Zeus' debut was sluggish, T1 lost the first match against HLE, and GEN maintained its advantage

On January 18, the 2025 League of Legends LCK Cup kicked off this week, attracting the attention of many fans, especially the duel between last year's world champions T1 and DK, and the LCK Summer Champions HLE vs. MSI Champions GEN. These two focus games are not only the beginning of the new season, but also an important node to test the success or failure of the offseason transfer strategy. However, the first performances of T1 and HLE were not satisfactory, while GEN and DK showed stronger dominance .

The highly anticipated Zeus's debut performance after transferring to HLE was shocking. In the match against GEN, Zeus's record was only 1 kill and 10 deaths. His performance in the top lane was not satisfactory, especially in the second game when he was playing Ornn and was repeatedly killed, making it difficult to form effective cooperation with his teammates. Although HLE has three world champion-level players, they were completely suppressed when facing GEN.

GEN's bottom laner Ruler was in hot form, with Jinx contributing an average output of 718 points per minute, and a KDA of 11. HLE's Viper, on the other hand, performed poorly, achieving only a KDA of 0.8, with insufficient output and extremely low resource utilization.

Zeus's coordination with the team was a hot topic. Fans pointed out that he was not fully prepared after a short period of military training, and the difficulty in adapting to the changes in the version caused him to perform poorly in key team battles. While GEN maintained the stability of the top, mid and jungle cores, thanks to the tacit cooperation between Ruler and Chovy, the tactical execution was smoother.

In another focus match, T1's new lineup had ups and downs in the match against DK. Doran replaced Zeus as T1's starting top laner, but his performance was not convincing. Facing DK rookie Siwoo, Doran's KDA was only 1.6, far lower than the opponent's 2.7, and his average output per minute was also significantly behind. T1 showed a tenacious counterattack ability in the second game of the series, controlled the map resources, and tied the score with a kill ratio of 17 to 7. However, they failed to withstand DK's strong attack in the final game and eventually lost 18 to 9, regrettably losing.

Fans questioned the mistakes in the game, especially Oner's failure to successfully punish and Keria's missed timing of the key ultimate, which became the focus of heated discussion. In addition, tactical choices also sparked discussion, with many people suggesting that Oner reduce the use of magic-powered jungle heroes and hope that Gumayusi avoids marksmen heroes with insufficient mobility.

Although T1 and HLE's first match performance was not ideal, fans are still optimistic and believe that the failure at the beginning of the season is an opportunity for growth. Future games are full of variables, and the team's adjustments and tactical upgrades will determine whether they can turn the tables. However, the LCK Cup schedule is tight, leaving little time for the teams to adjust. As the team in the best state at the moment, GEN's stable iron triangle combination may help them return to the top.