T1 Gumayusi: "We struggled a lot making it out of the Swiss Stage"

The reigning World Champions of T1 haven't had an easy path at Worlds 2025 so far. After getting through the Swiss Stage with a 3-2 record, T1 will now battle Anyone's Legend in the Playoffs for a spot in the Semifinals.

Following T1's last match of the Swiss Stage, Strafe Esports had the chance to talk to Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong for an exclusive interview. During the discussion, the T1 ADC spoke about the possibility of landing a third consecutive Worlds title, utilizing Fearless Draft, and what the team needs to work on to secure the trophy.

Gumayusi and T1 are on the brink of making League of Legends history. (Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

[Strafe] Now that you're in the playoffs, I'd like to first ask you: how much would it mean to you and the rest of T1 to become the first team to win three consecutive Worlds titles?

"Yeah, honestly, being the part of, you know, being someone who makes history would be such a big honor.

But instead of focusing on that three-peat, I feel like we're just trying to focus on our own matches, thinking that this is just one Worlds, and that's just how we're really taking it so far."

[Strafe] On that note, I'd like to ask you if you were surprised by how tough the Swiss stage turned out to be. Did you expect getting through the Swiss Stage to be this difficult this time around? 

"Yeah, I didn't expect it to be easy, but I also didn't expect it to be difficult. We just honestly ended up going with the flow. And yeah, it does feel like we struggled a lot within the process of making it out of the Swiss stage."

[Strafe] After your Swiss Stage performance, what do you think are some of the biggest aspects the team needs to work in order to make sure you can win this World Championship? 

"Right now, a lot of the discussions that we're having as a team are actually around lane swaps and objective control, and also just working on improving our mechanics."

[Strafe] The remainder of Worlds will all be Bo5 now, which means that Fearless Draft will play a much bigger role. Given the team's deep champion pools, do you feel like Fearless Draft will give T1 a bit of an advantage in the playoffs? 

"Yeah, honestly, this year, while we played a lot of Fearless draft, I felt like if it was actually an advantage, we would have seen some sort of results.

So, so far, given that we don't have a title, I'm not too certain that it will be an advantage, but at least for this Worlds, I want to make sure that we can capitalize on it, and I believe that we'll be able to show a good case and a good performance." 

[Strafe] On the subject of champion picks, I want to ask, did you expect the Vayne pick from Supa? What did you think of his performance on the champion? 

"Yeah, it's been a while since I went up against Vayne, or really seen Vayne being played, so given that I allowed Supa's Vayne to take a solo kill off of me, I think he did pretty well. 

And I saw that he was playing pretty well during teamfights as well. So I think individually, I do think that he performed very well."

[Strafe] Before we go, we know that you have drawn Anyone's Legend in the Quarterfinals. Could I get your thoughts on that matchup?

"Anyone’s Legend has recorded a 3-0 to get out of Swiss and they’ve been showing very good form. They’re someone that we have played before at MSI and EWC, and I do consider them a very good team. But, for this Worlds, I do believe that we can win."

*This interview has been edited slightly for clarity and length.

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Featured image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Read more:

Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Most Picked Champions and Meta Takeaways

Worlds 2025 Pick'Ems Guide: Knockout Stage

Worlds 2025 Playoffs Bracket: Quarterfinals Draw and Schedule