The three-time defending world champions lost for the first time at this year's League of Legends World Championship on Saturday, as Dplus KIA came back late to beat T1 in a 41-minute game at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen.
T1 controlled most of the game and built a gold lead by playing patiently around map objectives, GosuGamers reported. The turn came at the Elder Dragon pit after roughly 40 minutes, when Dplus KIA caught T1 in a fight, wiped its players and pushed straight on to destroy the Nexus.
The final kill count was 10-8 for Dplus KIA, which had also rallied from behind to beat Europe's G2 Esports in Friday's opener.
Where the 16 teams stand
Saturday's second round left four teams unbeaten after two best-of-one games:
- Gen.G, which beat fellow Korean team Hanwha Life Esports
- Dplus KIA, over T1
- LYON, the second seed from North America's LCS, over Karmine Corp
- Movistar KOI, which beat CTBC Flying Oyster
At the other end, Anyone's Legend, LOS, Team Secret Whales and Team Liquid Alienware are 0-2 and one loss from going home. All four entered the event as the top seed from their region. Anyone's Legend lost to Top Esports, LOS to G2, Team Secret Whales to Invictus Gaming and Team Liquid to Bilibili Gaming.
T1, Hanwha Life, Karmine Corp, CTBC Flying Oyster, Top Esports, G2, Invictus and Bilibili are all 1-1. The opening round on Friday went badly for China's LPL, whose four teams all lost, something GosuGamers said had never happened in the first round of a Worlds Swiss Stage. Three of them, Top Esports, Invictus and Bilibili, won on Saturday.
What comes next
From the third round on, every series is a best-of-three played with Fearless Draft in effect. A team needs three wins to reach the knockouts and is out after three losses.
