The 2024 MSI Mid-Season Play-in Tournament is about to officially start on the afternoon of the 1st, and we have also introduced some wild card regions and the two European and American regions in the previous tours, so today's finale is naturally the teams from the two regions of China and South Korea, and the second seeds in the two regions, TES and T1.
Actually, these two teams don't need to be introduced too much, because everyone is familiar with them, but let's talk about them briefly here.
First of all, the TES team, after failing to make it to the Worlds last year, also made changes to the team lineup this year, they recalled the 369 who played well in JDG last year, introduced the former EDG meritorious support meiko, and with these two players, they also changed the middle lane and replaced rookie with creme.
After such an adjustment, TES's overall combat power has also been rapidly improved, although it lost to BLG in the opening game of the regular season, but throughout the regular season, they had no obstacles, and finally won the second place in the league 13-3 to enter the playoffs, the playoffs TES played perfectly in a battle with JDG, defeated the opponent 3-0 to advance to the upper bracket finals, but unfortunately lost to BLG after five rounds and fell into the lower bracket, the spring finals, TES came back from the lower bracket, but lost again to BLG and won the runner-up, they naturally became the second seed in the LPL division。
TES's first opponent in the play-in tournament was LOUD from Brazil, and in terms of regional strength, TES is not a big problem, and I don't doubt that they will qualify from the play-in tournament, but if TES can't stabilize Nakano, it will be almost difficult for MSI to go far.
Then let's talk about T1
After winning the 2023 World Championship, many people saw Faker's perseverance and competitive heart, and now the T1 lineup can be said to be an S champion after several seasons of runner-up, I thought they would kill all sides in this year's spring game, but this is not the case.
T1 lost three BO3 games throughout the spring regular season, GEN twice, and once to HLE, and after entering the playoffs as second in the regular season, they were swept 3-0 by HLE and dropped into the lower bracket, but they did well against DK and got revenge in a crucial match in the lower bracket finals, keeping HLE out of MSI.
In recent seasons, the T1 team and GEN are completely two extremes, in the league, GEN punches hard, no one can beat them, but as soon as they arrive on the stage of the international competition, they become the king of points, on the other hand, T1, although the league is submissive, always hovering in the position of the old 2, but when it comes to the international competition, it is as crazy as playing chicken blood.
Since T1 is the second seed, they need to play in the play-in tournament, and their first opponent is EST, like TES, I personally have no doubt that they can qualify for the play-in tournament, but the question is what stage T1's understanding of the new version has reached, and whether they can play their game understanding and international rhythm last year, which is something worth watching.