T1 looks to make Rold Cup history with fourth title—Rold Cup winner to be crowned on Nov. 19

T1 has thrown down the gauntlet for their fourth win at the 2023 League of Legends World Championship finals held in South Korea.

Riot Games announced on the 17th that the Korean representative T1 and the Chinese representative, WeiBo Gaming, will face off in the 2023 League of Legends World Championship finals, taking place at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul, at 5 pm on the 19th.

This World Championship, held in Korea for the first time in five years since 2018, is drawing significant attention as T1, the second seed from the LCK, has been on a winning streak to the finals. Among the LCK teams that had four teams in the round of 16, three teams made it to the quarterfinals, but only T1 managed to advance through the quarterfinals as Gen.G and KT Rolster fell short.

WeiBo Gaming, who had a hard time advancing with a 2-win-2-loss record in the Swiss stage, crushed the North American representative, NRG Esports, 3-0 in the quarterfinals and overcame Bilibili Gaming, the second seed from the LPL, in a full set showdown in the semifinals to reach the finals.

T1, which boasts the most number of wins by lifting the Summoner’s Cup in 2013, 2015, and 2016, is challenging for its fourth World Championship win in team history by reaching the finals in this World Championship.

After winning the 2016 World Championship, T1 reached the World Championship finals in 2017 and 2022, but they lost to Samsung Galaxy and DRX, failing to lift the Summoner’s Cup for six years. They have expressed their determination to break this streak.

If T1 wins this World Championship, Lee Sang-hyeok will become the only player in the world to win the World Championship four times. The only player who has achieved three wins in the World Championship is Bae Seong-woong, who worked with Lee Sang-hyeok.

At the World Championship finals media day held on the 15th, Faker Lee Sang-hyeok said, “I’ve caught a rare and precious opportunity by reaching the finals in a World Championship held in Korea for the first time,” adding, “I believe we can get good results in the finals because the whole team is growing.”

It was expected that the LPL would be very strong in this World Championship, but almost no one predicted that WeiBo Gaming, who participated as the fourth seed, would make it to the finals. WeiBo Gaming has shown its power in this World Championship, formed by players and a coach who have already experienced victory in international tournaments. Top laner ‘TheShy’ Kang Seung-lok won the 2018 World Championship by crushing Fnatic as a member of Invictus Gaming, and support ‘Crisp’ Liu Qing-Song lifted the Summoner’s Cup by defeating G2 Esports as a member of FunPlus Phoenix in 2019.

Mid laner ‘XiaoHu’ Li Yuan-Hao has won the MSI three times during his time with Royal Never Give Up. They are guided by coach Yang Dae-in, who won the 2020 World Championship as a coach of DAMWON Gaming and reached the finals in 2021 as a power analyst. Yang, who reached the quarterfinals as the coach of DAMWON KIA in 2022, has reached the finals this year as the commander of WeiBo Gaming.

If WeiBo Gaming wins, ‘TheShy’ Kang Seung-lok will set a unique record of winning in 2018 and 2023, both times the World Championship was held in Korea, and ‘Crisp’ Liu Qing-Song will also join the ranks of the first Chinese to win twice. So far, the players who have won the World Championship twice are ‘Bang’ Bae Jun-sik, ‘Wolf’ Lee Jae-wan, and ‘BeryL’ Cho Geon-hee, all of whom are Korean players.

Meanwhile, NuJin and ‘virtual artist’ HEARTSTEEL, who sang the title song ‘GODS’, will appear in the opening ceremony of the World Championship finals on the 19th, promising to heat up the atmosphere.