A South Korean professional Esports team, T1, emerged victorious in the 2023 League of Legends World Championship held in South Korea after enduring seven years long win trials.

T1 had not won a Worlds title in nearly seven years, leading many people to label the team as underachieving.

League of Legends Worlds Championship, organized by Riot Games, is a tournament where the teams from each of the League of Legends competitions compete to become the best in the world.

League of Legends, also known as LoL, is a game where victory is achieved by destroying the enemy’s ‘Nexus’ using over 150 characters, called champions.

The final was a three out of five with the opponent being Weibo Gaming (WBG), a professional gaming team from the Chinese league LPL.

T1 defeated LNG of the LPL in the quarterfinals and JDG, a very strong favorite, in the semifinals by a score of 3-1.

In the final championship match, T1 won against WBG without dropping a single game securing the championship title with a 3-0 victory.

The final match of the championship took place at the Gocheok Sky Dome in South Korea on November 19th.

Prior to the final match, the South Korean girl group Newjeans performed this year's Worlds theme song , ‘Gods’ to excite the stadium.

T1 holds the record for the most World Championship wins and the most victories in South Korea's League of Legends competition.

The team's mid-laner, Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker), has spent his entire career at T1 since 2013 as a one-club player, and has set many world records.

He holds several world-best records, including most World Championship wins, most international wins, youngest Worlds mid-laner winner, oldest Worlds winner and first Grand Slam winner.

Due to the large number of players in League of Legends, there are also many players with bad behaviour.

They use abusive language or intentionally ruin the game, creating an unpleasant experience for many players.

Before the final, fans performed good deeds such as picking up trash to wish T1 the victory.

This was inspired by Japanese baseball player Ohtani who usually picks up trash in the stadium.

Celebrities, including Heung-Min Son, also shared messages on social media celebrating T1's victory, making people feel that games are now a sport that many enjoy.

To commemorate their victory, Riot Games offered a discount event for champions and skins used by T1 in the championship and made them available for free for a certain period.

Chaemoon Han

Grade 9

Dhahran Middle School