It’s been a tough start to the season for T1. Marked by turbulence and uncertainty, both on and off the Rift, there are serious concerns about the team’s ability to defend their title for the third time in a row. What is wrong with T1, and what can be done to improve the results? I’ll try to assess how the players and the team have played so far in-game and give my two cents on the whole situation.

What is wrong with T1? – The struggles of the 2025 Lineup

What is wrong with T1? The worst start in recent years?

Rewinding the past few months

Before we dive into the analysis, let’s rewind a bit and go over the things that happened that brought us to the current situation.

Shortly after winning the League of Legends World Championship back-to-back, it was time for the players to re-sign with the team. ZOFGK was initially supposed to stick together for yet another year but while Zeus reportedly wished to remain with T1, contract negotiations became contentious, with T1’s CEO Joe Marsh accusing Zeus’s agency, The Play, of imposing artificial deadlines and misrepresenting offers—a claim the agency denied, leading to a public dispute.

In the end, Zeus became a free agent and ended up going to rival powerhouse Hanwha Life Esports, leaving T1 in one of the most shocking moves in recent League history. To make up for the loss, T1 ended up signing HLE’s departing top laner Doran, creating the new lineup DOFGK.

Compounding the issue, the bot lane saw the promotion of Smash to the main team. What was supposed to be a sixth man, however, ended up becoming the starting ADC for the team, with the subsequent benching of Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong.

This constant lack of clarity regarding this choice sparked a lot of criticism from fans, which, paired with the lack of results, ended up putting the entire organization under fire. 

The issues went even further after it was reported that CEO Joe Marsh overruled the coaching staff’s decision to start Smash, leading to questions about internal decision-making processes. Despite the initial return of Gumayusi to the starting lineup at the start of the LCK season, Smash has been the starting player in recent series once again with mixed results.

Now that we’ve gone through what happened in the past few months, let’s go over each player one by one, as well as the surrounding issues that have been haunting the team so far. 

Doran – A Mismatched Fit

Let’s start at the top — literally. Doran was never expected to be Zeus 2.0, yet T1’s start to the season tried to make him just that.

That was partially due to the meta having picks like Gwen, Rumble, and Ambessa being relevant but it was clear that Doran wasn’t able to live up to that role. He was fine against lower teams, however, when it was about facing the top dogs, Doran rarely came out on top.

Lately, however, it looks like T1 has been looking to default back to weakside picks, something Doran is particularly familiar with. In the series against Nongshim RedForce, it looked like it worked decently. That being said, the underlying issue is still there: the current top lane meta is about making impact, and with Fearless Draft staying, teams will find themselves in a situation where the top lane will have to pick up a carry champion.

T1 Doran
Photo Credit: LCK Flickr

Previously, Zeus could play literally anything and he would somehow make it work. Even this season, it’s what makes HLE work so well. With Doran, though, that flexibility is much lower and even the ceiling on weakside picks doesn’t seem to be close.

In my opinion, Doran is currently behind at least Kiin, Zeus, and Siwoo in terms of the laning phase and overall potential. For the team, there are only two potential fixes: either he steps up and expands his carry potential — unlikely given his historical inconsistencies — or T1 commits to weakside and waits for the meta to shift. While it may work in the short term, I believe this will bite T1 in the long run, especially at Worlds, if they make it through.

Oner – The core of the team

Ironically, the player holding everything together might be the one flying most under the radar: Oner. Judging by his individual stats, you wouldn’t say he’s that amazing, but every time T1 wins a game, his impact is undeniable.

Ever since Worlds 2023 when he stepped up immensely after a rough season, he’s been the most consistent player on T1, period. And 2025 hasn’t really changed that. Of course, he will look like he’s inting if he forces plays, but that’s because the rest of the team is not in a position to make those plays work.

So far, he’s often relegated to enabling junglers such as Sejuani, Xin Zhao, and Vi. Those champions are great in the early game and strong picks to play for the team, except they don’t let them carry games. He still hasn’t touched an AP champion in LCK Rounds 1-2, even though others have been playing Lillia, Nidalee, and other picks.

The only somewhat carry junglers he played were Viego and Naafiri (still think the dog is a bait pick). Viego was working against Nongshim, for example. Still, it doesn’t really match the current meta and I doubt it will work against LCK’s best.

One thing’s for sure: Oner isn’t the problem. If anything, he’s the one T1 must rely on to solidify their footing.

Faker – One carry can’t do everything

Faker’s 2025 form has been quietly impressive. He has been a good carry in most of the games and he’s matching the other top LCK mids with no particular issue.

He’s second only to Chovy in average damage dealt (data from Games of Legends), even if his laning numbers aren’t top-tier. In the current iteration of T1, though, “steady” is not a good enough quality and 1v9 performances don’t really exist in pro play anymore. I think that outside of his Azir, there aren’t other picks out there that can guarantee enough damage output for an entire team.

T1 celebrating 1000th game for Faker
Image Credit: @T1LoL

One thing worth mentioning is that it seems like opponents are aware of this and keep punishing him: he’s the most frequent First Blood victim among all mids and has 0% First Blood participation. Faker is definitely not an issue on this roster, but he’s not the savior either — and that’s a tough pill for T1 fans to swallow.

The AD Carry Debacle – Smash or Guma?

I must say, regardless of who plays as the starting ADC, it must be a bit of a frustrating storyline for any T1 fan. It looks like neither of the two has had the chance to settle in, and it’s clearly transitioning into official games.

On one hand, you have Smash, who has delivered in the LCK Cup but has been on a slump recently. According to Keria, he hasn’t even scrimmed extensively with the starting lineup, which raises even more questions about what might be going on behind the scenes. I believe the player is probably the better-suited player for the meta, however, he doesn’t look like he has the potential to match other top ADCs in the league in his current form.

T1 Gumayusi Smash
Photo Credit: LCK Flickr

On the other hand, Gumayusi is much more stable in terms of performance despite the non-optimal champion pool. It seems like it’s a lose-lose situation so far as both are indicating sub-optimal results. Considering how Doran has been performing as well, not having a strong point in the bottom lane is definitely the core issue at the moment. Against lower-tier teams, T1 can get by, but the difference when facing HLE or Gen.G was pretty clear.

Just like for Doran, the fix is surely a challenge. If T1 is considering letting Smash continue to be the leading player, then the only way to get out of the slump is to hope he can quickly pick up his form. While I do think the player has potential, this looks a bit of a gamble.

Keria – Trapped in Lane

Among all the players, however, the one I’m most concerned about is actually Keria. Not because he’s playing poorly — I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s how he has been forced to adapt between two ADCs that have completely different playstyles.

In the past few seasons, Keria often roamed around the map, coordinating with Oner to make plays in mid and top. With Smash coming in, he has to stick to his lane more often than not, losing one of his main strengths and reducing his impact. Switching between the two doesn’t help either, since this is all about the macro game, and coordinating with the entire team is the key.

T1 Keria on LCK stage
Photo Credit: LCK Flickr

On top of that, Keria is known for being more of an emotional player, especially compared to his peers, and that might also be a negative factor that’s hurting his overall performance. Luckily, this is something that can be improved over time, as long as they can figure it out.

Coaching Staff – No Clear Identity

Even though the players are not delivering, the coaching staff is having its own questionable decisions. Aside from the ADC choice, the drafts shown in recent games have been borderline insane. The Game 2 draft against HLE with Kalista-Ashe bot was a perfect example of what inting in champion select might look like.

It’s easy to call this in hindsight, of course, but there could’ve been much better choices than that. More than anything, T1 for me looks like a team without a clear identity. They are trying to cover different bases at once and hope that something works out of it. Guess what, it doesn’t.

T1 coaching staff
Photo Credit: LCK Flickr

T1 was so dependent on how they used to play in the past that once the pawns have been swapped out, the formula doesn’t work anymore. It’s completely normal to require time to work and improve on those things, but I feel like the team has regressed compared to the LCK Cup, which is the most worrying sign.

Are there still hopes for T1 to fight for the championship?

While I may have been harsh on the analysis, I’m optimistic about T1 recovering its form. It happened in the past seasons and I think it’s going to happen again. The issue is that I don’t see them going from their current state to fighting for a spot at MSI, especially given how Gen.G, HLE, and even DK are playing.

In the short term, the only thing T1 can do is hope for a meta shift as they slowly figure out a formula that works for them. They can try to emulate what they did with Zeus in the past, although I think it’s not going to work out unless Doran steps up, which is highly unlikely due to how his playstyle has always been.

Therefore, the only way is to choose one of the two ADCs and stick with it. Smash is more suited in the meta, but I think Gumayusi is the better long-term solution given the experience and the years of synergy built with the other three. In any case, they need to find an ADC that has enough carry potential later in the game, with near-flawless mechanics.

It’s probably asking for a miracle based on how things stand, but everything can happen in League of Legends. I won’t be surprised if the perspective completely changes by the time summer comes around.