T1's Gumayusi Targets Revenge Against JD Gaming and Bilibili Gaming at Worlds 2023
T1 bot laner Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyeong says that his team has a score to settle with JD Gaming and Bilibili Gaming at Worlds 2023.
The Korean team heads into Worlds looking to end an international title drought that dates back to 2017, when it won the Mid-Season Invitational in Brazil. Since then, T1 has been to three international finals (Worlds in 2017 and 2022, and MSI in 2022), but always on the losing side.
For Gumayusi, it will be his third consecutive Worlds appearance. T1 fell to DAMWON Gaming in the Worlds 2021 semi-finals and lost to DRX in last year’s final, with both series going to all five games.
As he prepares for the upcoming world championship, Gumayusi said that he is seeking revenge on JD Gaming and Bilibili Gaming for T1’s defeats in the MSI 2023 playoffs.
“I really want to get revenge on JD Gaming and BLG, who I lost to at MSI,” Gumayusi said in an interview with South Korean outlet Naver. “Korean teams are also very competitive and good, so it will be fun to meet them.”
T1 were eliminated from MSI 2023 by Bilibili Gaming
T1 were knocked down to the lower bracket at MSI after losing to JD Gaming 3-2 in the upper bracket final. They were then denied a spot in the tournament decider as they lost to Bilibili Gaming by a 3-1 scoreline.
All three teams have earned direct entry into the main stage of Worlds 2023, which will feature a Swiss format for the first time in the history of the competition.
Besides T1, Gen.G, KT Rolster, and Dplus will be representing the LCK at Worlds.
How T1 will prepare for Worlds
T1 currently have only two players available as Choi ‘Zeus’ Woo-je, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, and Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok are all part of South Korea’s team for the 2022 Asian Games. The continental tournament will be played on patch 13.12, while Worlds will be played on patch 13.19.
If South Korea reaches the final of the Asian Games, the players will have less than three weeks to get up to speed on the meta. The situation is less than ideal, Gumayusi acknowledged, but he said that the team will try to make the most of the time they will have.
“We lost a lot of our teammates to the Asian Games, but the same applies to other teams with national players, so I’m trying to think of the positives,” he said.
“I think we just need to work harder on solo queue and share information about the meta with the other players.”
In the same interview, Gumayusi revealed that Worlds 2023 could mark the farewell of T1’s current roster, with the contracts of three of the team’s players expiring at the end of the season.