Cover-Credits:
What turned out to be a difficult week for T1 following star mid-laner Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok’s break from the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) owing to an arm and wrist injury, just became even more turbulent with head-coach and former World Champion Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong resigning from his post. This announcement was made by T1 ahead of its match against Gen.G on 8th July in the LCK 2023 Summer Split. Im “Tom” Jae-hyeon is standing in as the team’s head coach for the remainder of the 2023 season.
With Round 1 already over in the LCK, Tom was seen on stage against Gen.G.
T1 Announces Bengi’s Departure
T1 General Manager Becker Jung announced Bengi’s resignation as the head coach of the League of Legends team and noted that T1 honored and respected his decision. The organization expressed its appreciation to the League of Legends pro-turned-coach for his contributions and service to T1 during his time.
Bengi’s name is inseparable from T1 (then SK Telecom T1) as the former jungler led the team to three World Championships. “He continued to contribute his insights and experience as a vital part of our coaching staff between the years of 2017 to 2018, and later from 2020 to 2023. His commitment, dedication, and inspiring legacy have left an indelible mark on T1,” said Jung.
Announcing Tom as the interim head coach, Jung noted that the organization believes that Tom would guide the team during this crucial period of change. The organization also expressed its gratitude to the fans for their perennial and unwavering support.
T1 has been looking shaky ever since Faker’s announcement of injury and subsequent break. On top of this, Bengi’s resignation does not come across as a show of confidence to the onlookers.
While neither Bengi nor T1 has not given a definite reason for this change in the coaching role, it should be noted that this was a rather sudden decision. Notably, Bengi recently commented on Faker’s condition and stated that it would be at least two weeks before the pro player returns to play.
It would be interesting to see how T1 fares in the remainder of the matches in the LCK without Faker and Bengi and under Tom’s guidance. Summer Split is always a crucial time for teams as they all fight for a spot at Worlds 2022. If T1 does not find a way to make things work, T1 has a high probability of missing Worlds for the first time since 2020.
With T1 already down a match in the best-of-three (BO3) series against Gen.G today on 8th July, the team needs to quickly regroup and find its rhythm before facing Nongshim Redforce and Dplus Kia.
