History was made yesterday at the 2024 League of Legends World Championship as the defending champions T1 booked their ticket to their third Worlds final in a row. Form is temporary, T1 is forever. The defending world champions look to become the first team to become back-to-back champions since the 2015-2016 T1 roster.

The Paris crowd erupted as T1 took down their long-time rivals in Gen.G, a feat they have not accomplished in over a year. Gen.G simply had their number the entire year, but when the chips were down, Faker and T1 rose above and were able to cleanly dispatch their rivals.

T1's historic achievement

Although they have the potential to go back-to-back, T1 broke another record yesterday as they became the first team to ever reach three Worlds finals in a row. Even when they have had a down year like 2024, Worlds is the holy grail for professional League of Legends. A bad year can be erased in one tournament. They could be following suit with the team they lost to in 2022, DRX, who came in as the LCK fourth seed and fought their up to winning the Summoners Cup.

All eyes point towards London, where T1 will face the LPL’s first seed in Bilibili Gaming, who look revitalized since the re-introduction to Jungler Peng "Xun" Li-Xun. For Faker, this would be his fifth World Championship, but his lane opponent on the rift has a big axe to grind.

For years, Faker has pushed back against the top mid-laners who have dared to challenge the crown. Zhuo "knight" Ding and Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon are considered the best players in their role, but neither has gotten over the Faker hurdle at the World Championship. Chovy fell to Faker in the semifinals, and now it’s Knight's turn to send Faker packing.