One of the most successful League of Legends rosters of all time is no more, after five-time world champions T1 announced the departure of one of their celebrated players.
T1, led by undisputed League of Legends GOAT Faker, has won the game’s world championship five times. For those keeping score, that’s four times more than any other team has managed, and as of the 2024 tournament, includes two sets of back-to-back wins. The run between 2023 and 2024 alone is one of the most impressive achievements in the scene by itself, with the roster of Faker, Zeus, Oner, Keria, and Gumayusi staying together to win those two titles. Sadly, however, there will be no three-peat, as T1 announced top laner Zeus’ departure from the team earlier today.
ZOFGK is over just like that3 years of memories, greatest roster of all time will never be forgotten pic.twitter.com/1nHaSBlSubNovember 19, 2024
While many of the team’s players have already re-signed for the 2025 series, the team confirmed today that ‘Zeus’ Choi Woo-je’s contract had ended. Even if all four of the other T1 members stick with the team, it remains the end of an era, as expressed emphatically by former LoL pro and major streamer Caedral, who described the newly undone team as the “greatest roster of all time.”
That’s a big claim, but it’s one that probably does stand up. Even T1’s dominant 2015/16 team wasn’t an exact replica of its former self – 2015 top laner Marin was replaced in 2016 by Duke, while substitutes Easyhoon and Blank swapped into the mid-lane and jungle roles respectively (the former in 2015, the latter in 2016). Few players have ever won more than one major international title, and no team has ever run it back with the exact same roster to claim successive Worlds wins. While T1 already has precedent for winning back-to-back world titles with a new top laner, there’s already a feeling within the community that this is the end of an era, whether or not the new team can improve on its already world-leading run.
Don’t cry because it’s over, cry because the Arcane season 2 release schedule means act 3 is almost here.