T1 rises to the top of ESL One Summer League 2021.
After failing to grasp the throne in the last Major, T1 were finally crowned as kings of ESL One Summer League 2021 after beating Virtus Pro 3-2 in the Grand Finals.
via T1 twitter
Despite not having any DPC points on the line, the tournament was joined by NA’s Quincy Crew and European powerhouses like Nigma, OG, and Alliance. The experience teams can gain from this tournament could be considered a treasure as The International is only more than a month away.
T1 cruised through the tournament’s Upper Bracket but lost to VP in the Upper Bracket Finals. Alliance and T1 clashed in the Lower Bracket Finals to decide who advances to the championship. T1’s captain Carlo “KuKu” Palad drafted Doom in both games to crush Alliance 2-0 and advance to the Grand Finals against VP.
Game 1 started in favor of T1’s momentum from the last match as they picked a classic combo of Magnus and Phantom Assassin to claim the first blood of the best-of-five series in the Finals.
Although they were wrecked in the first game, VP manifested a sustain duo of Illias “Kingslayer” Ganeev on Winter Wyvern and Vitalie “Save” Melnic’s on Enchantress to counter the physical damage coming from T1’s Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahon’s Wraith King, to tie the series 1-1.
VP were on fire as they captured Game 3 with a muscled draft of Death Prophet and Timbersaw on Danil “gpk” Skutin and Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, respectively, to keep T1’s magic centered lineup of Leshrac and Puck at bay and to take the series lead 2-1.
On the verge of settling for second place, T1 drafted another classic combo of Axe and Lifestealer to vanguard the team against VP’s unorthodox draft of position 1 Abaddon and took the series to another deadlock 2-2 leaving the fate of the tournament to a final deciding match.
To finish the series, T1 released their ace card of an offlane Broodmother to carry the team early and make space for 23savage’s Faceless Void who caught VP in a lethal Chronosphere as a finishing blow to win the tournament and take home the $175,000 prize.
🎉🎉 GG'S ARE CALLED! @T1 WINS THE ESL One Summer 2021 GRAND FINAL 3-2 VS @virtuspro! 🎉🎉#ESLOne pic.twitter.com/6a1otBlQOn
— ESL Dota2 🏖 (@ESLDota2) June 20, 2021
T1 is now a team recognized as a strong contender to take the Aegis of Champions after they garnered the respect of the game’s international community and once again proved that a team from the SEA region can win a championship against the best teams around the world.
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