With the League of Legends MSI loser bracket finals tied at 1-1, you’ll need to pull out all the stops to win and keep your tournament chances alive. Facing elimination in Chengdu, Faker dug deep into his pool and pulled out something completely unexpected: the Zac pick.
Is Faker OK?
According to Leaguepedia, it was the first time Faker pulled out the Zac pick in a professional League match, but judging by the result, it’s safe to say the Secret Weapon was a far cry from its namesake. Things didn’t go to plan for the mid lane world champion, who was rather mercilessly demolished after a well-oiled Bilibili overwhelmed T1 just under 24 minutes into game three of the series.
Zac was once a solid mid pick as recently as Patch 13.3, but Riot has quickly squashed the Secret Weapon’s viability in the lane. It hasn’t stopped pros from giving him the occasional shot; G2’s Caps notably busted it out in the 2023 LEC Winter Split, but even the general playerbase has barely touched the champion in the mid lane this year, according to stats site U.GG.
To be fair, Faker held his own against Knight's Annie during the laning phase, but once Bilibili secured their items, things quickly went downhill for Faker and T1. It was a bit of a wild draft across the board; aside from Faker's Zac, Zeus took Yasuo to the top lane while Oner struggled to find an impact after an early confrontation on his Nidalee.
