Esports
The top 6 moments from Red Bull League of Its Own 2024
World Champions T1 took on Europe’s best and most entertaining teams in a wild day of shock results, crazy plays and hilarious moments.
Last month, T1 completed back-to-back League of Legends World Championship wins with the exact same roster to secure the organisation’s historic fifth Summoner’s Cup. There’s no debate, they are the best in the world.
But that success put a target on T1’s back and we had some of Europe’s best teams ready and waiting for them in Paris, France for Red Bull League of Its Own 2024. In front of a loud and passionate crowd, T1 had to battle against NNO Old, Gentle Mates, Los Ratones, G2 Esports and Karmine Corp, with the added challenge of role-swapping in every game but the last.
01
T1 struggled with autofill
We’ve all been there. Queuing into ranked and getting autofilled into a role you don’t usually play never feels good. But at least you can feel better the next time it happens knowing that even the world’s best players struggle with it too.
Playing in unfamiliar roles, T1 surprisingly lost their first three games of the day. The opening game saw T1 vs NNO with the Nemesis Draft rules where both teams pick for their opponents and while Park 'Untara' Ui-jin, subbing in for Ryu 'Keria' Min-seok, somehow made Teemo jungle work with an amazing Smite steal, it wasn’t enough for T1 to save the game.
Then versus Gentle Mates, Lee 'Faker' Sang-hyeok took his rare chance to jungle on stage by locking in Lee Sin to push his mechanics to the limit. But like many Lee Sin players, he perhaps got overexcited as T1’s thirst for blood was handled perfectly by Gentle Mates’ seasoned players, who kept their cool to secure another upset.
And finally, in a hugely entertaining game, Los Ratones defeated the World Champions after less than a month of playing together. The new team, founded by 2024 best MOBA streamer Marc 'Caedrel' Lamont, brought the chaos and relished in it as not even T1 could handle the famous Sion pick of Simon 'Thebausffs' Hofverberg.
02
Baus solokilled Faker
Baus played amazingly during his on-stage debut
© Baptiste Fauchille/Red Bull Content Pool
A month ago, Thebausffs was a high-elo streamer who had never played at a competitive level. Fast forward a few weeks and he found himself on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans as he proxied waves and ran T1 ragged with unorthodox playstyle.
Unsurprisingly, Thebausffs had the most deaths in the game but he made most of those worth it as he constantly made a nuisance of himself in the sidelanes. He even managed to solokill legendary Faker as he dodged Ezreal’s skillshots to win the fight.
And to cap it all off, Los Ratones ended the game with TheBausffs’s favourite party tricky of Sion ulting both Nexus turrets at once to secure the incredible win.
03
Caps and Tiky had the tensest 1v1 ever
During the 1v1 segment, European icon Rasmus 'Caps' Winther challenged streamer Dylan 'Tiky' Sorrentino to a mirror match-up on Yone. A battle of pure skill which showed both players immense ability.
The breathtaking duel was impossible to look away from as both players showed expert mechanics to try and catch each other out in an incredibly tense bout. After one kill each, both players expertly dodged engages, but a failed flash knock-up from Caps gave Tiky the small window he needed to secure a huge upset victory.
04
Rekkles returned to T1
Rekkles dominated the event
© Stephanie Lindgren/Red Bull Content Pool
In a wonderful surprise, after playing for T1’s academy last season, Martin 'Rekkles' Larsson was loaned from Los Ratones back to T1 for the last two games of the event. This meant the iconic Swedish pro could finally play with T1’s main team and he impressively did not look out of place.
Rekkles performed superbly as he first got to return to his former ADC role versus G2 and dominated as he collected 404 CS as Sivir and went 7/2/13 with Faker as his support.
And then in the final game of the day versus Karmine Corp, with all players in their natural roles, Rekkles had a superb support performance as he gelled with Lee 'Gumayusi' Min-hyeong seamlessly. He started perfectly by hitting a flash, double knock-up as Rakan for first blood and went on to participate in 18 of T1’s 20 kills in the very impressive win.
Rekkles defeated three of his former teams and finished the day with a 100 percent win rate, making him possibly the biggest winner of the event.
05
Faker got a triple kill as Bard
While off-rolling may not have won T1 many games, the players were clearly having fun and were still able to show the occasional moment of brilliance.
Faker’s Bard versus G2 didn’t have the best start as he failed to portal into the mid lane, but he later made up for it with a ridiculous triple kill from the support role as he flashed in 2v4 to hit a double stun and save the fight for his team. It was such a brilliant play that even Faker wasn’t able to contain his smile.
06
Karmine Corp sent a message to the LEC
After the org failed to qualify for the LEC Season Finals this year, there's a lot of pressure on the new KCorp roster which includes former G2 jungler Martin 'Yike' Sundelin.
After supposedly performing very well in scrims, KCorp continued their fine form with a superb showing at League of Its Own. They made sure that the other LEC teams will fear them next year as they comfortably took down three-time 2024 European champions G2.
KCorp were aggressive and mechanically impressive just as we expected, especially their rookies as Caliste 'Caliste' Henry-Hennebert showed wonderful positioning and movement while Vladimiros 'Vladi' Kourtidis seemingly hit a clutch stolen ult as Sylas in every team fight.
But what was perhaps the most impressive part was how controlled and smart KCorp played. They controlled the map beautifully and showed excellent macro play to ensure comeback kings G2 could never find a way back. This KCorp roster already looks very well-drilled and they are more than talented enough to challenge G2 for the LEC title next season.