LCK’s T1 has defeated LPL representative Anyone’s Legend in the MSI 2025 Lower Bracket Final to secure a tantalising rematch against Gen.G in the Grand Final.
The win gives T1 another shot at its first MSI trophy in eight years and keeps its long record against LPL teams alive.
Anyone’s Legend arrived at this stage after crushing Bilibili Gaming with a performance that made many wonder if the age-old saying “T1 never loses to LPL teams” might finally break.
However, despite AL’s momentum, T1 did not bend. The series stretched to five hard-fought games where Anyone’s Legend tested T1 at every turn. Anyone’s Legend reached match point and nearly closed the series, but T1 held firm and forced Silver Scrapes to sound by winning game four and turning the series in its favour.
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According to Esports Charts, peak viewership passed 2m as fans worldwide watched China’s last team try to change the script. But while T1’s spring in the LCK was shaky, its form at MSI has been a reminder of what this team can do under the pressure of League of Legends’ international stages.
With this win, T1 has cleared its final hurdle in the lower bracket. It now faces Gen.G once more in what many expect to be the most-watched match of the year so far. The rivalry that shaped this split will now decide which team lifts the MSI 2025 trophy.
How T1 Made It Happen
The first game set the tone of the series, with momentum shifting early and often between both teams until a clear winner was decided.
While T1 found early leads, Anyone’s Legend refused to break and pushed back. Crucial to his team was Wang ‘Hope’ Jie, who stayed alive despite being the clear target. The player carried AL’s fights as T1 used all its resources to get to him repeatedly, but the organisation could not shut him down. In the final fight at Baron, AL wiped T1 clean and marched down mid to close game one in just 26 minutes.
T1 answered quickly in game two with a clear plan to shut down any chance of a game one repeat. Mun ‘Oner‘ Hyeon-jun’s Lee Sin, who finished the game with an impressive 7-1-7 KDA, set the pace from the opening moments, finding proactive plays and rotations that left AL no room to breathe.
T1 put pressure on every lane, denying Anyone’s Legend the chance for a full team fight and snowballed its advantage to a massive 14k gold lead. In under thirty minutes, the LCK side tied the series with a clean, one-sided win that showed exactly how dangerous T1 can be with an early lead.
Showing resilience under pressure, AL swung momentum back in the following game. Although T1 held control over neutral objectives early on, AL stayed close in gold and kills, refusing to give T1 room to run away with the lead. A critical fight in the bot lane at 20 minutes broke the game wide open as the LPL team aced T1 without losing a single player.
Lee ‘Tarzan‘ Seung-yong’s jungle pressure and Chen ‘Shanks‘ Qian’s flawless Viktor performance, finishing 7-0-8, led their team through the fight. T1 tried to claw back with careful plays, but one last decisive fight mid gave Anyone’s Legend the chance to push straight to the Nexus and reach match point.
As the pace slowed down in game four, it stayed close for over twenty minutes with AL holding a slight lead in kills and map pressure. Yet T1’s control of the map paid off when Oner’s Lillia landed a perfect sleep at 25 minutes, setting up a flawless team fight that wiped AL completely. With the infernal drake’s soul point secured, T1 closed out the game confidently and forced Silver Scrapes to echo through the Vancouver arena once again.
However, after a consistent back-and-forth series, the final game left no doubt about which team was ready for the grand final.
From the first minute, T1 controlled every lane and objective, refusing to let Anyone’s Legend make a move without paying for it in gold and kills. Each skirmish and pick only widened the gap until the difference between the two teams was impossible to close. Lee ‘Gumayusi‘ Min-hyeong’s Jinx dominated every fight, closing the game with an outstanding 15-0-12 performance and tearing through AL’s hopes of an upset.
In 29 minutes, T1 ended the series with five times AL’s kills and another 14k gold lead, claiming its place in the MSI 2025 Grand Final.
T1 now moves on to face Gen.G one last time. It has not lifted an MSI trophy in eight years, but it stands just one best-of-five away from changing that story on the biggest stage.
Source: https://esportsinsider.com/l
