, they turn onto the rest of T1 with the intent of killing the biggest threat left: Jinx. Nautilus (Life) uses his hook to force Jinx’s Flash and Heal, while Thresh misses his hook onto KT meaning T1 have to retreat into the enemy jungle:
T1 continue to kite back and though Gwen is hit by a Kai’Sa W, they manage to dodge a lot of KT’s skillshots. Gumayusi then finds the perfect placement for Jinx’s chompers, as they force KT to separate:
These chompers completely block the Kai’Sa and Nautilus from getting onto the Jinx and prevent Gnar and Rek’Sai from retreating, as they will be CCd and an easy target for a Thresh hook. Additionally, it temporarily turns the 3v4 into a 3v2 in T1’s favour as 2 members of KT cannot join the fight. Therefore, T1 use this zone control to finish off the relatively squishy Rek’Sai.
KT scramble
At this point, KT are scrambling as the Jinx has been able to proc her passive from the takedown and each member is completely split off from each other:
Jinx takes the lantern to travel over the wall to join Thresh, which prompts Kai’Sa (Aiming) to move closer in an attempt to kill them. However, he decides against it for two reasons:
- He would be taking a 1v2 against a Jinx that has bonus attack and movement speed from her passive
- T1 were able to buy enough time for LeBlanc (Faker) to respawn and start to teleport in on a nearby ward
Therefore, Kai’Sa moves back around to turn onto Gwen who has split away from the team. KT are able to finish off the Gwen and land a Nautilus hook onto the Jinx, but there is nobody in range to follow up on the CC:
Instead, Jinx is able to kill the low health Nautilus to proc her passive again and clean up the fight with a full health LeBlanc who has just joined the fight with Teleport.
Summary
This was a beautifully executed fight by T1, who start off with a huge disadvantage but find small opportunities to come back. Gumayusi’s Jinx was undoubtedly the driving force behind this turnaround play by forcing the Ahri to recall, chipping away at KT while kiting back into the jungle, and placing the chompers perfectly to completely split up KT and quell their momentum.
-Rilea