Disastrous T1 Home Ground sees T1 lose both matches of its signature event

It’s been a mixed bag being a T1 fan over the weekend, as the legendary Korean LoL team celebrated its huge Home Ground event, the second of the year. But while festivities, special panels, and the entertainment overall were on form, T1’s League of Legends performance went wanting.

The team went 0-2 during their LCK regular season games at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, dropping them out of first place in the table, and locking opponents Gen.G into the playoff spot.

T1 loses two to conclude a weak Home Ground performance.

On Friday (Aug. 14), T1 fell 2–1 to Dplus KIA in a closely contested best-of-three. While T1 managed to take the opening game, Dplus adapted well and won the next two, reverse sweeping T1 on their own stage.

But perhaps the biggest disappointment came today (Aug. 16), when Gen.G swept T1 2–0 in front of the home crowd. Gen.G controlled both games, extending their winning streak to four matches.

The performance also marked the return of Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun after his dramatic benching in previous weeks. Oner’s performance during all the games was respectable, and came after days of speculation whether the Jungler would step onto the stage for Home Ground. After all, he’d been hotly hyped on promotional materials.

It remains to be seen whether Oner’s return was just to make sure rabid T1 fans got their fill of the hyper-popular jungler, or whether T1 has already abandoned its experiment with Kim "Painter" Eun-hoo.

Still, T1 enters a critical juncture in the LCK competitive season. The final week of the regular season starts on Wednesday, Aug. 19, and only two more games remain for T1 to lock in their spot for the playoffs, or else face a battle through the Play-In stage. Two losses at a crucial event could have seriously damaged T1’s chances for post-season success at Worlds.