T1’s Keria Promises to Add Another Trophy in MSI

T1 support Min-seok “Keria” Ryu promised to do his best to win his first international tournament.

The T1 team left for London, England via Incheon International Airport on the morning of the 5th. T1 will participate in the ‘2023 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI)’, which opened at the London Copper Box Arena on the 2nd (Korean time).

MSI is an international tournament where 13 teams that have qualified for each region of LoL eSports come together to determine the ‘strongest player of spring’. The tournament is currently in full swing in the play-in stage, which is a preliminary round. T1, who participated in the tournament as the 2nd seed in the Korean region (LCK), will start their schedule from the bracket stage (quarterfinals) held on the 9th.

For T1, this tournament is a good opportunity to alleviate the regret of last year’s MSI and runner-up in the spring season at the same time. After winning runner-up at MSI held in Busan last year, they remained runner-up in the following three tournaments. In the spring season, which was the most recent competition, they lost the championship cup to Gen.G eSports (Gen.G) in the final despite finishing the regular league with an overwhelming record of 17 wins and 1 loss.

In the case of the previous MSI, only the winning team was allowed to participate, but from this MSI, only the 4 major leagues (Korea, China, Europe, and North America) were given the right to participate in the second place team. In other words, T1 had a chance to recover its reputation more quickly.

Ryu Min-seok, who met with Cookie News at the airport, said, “It’s really nice to be able to go to MSI even after finishing runner-up in the spring, so I can quickly overcome (sorrow or defeat) through the game, so I’m very happy.”

Ryu Min-seok, who was sobbing after losing to “Underdog” DRX in the final of last year’s “LoL World Championship (Rolls Cup),” confessed that he was able to accept the runner-up in the spring season relatively calmly.

He said, “I was liberated. I don’t think there’s any other way to express it,” he said with a smile, “but the more I regret it, the more bad couples seem to be.

Ryu Min-seok said, “I was anxious during the regular season, but I think I achieved good results because I was very good at adapting to the meta. However, as the patch changed drastically, the meta changed. A meta different from our direction came and we couldn’t adapt well,” he pointed out the cause of the runner-up.

Ryu Min-seok predicted that the MSI meta in patch 13.8 would not be much different from last spring season.

He said, “As ‘Milio’ and ‘Yumi’ were banned, the patch feels similar to the one during the finals. There are only a few changes on the jungle side. The bottom is important, so I think the composition will come out similar.”

The bracket stage will be held in a double elimination system with 5 games divided into winners and losers. It is a burdensome schedule that requires you to take multiple prerequisites in a short period of time. However, Ryu Min-seok said, “I think it is better to continue the game quickly rather than having a long gap because I think it helps me adapt to the stadium and practice. I like it because I think that playing in my life is the happiest and the quality of my life improves.”

Selecting Chinese Professional League (LPL) teams and Gen.G as teams to be wary of, he said, “I think it is very important to adapt to the meta. I think it’s important to know the victory plan well in the meta on how to win.”

“I don’t think there will ever be a competition that is not important in my life so far and in the future. As always, I will do my best, work hard, and come back with no regrets.”

Finally, Ryu Min-seok said, “I was personally very disappointed at MSI last year. I want to overcome it well this time. As far as I know, the only Korean team to win at MSI is T1. I will do my best to add another MSI championship trophy,” he concluded the interview.

Reporter Moon Dae-chan [email protected] View articles