The LCK second-split MSI selection tournament's winners' bracket final is kicking off soon. This BO5 series between T1 and HLE will determine who gets the first MSI slot from the LCK. Their strength is so close that it's hard to predict a winner. But T1's condition after a rest period is unknown—Doran has been in a slump during the second half of the season, and if he hasn't bounced back, he could be exploited.

Looking at Doran's recent solo queue games, they've been quite poor—he often goes 0-10 or 2-8. Out of his last eight ranked matches, only one has a positive KDA. However, I personally think the key for T1 lies in the bot lane. If "Young Master" (Gumayusi) can maintain the level he showed in the latter half of the regular season, the match will be competitive. But if he returns to his early-season form, winning will be tough. Doran's influence might not be that big—if he picks tank champions, he should be able to hold his own.

Peanut has officially enlisted.

Before the T1 vs HLE match, legendary jungler Peanut held his final livestream before enlistment. On June 11th, Peanut posted a message to fans: "I'll return safely and peacefully. Goodbye," along with a picture at the recruit entrance. The career of this world runner-up jungler, who once nearly toppled T1 during his prime, has come to an end. His two-year military service means he'll be over 30 when he finishes, making a return to the competitive scene highly unlikely.

However, unlike other enlisted players, Peanut is serving as a public service worker due to his injuries, so he won't need to stay in the barracks long-term. After completing the first three weeks of basic training, he can transition to community service—clocking in and out daily, and even playing games at home. His official discharge date is March 10, 2028, which is a significant amount of time, but compared to active-duty soldiers like Deft, Peanut has it relatively easy.

Three LPL teams in the "Nirvana" group are adjusting their rosters.

The LPL "Knight's Path" has seen consecutive upsets. Teams that dropped from the Summit group to the Nirvana group have recently seen roster change rumors. Weibo's support swap is all but confirmed—their new support will be Liu Qingsong, returning for his third stint. Whether he can boost performance alongside ELK remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Weibo's current support, Hang, is rumored to be returning to his former team LNG in the third split, while "Mi God" (Missing) is headed to the Summit group.

Additionally, there are rumors that IG's mid laner Rookie will return for the third split, likely under pressure from the organization. The backlash over his breakup with Xiaoyu has mostly faded, and IG never terminated his contract, so it's plausible he'll be back on stage. Teammates like Breathe and Wei might be "in for a treat"—one can already imagine the barrage of comments when Rookie plays.

WE gets crushed by a Vietnamese team in scrims.

SofM's invested team, MVKE, recently shared their second-split scrim results against LPL teams. Against AL and JDG, MVKE only managed to win a single game each. Against two Nirvana-group teams, LGD and EDG, the matches were back-and-forth. The most surprising outcome was against WE, a dark horse in the LPL playoffs: MVKE crushed them, winning six out of seven games.

Among all LPL teams that scrimmed MVKE, only WE suffered such a lopsided defeat—truly unexpected. However, WE did have numerous issues during the regular season, hence their 1-13 record. Of course, scrims don't necessarily reflect actual performance; if they did, Tangyuan would already be the best mid in China. Still, MVKE is using second-team rookies this split, so losing to them does seem a bit embarrassing.

Conclusion:

If Rookie and Liu Qingsong indeed return, the third-split Nirvana group matches could become quite interesting. LNG's current support, Missing, who wants to go to the Summit group, likely only has options like LGD, TT, or EDG. Other teams probably wouldn't be interested in him. However, these rumors are still unconfirmed and need further observation.

So, who do you think will win between T1 and HLE?

Feel free to leave a comment and discuss!