"Since everyone is such a talented player, there were a lot of plays aimed at hitting a high ceiling. I believe those plays yield great returns when you stick to the fundamentals, but recently, we were chasing those plays without maintaining the basics, which I think led to a series of unfortunate incidents for the team."

On the 6th, T1 defeated Dplus KIA 2-0 in the Legend Group match of the 2026 LoL Champions Korea (LCK) regular season Round 3, held at LoL PARK in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Dplus KIA had been on a fierce winning streak. Keria (Ryu Min-seok) contributed significantly to the team's victory by securing consecutive duo kills with Phase (Kim Su-hwan) starting from the laning phase.

After the match, Keria met with INVEN and summarized the day's performance: "Our recent form has been inconsistent, so I'm happy we beat a strong Dplus KIA. We were conscious of their tendency to use non-AD carry champions and their focus on generating advantages through top-side skirmishes. We aimed to keep that in check during the pick-ban phase, and it played out exactly as we prepared."

Following two consecutive losses at the start of the third round, T1's feedback shifted toward 'fundamentals' after their first win against Gen.G. According to interim head coach Lim Jae-hyeon, T1 has been working to realign their play and address weaknesses by returning to the basics. Keria echoed this sentiment.

"Because our players are all so talented, we often go for high-ceiling plays. When you execute those plays while maintaining solid fundamentals, you get a 'high return,' but we haven't been doing that lately. We were forcing plays without the proper foundation, which led to constant mistakes. We discussed this in our feedback and agreed to start building our framework back up step by step."

This victory is particularly meaningful for T1, as it completely erased the pattern of throwing leads due to the kind of mistakes that had been identified as one of their biggest problems. Keria expressed his joy, saying, "Recently, we've had many games where we were caught out pointlessly or forced fights in disorganized states, leading to comeback losses. We've been working on fixing those issues and focusing on communication, and today, our in-game communication was excellent. Beyond the win, the performance itself was very good."

In the match against Dplus KIA, T1's bot lane signaled the start of the game with duo kills in both the first and second sets. Regarding this, Keria explained, "Both sets were very sensitive matchups for the bot lane. I think we had more data on those compositions, and since it's a matchup we're so familiar with, it just came out naturally."

Phase, who also reached his 200th career win that day, enjoyed a double celebration by being named Player of the Match (POM) for his legendary carry performance on Lucian in the second set. Keria smiled and said, "Su-hwan is just so good. It’s amazing that he’s only at 200 wins with the level of skill he has now—he’s still so young. I’m truly envious. I hope he continues to rack up many more records with ease."

He continued his praise, saying, "That’s just Phase’s style. Even after joining T1, he consistently shows aggressive plays in both practice and official matches. Every time I see it, I think he’s incredibly talented. In the case of today’s Lucian, it was great for me because as someone just providing the buffs, he handled everything else so well on his own."

The LCK is currently in the midst of a fierce battle for rankings, where just one or two wins could determine the standings. When asked how he plans to approach the remaining matches, Keria replied, "The ranking race is important, but since the tournament is nearing its end, I think it’s more important to keep raising our performance level and maintaining that form for the rest of the season. I want to focus on that while also securing as many wins as possible."

T1 will face Hanwha Life Esports as their final opponent of Round 3 in the Saturday Showdown on the 8th. Then, in the following week as Round 4 begins, they will play home-ground matches against Dplus KIA and Gen.G Esports.

"I think Hanwha Life plays in a very interesting way as a team. If we stay calm and respond well, I'm sure we can get a good result," Keria said, showing confidence. "Many fans will be coming to our home games, so I'll work hard to show them a great performance both in and out of the game," he concluded.