Smash officially promoted to T1 main roster

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Smash’s promotion marks T1’s first use of a six-man roster since 2022.

In simple terms, the competitive League of Legends scene is right now organizing preliminary regional tournaments to determine the teams that will represent them in a new international tournament called The First Stand, scheduled for March 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. Each team is doing their best to make it to this major event. Notably, five-time Worlds champion T1 has recently brought Sin “Smash” Geum-jae on board as their sixth player.

Smash promoted to main roster, Guti moves to bot lane

As per the team list announced by the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) circuit on January 7th, initially, T1 intended to field a five-player team from DOFGK for their main squad, with Smash being assigned to the T1 Academy team. Both teams will take part in the LCK pre-season tournaments; the main T1 team will battle it out in the 2025 LCK Cup starting on January 17th, while the T1 Academy team will compete in the 2025 LCK CL Kickoffs on January 13th.

Exciting news! As a fan, I can confirm that Smash has been promoted to join Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyung on the main roster’s bot lane, starting from Jan. 24. In his place, Moon “Guti” Jung-hwan, previously T1 Academy’s substitute mid laner, steps up to take over Smash’s former position.

T1 employs a six-man roster for the first time since 2022

It’s not unusual for LCK teams to elevate Academy players to their main squad, but T1’s decision has left fans puzzled, considering they’ve kept the same roster for years – until Zeus left and was replaced by Doran in November 2024. Fans find it unexpected because the current T1 team seems strong, with Gumayusi not showing significant underperformance, leading to speculation about the reasoning behind this move.

For the very first time since Asper joined our team in November 2022 as a substitute for Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, we’re fielding a six-man roster – and that’s where I come in! Unlike Asper who remained behind the scenes, I’m excited to make my debut under the spotlight amidst growing excitement.

Remarkably, this situation is reminiscent of 2021 when Teddy was T1’s principal bot laner, only to be replaced by Gumayusi during the Worlds 2021 tournament. Despite the abrupt roster change, T1 still managed an impressive fourth-place finish at that competition. Following his departure, Teddy joined Afreeca Freecs, creating an opportunity for Gumayusi to step up as the main bot laner. This transition eventually culminated in the formation of the ZOFGK roster, a team often praised as one of T1’s finest in history.

Fans question the lack of official announcement

Although many fans are excited about Smash joining T1, some are disappointed by the limited communication regarding the roster changes. So far, T1 has only confirmed Smash through a YouTube channel description, but have yet to post an official welcome message across their other social media platforms. This has sparked worries among fans, reminding them of a similar situation where T1 failed to announce Gumayusi’s replacement before the 2025 LCK Cup matches against KT on Jan. 24.

As a devoted fan, I haven’t seen any official social media update from T1 about the current situation with Gumayusi, but I remain optimistic that they are open to discussing this matter during their media interviews. Coach kkOma recently addressed the benching of Gumayusi, and even Faker was asked about the potential return of Gumayusi. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved soon, bringing clarity to the situation and fostering a more comfortable atmosphere for both Gumayusi and Smash in the future.

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2025-02-08 00:10