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Leading upto League of Legends Worlds 2023 and even after the grand finale, an air of doubt and worry surrounded T1 fans. Though the team overcame hurdles this year to lift the coveted Summoner's Cup, fans and followers of T1 were worried about their favorite roster splitting up after the championship.
This was a result of multiple players of T1 hinted that Worlds 2023 could be the last time they played together as a team, coupled with the fact that T1's star player Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok and jungler Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun were the only players with contracts running past this year.
Initially, on 22nd November, it has posted a video teaser with the silhouettes of the five players and its coach for 2024. However, T1 with its string of announcements on 23rd November, confirmed that it is retaining its Worlds 2023 winning roster.
This is a first in T1 history as the organization retains its Worlds winning roster. Notably, after winning Worlds in 2013, 2015, and 2016, those respective iterations underwent changes.
Zeus, Keria & Gumayusi Re-Sign With T1 for 2024
Three players on the T1 roster whose contracts expired on 21st November 2023 are Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok. They were all free agents, with the possibility of entertaining and accepting offers from other teams.
However, multiple leaks and reports suggested that T1 retained these players and this was confirmed on 23rd November.
T1 wrote on Twitter that it looks forward to continuing its journey with "godlike top laner Zeus", "the one and only Gumayusi", and "legendary genius monster Keria."
kkOma To Lead T1 After Nearly 4 Years
Kim "kkOma" Jeong-gyun is considered one of League of Legends' greatest coaches. He was a part of the SK Telecom T1 (SKT T1) dynasty from 2012 till 2019 and during this time, SKT T1 (now T1) won three Worlds titles, two MSI titles, and multiple LCK titles.
Recently, kkOma also led the Korean national team to an Asian Games Gold medal at Hangzhou 2022 as its coach.
On 21st November, T1 officially confirmed that kkOma will be joining the team as the head coach for the LCK 2024 season. In other significant development, the organization released former coaches Kim “Sky” Ha-neul and Kim “Roach” Kang-hee. Additionally, it transitioned Im “Tom” Jae-hyeon, from interim head coach to the role of coach.
T1's roster for the 2024 League of Legends esports season is as follows:
TOP: Choi “Zeus” Woo-je
JUNGLE: Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun
MID: Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok
ADC: Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong
SUPPORT: Ryu “Keria” Min-seok
HEAD COACH: Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun
COACH: Im “Tom” Jae-hyeon
Currently, we know that Faker's contract ends in 2025 whereas Oner's ends in 2024.
T1 re-signing its Worlds 2023 roster and brining back kkOma to the helm clearly shows that the organization is keen on defending the World title in 2024 also. It will be interesting to see how T1 maintains its momentum going into the Spring Split next year.
Notably, T1 is the only League of Legends team to have won four World Championship titles (2013, 2015, 2016 and 2023). It also placed second at Worlds in 2017 and 2022.
