League of Legends MSI 2024: Korea region preview

The first international League of Legends event of 2024 will test the mettle of teams from all around the world. Twelve of the best teams compete for Worlds 2024 qualification, an extra slot for their region, and a trophy in their case. South Korea will be represented in MSI 2024 by two teams who qualified from the LoL Champions Korea (LCK).

Let's take a look at their teams at the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational 2024, and their paths, players, and prospects in the tournament.

The LoL MSI 2024 will be played on League of Legends Patch 14.8. Skarner is not enabled for this tournament.

Reigning World Champions: T1. They brought Korea the Worlds trophy last year, and now, in MSI 2024, they look to continue their international success.

They have been running with the same roster since 2021, and they didn't find much international success for a while apart from a Worlds Final in 2022. The organization's dedication to the squad eventually paid off last year when they denied JD Gaming their Golden Road and took home the Worlds 2023 Championship for themselves.

Each player on this roster is among the best in their role. Top laner Zeus has been showing signs of weakness lately, but the team had more than enough time to rectify this issue.

Nobody was surprised to see that the Worlds-winning roster remained unchanged for 2024 in what would be their third consecutive year together. T1 had quite the dominant run in the LCK Spring 2024 regular season. While they didn't finish first place (that was occupied by Gen.G Esports), they were still a domestic powerhouse.

In the Spring 2024 playoffs, they got swept by Hanwha Life Esports in the Upper Bracket Semifinals. The team attributed this to the ongoing DDoS attacks on their training facility which hindered their practice. They eventually rescinded this statement and said that it was unsportsmanlike for them to claim so after a loss.

DDoS or not, it doesn't change the fact that T1 lost the series. They were forced to make their way through the Lower Bracket. This run was successful, including their revenge match versus Hanwha Life. They eventually meet Gen.G Esports in the Grand Final for some of the best games this year.

The LCK Spring 2024 Grand Final was five games of pure, unadulterated, League of Legends goodness. Fans marveled as these two domestic powerhouses clashed against each other.

Unfortunately for the reigning World Champions, they failed to take the trophy despite heroics from superstar mid-laner Faker. Simply making it to the Grand Final, however, meant that they could represent the LCK for MSI 2024.

Domestic kings - Gen.G Esports. They have achieved the first four-peat of the LCK, winning every single season since LCK Summer 2022. Their team mostly consists of new signings for 2024 apart from their bot laner Peyz.

Peyz made his LCK debut last year after he was promoted from Gen.G Challengers, the organization's developmental team. He quickly became a top contender for the role and received the 2023 Rookie of the Year award. When Peyz was on a hypercarry champion like Zeri, pentakills became a normal sight.

Now, with hypercarries mostly out of the meta, Gen.G's bot lane is showing signs of inconsistency. This issue may be a point of attack for their opponents looking to find this team's Achilles' Heel.

Peyz aside, everybody else on the Gen.G squad is a behemoth of their role. With plenty of experience on their backs and with each of them having carry potential, Gen.G Esports is widely considered a superteam.

Gen.G Esports was expected, if not guaranteed, to make it to MSI at the start of the year. This Korean team gathered the best players in the region and is bringing them to MSI 2024.

This team had virtually no chance of failure, especially with a mid-jungle duo like Chovy and Canyon. But, the rising star in the bot lane Peyz had to share his time in the spotlight with these names on the team.

The LCK Spring 2024 regular season was nothing short of a cakewalk for Gen.G. They finished the season with 17 match wins and only one match loss, taking sole control of the top spot. They also breezed through the playoffs, and they showed that they were quick to adapt to the meta.

Despite their domestic dominance, fans are still skeptical of what their performance will be in MSI 2024. The phrase "regional kings, international janitors" has always been used with the team, given that they tend to underperform in international events.

Their most recent international appearance was Worlds 2023, where they made a quarterfinal exit after a 5-game series versus Bilibili Gaming. They have been a force to reckon with in the LCK since their 2018 rebrand from KSV and Samsung Galaxy, but they have yet to bring an international trophy home.

As the LCK's second seed, T1 will begin their MSI 2024 journey in the Group Stage. They will open the tournament with a match against Estral Esports who represent the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA). They share the group with FlyQuest from the North American LCS region and PSG Talon representing the PCS.

In the play-in stage, two wins mean advancement into the bracket stage while two losses cause elimination. T1 has a lot of international momentum going for them after the Worlds 2023 win, and they're expected to make it out of the group quite comfortably.

As the first seed team from the LCK, they get a bye in MSI 2024. They begin their journey in the Bracket Stage.

The reveal of their opponent will happen in the Draw Show on May 5th, after the play-in stage has concluded. Will they prove their "international janitors" moniker true once more, or will they finally cleanse themselves of it once and for all?