The South Korean team T1 has become world champions in League of Legends twice in a row with the same lineup. For 2025, they wanted to keep the squad and were willing to pay any price for it. However, they were unable to extend the contract of top laner Choi “Zeus” Woo-je. The 20-year-old is moving to the South Korean champions Hanwha Life. T1’s boss, Joe Marsh, explains what went wrong.
This is the situation: On November 18, 4 contracts expired at T1, only Faker was confirmed for 2025.
It was clear that T1 wanted to keep every single player from their winning team. The 5 players are now known as ZOFGK (Zeus-Oner-Faker-Gumayusi-Keria). T1 announced their intention to keep all 5 right after the World Championship.
As T1’s CEO, Joe Marsh, later explained, they were willing to pay each player a top salary for their position. This also worked for Keria, Oner, and Gumayusi, but Zeus was lost to Hanwha Life.
This loss of the player is uncomfortable for T1 for many reasons: Among other things, they now have to redesign their entire ZOFGK marketing and integrate the new player Doran into the team.
Fans react to the departure of Zeus with dismay – rumors abound
What has been rumored? LoL has a huge scene that follows the trades and changes. Immediately after Zeus’s transfer, rumors arose about what had happened. This transfer was a shock for many fans.
Quickly, the anger focused on Zeus’s agent. It was said that the agent had delayed the deal forever. Apparently, T1 intended to snag the top laner from Gen G., Kin, if Zeus did not sign. Because Kin’s contract was also expiring. However, Kin seemed to be with the same agency as Zeus, and it was suspected that the agent was playing a double game.
The T1 fans were upset in any case about how they could lose the player. Ultimately, T1 then picked up Doran after Zeus had left and Kin also extended with Gen G. Doran is considered the third choice for the position in South Korea.
Joe Marsh feels deceived by Zeus’s agent
This is what the CEO says: In an interview with fmkorea, T1’s CEO, Joe Marsh, has now extensively commented on the loss of Zeus. He says:
- Zeus is not to blame. We only wish him the best
- But we feel deceived by Zeus’s agent
- The agent showed no willingness to negotiate with T1, did not make a single counteroffer throughout the negotiation process, and did not respond to T1’s offers
Marsh says (via dexerto):
When he (the agent) visited our office on Friday, he openly stated that he ‘had nothing to say’, which seemed unusual for someone whose job is to negotiate contracts. After we signed the three players, we even made an additional offer, although we knew that the first rule in negotiations is to not make further offers without receiving a response.
Marsh says: T1 was willing to pay any price, even if the agent had made an outrageous maximum demand of 2.7 million euros, that would have been something they could at least talk about. But nothing came.
In the end, the agent had promised to come to T1’s headquarters to sign the deal. However, the agent simply let the appointment fall through and was unreachable for T1 thereafter.
Marsh also says that the agent spoke of a deadline set by Hanwha Life. But that was a lie by the agent, as Hanwha Life could not confirm this deadline to Marsh:
In my opinion, someone in this situation is not entirely honest. Since I have been working with HLE for many years, I trust their word regarding what was said. It is disappointing that such tactics played a role in the process, as we believed that Zeus deserved transparency and fairness in such an important decision about his future.
Agent dismisses accusations as exaggerated and untrue
What does the agent say? Zeus’s agency, “The Play,” has only briefly stated (via reddit) that they see a discussion escalating. However, many of T1’s statements are exaggerated or untrue. They are preparing a statement.
Update November 25, 2024: The agent’s statement is now available (via X/ – fan translation: reddit). The statement includes a record of the negotiations with Zeus, in the agent’s account, T1’s offers were repeatedly rejected, while T1 in turn rejected counteroffers.
The agent says: T1 did not make any “reasonable offers that reflect the market value of Zeus,” who was a key player in winning 2 world championships in a row.
According to the agent, Zeus actually wanted to stay at T1, but the offers were simply not good enough.
