T1 hammer MAD Lions in second-fastest game in international LoL history

T1 booked a spot in the MSI 2023 upper bracket semi-finals after sweeping MAD Lions 3-0. The final game went down as one of the shortest in international League of Legends history.

After a nail-biting 34-minute first game with 51 kills, T1 took control of their MSI 2023 series against MAD Lions and stomped the LEC first seed in the following two games with a combined 39-10 kill score.

The final game was wrapped up after 16 minutes and 50 seconds, making it the shortest game of the tournament so far and the second-quickest in international League of Legends history.

The fastest international match dates back to MSI 2019 and it also involved T1, who at the time were still playing as SK Telecom T1. The Korean team was on the receiving end of a 16:01 minute beating by Invictus Gaming during the group stage, with Wenbo ‘JackeyLove’ Yu running riot on Draven against Park ‘Teddy’ Jin-seong’s Sona.

The series between T1 and MAD Lions hit a peak viewership of over 1.46 million people, the highest since the tournament began, according to statistics website Esports Charts. It surpassed the previous peak of 1.37 million, set during May 9’s series between Gen.G and G2.

With this victory, T1 will move on to the upper bracket semi-finals to meet Gen.G in a rematch of the LCK Spring Finals. MAD Lions drop down to the lower bracket, where they will face fellow LEC side G2 Esports.

Fastest games in international LoL history:

• Invictus Gaming vs SK Telecom T1 (MSI 2019) – 16:01
• T1 vs MAD Lions (MSI 2023) – 16:50
• G2 vs Team Liquid (MSI 2019) – 18:05
• RNG vs Pentanet.GG (MSI 2021) – 18:32
• G2 Esports vs DWG (Worlds 2020) – 19:03