As the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational rages on, tournament favorites T1 have taken their second loss of the year against long-time international rival Royal Never Give Up after not being defeated once throughout the group stage. Part of T1’s electric bot lane, Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyung, apologized to his and T1’s fans for these losses on Twitter — but he took a firmer stance after the match.
“If we’re not in the first place, we will be meeting either RNG or G2, whether we’re in second or third place,” Gumayusi said. “When that day comes, I will make sure to have our vengeance from today’s match.”
[#MSI 2022 Rumble Stage vs. RNG]
럼블 스테이지 2일차를 마무리합니다.
내일도 여러분의 열정! 에너지! T1에게 보내주세요!It's not over and we aren’t done yet.
Tommorrow is waiting for us!#T1WIN #T1Fighting pic.twitter.com/CKzx23KspZ— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) May 21, 2022
Despite the strong words, Gumayusi said he was “very sad” following T1’s loss against RNG, which shadowed a victory over Saigon Buffalo. Though the team put forward a good effort in the 32 minute match, Gumayusi only went 3/3/5 on Ezrael. He is still confident, however, that T1 will make a deep run in the tournament.
“It is only the second day so far, but I’m very sorry to my fans,” Gumayusi said in his message to fans. “In the end, I know we’ll be in the semifinals at least.”
Along with T1, Gumayusi said he expects all four major regions will make it to the final stage of the tournament. While PSG Talon overtook North America’s representative, Cloud9, during MSI 2021, Evil Geniuses are hoping to prevent that this year.
Many T1 fans rallied behind the black-red flag after the team’s young roster led them to an undefeated performance during the League of Legends Champions Korea regular season. However, the LCK uses a best of three format, which often leaves less room for upsets. MSI 2022 has only used best of one games up to this point.
“There’s the difference of best-of-three series compared to the best-of-one,” Gumayusi said. “And there are more fans supporting us than there were at LCK, so when we lose it’s even more heartbreaking.”
