Phaaze's pentakill seals 23-minute blitz in decisive third set

The official homepage of the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational. [MSI]
The official homepage of the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational. [MSI]

League of Legends world champion T1 swept North American powerhouse Team Liquid Alienware 3-0 to advance to the main stage of the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational.

T1 defeated Team Liquid 3-0 in the final match of the 2026 MSI play-in stage, held Tuesday at the Daejeon Convention Center.

T1 applied heavy pressure in the bottom lane from the opening minutes of the first set. "Oner" Moon Hyeon-jun and "Phaaze" Kim Su-hwan combined for an aggressive tower dive to draw first blood and seize control. Team Liquid looked for opportunities to strike back but collapsed after losing a Baron teamfight around the 23-minute mark. T1 closed out the set in 27 minutes, destroying the enemy Nexus in swift fashion.

Team Liquid mounted a fierce counterattack in the second set, but T1's crisis management proved decisive. Just two minutes in, "Faker" Lee Sang-hyeok executed a precise tower dive to eliminate "Quid" Im Hyeon-seung as he recalled on low health, then sacrificed himself to the tower in a calculated play. Oner followed up by diving the bottom lane to take down "Yeon" Sean Sung with ease.

Team Liquid appeared to stabilize thanks to strong plays from "CoreJJ" Jo Yong-in, but the Phaaze-Keria duo struck back to reclaim lane dominance.

After giving up kills in the mid and bottom lanes, Team Liquid stole a dragon T1 was securing to claw back some of the deficit. Around the nine-minute mark, Yeon dealt sustained damage to T1 uncontested and picked up a triple kill to keep the chase alive.

The balance of the closely contested match began to tip around the 29-minute mark. T1 stole a dragon Team Liquid was taking to shift the momentum. Doran's Jayce then used precise poking to pick off Quid and "Morgan" Park Ru-han in succession after a teamfight left them weakened, laying the groundwork for a comeback.

Around the 39-minute mark, Phaaze delivered a triple kill as T1 wiped out the opposing team and pushed straight into their base to take the second set.

The third set belonged to Oner. He ambushed the bottom lane within three minutes to eliminate CoreJJ and draw first blood, then roamed across all lanes to rack up kills. With Oner's support, Phaaze snowballed rapidly and kept Team Liquid under relentless pressure.

Team Liquid made a last-ditch effort to contest T1's Baron but were forced back by Phaaze's overwhelming firepower. T1 chased the retreating opponents all the way to their base, where Phaaze capped the pursuit with a pentakill. T1 wrapped up the set in 23 minutes.

With the victory, T1 swept through the play-in stage undefeated and secured a spot in the bracket stage. Eight teams will compete in a double-elimination tournament for the championship trophy when the bracket stage opens Thursday.


won@heraldcorp.com