After a rough opening loss to Gen.G in LCK Round 1-2, Hanwha Life Esports bounced back with a hard-fought win over KT Rolster, who was making its debut in the split. In the second series of the day, T1 delivered a convincing performance in its first match, taking down DRX, who had previously defeated DN Freecs on Day 1. Choi "Zeus" Woo-je and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok stood out in their respective games, earning MVP honors for the day.

A shaky start for HLE

Although they won the BO3 against KT, HLE’s start was far from reassuring. After a decisive loss to the Tigers, Zeus and his teammates were determined to bounce back and reaffirm their status as favorites, as highlighted in our LCK Round 1-2 power ranking. The three games were closely contested, each lasting over 30 minutes, with the first one seeing Seo "deokdam" Dae-gil and his team push HLE to their limits. However, the resilience of the HLE carries ultimately prevailed. Park "Viper" Do-hyeon played with immense aggression, fearlessly diving into the enemy team with his Kai'sa ultimate.

Game 2 quickly tilted in favor of KT, as Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong’s Tristana took a commanding lead over Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo’s Sylas, a gap that was too large to overcome. Recently promoted support Jeong "Peter" Yoon-su defended well on his Neeko, making impactful plays and helping KT equalize the series. The final game took some time to decide, with the gold gap widening only after the 25-minute mark, largely thanks to Zeus. His Jax caused havoc for KT, surviving multiple close calls with low HP.

He Never Lost It

T1 secured a 2-0 victory over DRX in the highly anticipated return of AD Carry Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong to the main roster after Sin "Smash" Geum-jae played the majority of the LCK Cup. Joe Marsh intervened to reintegrate the two-time world champion into the lineup. In Game 1, T1 managed to pick the champions they wanted, despite DRX focusing their bans on Gumayusi, with four out of five bans aimed at ADCs. Lee "Faker" Sang-Hyeok was on Azir, while Gumayusi picked up his Jhin, and Keria completely shut down DRX’s bot lane with his Alistar.

In Game 2, T1 drafted aggressively with a Sylas-Lee Sin duo that they executed well, but it was once again the bot lane duo of Miss Fortune and Rakan that dominated. Gumayusi finished the series without dying—7/0/10 in Game 1 and 5/0/6 in Game 2. His performance sends a strong message to the coaching staff and esports fans: he is back and certainly deserves his status as one of the best ADCs in the world and a two-time world champion.

Tomorrow morning at 8 AM CET, OK Savingsbank Brion will face BNK FearX, followed by DN Freecs, which will be trying to secure their first win of the split against Nongshim RedForce.