T1 is the only team from LCK to not make any changes in their roster ahead of the 2023 season, and now we know why.
The organization’s CEO, Joe Marsh, shed some details on why the team kept the same lineup entering the 2023 season in Patty Yu’s interview from Jan. 4. He explained that the current T1 roster is capable of winning the League of Legends World Championship and that it T1’s goal for this year.
“We were 30 minutes away from winning a world championship, and we felt it was important to keep the roster together – this is a Worlds-winning roster, and hopefully, we will be able to show it in 2023,” Marsh said. At the same time, he added that T1 players have been a part of the organization for a few years now, with three of them, Oner, Zeus, and Gumayusi coming through T1’s academy system, hinting that they all had time to learn to work with each other.
Marsh also underlined how time-consuming it would be to re-sign Faker, so the organization made the decision to offer new contracts to Keria, Oner, and Zeus in Spring so that it could focus in offseason on keeping their legendary mid laner under its banner.
All in all, the CEO expressed his belief at how the current roster is the best one T1 had in years. “We have arrived at the 2022/2023 roster, which I believe is our best version of our roster since 2015/2016/2017,” he said, referring to the Worlds-winning side in 2015 and 2016.
In 2022, T1 was one game away from winning Mid-Season Invitational and Worlds alike, losing to Royal Never Give Up and DRX, respectively. With more time and practice, the current T1 roster can certainly reach new heights and get their hands on international trophies.
