On Aug. 10, in the 2023 LCK Summer Split playoffs, T1 defeated KT Rolster in a Silver Scrapes series 3-2 and advanced to the next round. As KT Rolster had a great season, most officials anticipated a KT win, but T1 was able to turn the tables. 

After the match, Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong joined Inven for an interview. “If we won today, we would secure a spot in the semifinals, so I really wanted to win,” he said. “I never thought KT would pick us, so I came here thinking that we should beat them up.”

“After all, I believe KT picked us because they thought we would eventually have to face each other,” said Gumayusi, explaining why he thought KT picked T1. “Also, we picked KT in the spring split and beat them. Maybe they wanted to have revenge. All I thought was that we had to win.”

About the predictions, he said, “After seeing the predictions, I thought, ‘Did all these people forget how good we are?’ I became more determined to win after seeing that.”

T1 had to play two days straight, as they beat Dplus KIA in round 1 the day before. They didn’t have much time to prepare. About this, Gumayusi said, “We’ve been practicing on the 13.14 patch for quite a long time now, so we had a good idea about the champion tiers. I didn’t feel much pressure about having to play again right away.”

Gumayusi played five different champions in today’s match, including Kai’Sa in game 5. “I believe other players are a bit stronger when they play Zeri, but I’m confident playing Kai’Sa. When they didn’t ban it, I picked it up thinking, ‘How dare they let Kai’Sa through? I’ll beat them up with it.’”

When asked about what to improve for the remaining matches, Gumayusi answered, “We need to be careful against teams like KT that execute plots and schemes well. Especially, KT’s bot duo plays the mind game well in the laning phase, and they manage the waves quite well too. Also, I felt that I should be more careful when there are trades.”

T1 got back on track after Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok returned in the last week of the regular season, and they are improving while moving forward in the playoffs. About this, Gumayusi said, “I can’t deny that it’s completely different when Faker’s playing and not playing. Also, our individual forms were down, and it started to come back up with Faker’s return.”

T1 will be facing Gen.G or Hanwha Life Esports in the next round. “Traditionally, Gen.G has been stronger. I believe it’ll be T1 vs. Gen.G again,” said Gumayusi. “It’s not the finals, so there’s no pressure. Even if we lose and go to the decider match, if we think positively, it’s beneficial. I’ll make the games exciting.”

Gumayusi continued to talk about the two bot laners of Gen.G and Hanwha Life Esports. “Viper plays the laning phase very aggressively, and Peyz is a player who’s really good at late game teamfights. I would have to watch out for that.”

Lastly, Gumayusi thanked the fans and expressed his hopes for the remaining playoffs and Worlds. “I’d like to get good results in the summer playoffs and get to Worlds with good momentum. My goal is to win both. Thank you to the fans for coming all the way to watch us through the storm.”