For a most of tournament time, T1 were underdogs. Sometimes – heavy underdogs (bookmakers assess they have the lowest possibility to win Worlds from all Asian teams after Knockouts draw, and gave them odds 12-to-1). This status (likewise SSG in 2017) hides in the bush how in fact incredibly dominant was their run this Worlds, which in fact is 2nd/3rd best Worlds run in our history.

As the starting point, I will take 2013, when 16 teams were introduced in a more-less modern format (2013 had only 2 groups, and a few teams directly advanced to Knockouts + best-of-3 in Quarters, but still it was closer than 2011-2012 to modern format):

• 2013: SKT, total score 15:3 (WR 83.3%), Knockouts 8:2;
• 2014: SSW, total score 15:2 (WR 88%), Knockouts 9:2;
• 2015: SKT, total score 15:1 (WR 94%), Knockouts 9:1;
• 2016: SKT, total score 14:6 (WR 70%), Knockouts 9:5;
• 2017: SSG, total score 13:3 (WR 81%), Knockouts 9:1;
• 2018: iG, total score 14:4 (WR 78%), Knockouts 9:2;
• 2019: FPX, total score 14:4 (WR 78%), Knockouts 9:2;
• 2020: DWG, total score 14:3 (WR 92%), Knockouts 9:2;
• 2021: EDG, total score 13:8 (WR 62%), Knockouts 9:6;
• 2022: DRX, total score 14:7 (WR 67%), Knockouts 9:5;
• 2023: T1, total score 13:2 (WR 86%), Knockouts 9:1;

2015 was undisputedly the most dominant Worlds run. 6:0 in Groups, 6:0 in Quarters and Semis, all of this just to drop 1 single game in Finals. The best winrate, 9:1 in Knockouts – all components of domination were in place;

2014 by a lot of people considered as the 2nd (for some, the most) dominant run in Worlds. 6:0 in Groups, a lot of fast stomps, insane average win time (in the meta where fast wins were not so often), but SSW dropped 2 games in Knockouts: 1 to TSM and 1 to Royal Club.

And here comes T1 this year. They looked shaky in their first game against TL. They lost to Gen.G next round. Just to turn into godlike mode since then. Fastest win of the tournament (and almost perfect game) against C9, fast 2:0 stomp of BLG, fast 3:0 stomp of LNG. T1 were close to lose 3rd game against JDG, but Faker find an angle, and T1 won 3:1. All of this just to dominate 3:0 Weibo and have an incredible 9:1 Knockouts run.

Likewise SSW-2014, T1 this year defined meta and has fastest win time of the tournament. Like SSW-2014, they dropped only 2 games. Because SSW played one extra game, their formal WR is higher, but as for me T1 compensates it by dropping only 1 and not 2 games in Knockouts, and having 3:0 (not 3:1 like SSW) Finals.

I know that some people will say that “no, SSW were something special” and place T1 lower, hence leaving it as the open question, but in any case, it is 2nd/4rd best Worlds run in our history! Better than IG-2018, DWG-2020, FPX-2019 and even SSG-2017 (who in fact had an insane tournament, running 9:1 in Knockouts but having shaky Groups with 2 losses to RNG).