The 5-time world champion T1 in League of Legends is building a team to establish a dynasty or extend their existing dynasty. Now they have secured the first building block: The 22-year-old supporter Ryu “Keria” Min-seok will stay with the team. He has signed a contract until 2026.
Who is this important building block for the dynasty? Keria is currently considered the best support player in the world. The 22-year-old has a huge champion pool and can play anything.
Since 2020, Keria has been with T1 and has reached the finals of the Worlds 3 times, winning the World Championship twice.
Together with Gumayusi, he forms a strong bot lane that has shown solid performance, especially under pressure. While T1 was struggling in the national league LCK in 2024 and flew to the LoL Worlds in Europe as underdogs, they played some of the best LoL of the year in Paris and London and grew stronger as the matches became more important.
Faker is the only player at T1 with a contract until 2025:
Keria seemed like a shaky candidate after the Worlds, now he firmly commits
Why is this commitment so important now: At T1, all contracts expire on November 18, except for Faker’s contract, which goes until 2025.
Keria had seemed like he could consider taking a year off from LoL right after the Worlds during the press conference, he was so emotionally exhausted. But now he has signed a contract until the end of 2026 (via twitter).
Currently, it is assumed that his bot lane partner Gumayusi will stay with T1, as he has hinted that he might stay.
Keria was probably the player, alongside Faker, who would be irreplaceable for T1.
The other two positions, top-laner and jungler, are also well occupied with Zeus and Oner, and fans hope that both will stay with T1. But those positions would likely be easier to fill at least somewhat equivalently than Keria – for whom there is no equal substitute on the market. Perhaps Beryl, but he is 5 years older.
On reddit, it is believed that the “shaky candidate” in the team could be top-laner Zeus.
What makes Keria so good? Keria is generally seen as an outstanding talent in the support role because he is so versatile and can play the role that his team needs in every team combination.
He can play classic utility champs like Bard and create surprises. In the finals of the Worlds, he surprised everyone with Poppy and dominated his opponents by initiating fights and preparing kills. During the Worlds, Keria played a total of 8 different champions, most frequently Renata Glasc.
At just 18, Keria was already considered an outstanding talent, and over the last 4 years, he has proven that he has fully realized his potential and has become a star of LoL: An 18-year-old is considered a “monster” and “genius” in LoL – while he plays the most thankless role
