In League of Legends, the Worlds 2022 are coming up and the team T1 is making a significant decision: Despite a strong season, they are changing the coach: Choi “Polt” Seong-hun is promoted to General Manager, and Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong (28) takes his place. The former world-class jungler had won 3 World Championships alongside mid-laner Faker.
Why is the situation with the coach at T1 so difficult?
- T1 had a fixed coach for years: the now 36-year-old kkoma. He was with T1 from 2012 to 2019, won 3 World Championships, and was considered an absolute fan favorite. Even today, T1 CEO Joe Marsh refers to him as “the greatest coach in League of Legends of all time”.
- However, in 2019, things didn’t go well for T1. At the Worlds, they lost to a team from Europe: Apparently a disgrace for the proud South Korean. kkoma stated that individually his players were much better than those of G2. kkoma left T1 after the Worlds in 2019. Today, he is with DWG KIA.
- Since kkoma left, T1 has repeatedly experimented with extremely successful LoL coaches, but soon became dissatisfied with them and let them go again.
Recently, they apparently found their old strength again under the actual manager Polt as coach, but he is now being let go as well. And that just before the Worlds 2022.
He is the heart of T1, Faker:
T1 has no luck with World Champion coaches
How did Polt become the coach? After T1 missed the Worlds in 2020, the team hired two “World Champion coaches” again.
But Polt fired the actual “super coaches” in the summer of 2021 due to failure:
- In 2020, Daeny and Zefa still led DWG Kia to the championship
- Daeny called himself the “God of LoL”
- But nothing came together for T1, and there was the firing in the middle of the season.
The new interim coaches managed to salvage the season somewhat: They took 2nd place in Korea and made it to the semifinals of the Worlds.
Before 2022, T1 needed a new coach and decided on Polt on December 3, 2021 (via inven).
Polt goes 18-0 in Spring, yet fans demand his dismissal
This is how it went for Polt: Polt led T1 to a decisive championship in Korea in Spring 2022, with a spectacular “undefeated” season:
- T1 went 18-0 in the regular season
- Marched through the playoffs and dropped only a single game
- Then finished 2nd in the MSI tournament
- In Summer 2022, T1 at least became runner-up, behind Gen G.
Actually, there was hardly any reason to criticize Polt: There was a championship and a second place in the league and at the MSI.
Fans rent a truck to demand the firing of the coaches
Why was there criticism anyway? There were ultimately no major successes, the title at MSI and lastly in the league were missing.
Because T1 has an incredibly good team, it couldn’t be the players’ fault, so the criticism fell on Polt.
Although things went so well for Polt on paper, fans were constantly unhappy with the coaching team: In August, a truck was even rented that protested against the coaches with illuminated messages (via inven).
It was said the coaching team was “incompetent” and “too inexperienced” to lead the current team. The selection of coaches during drafts was repeatedly criticized.
The head of T1 countered: They had previously hired “experienced, successful coaches”, but they had failed.
34-year-old Polt was labeled as being more of a manager than a coach and had no considerable experience as a LoL professional or coach before T1. Fans were already against him when in November 2020, it was being considered to promote him to coach. Instead, they preferred to hire two World Champion coaches, who then failed at T1.
Three-time World Champion as a player is set to fix things now
This is now the decision: Polt will be promoted back to “General Manager” and is to manage all teams of T1.
Bengi will be appointed as the head coach of the professionals.
Who is Bengi? The now 28-year-old Bengi is a club legend for T1. He played there from 2013 to 2016 and won the team’s 3 World Championships alongside Faker:
- He ended his career as a professional in 2017 and had to do his military service.
- He returned to the team in 2020 and started as a coach of the second team.
- Now he is set to train the professionals at the Worlds.
From T1, it is said that Bengi learned under the “greatest LoL coach” of all time. And he has the full support of T1.
The decisive factor for the change seems to be the lost LCK final against Gen G.:
