Just when we all thought this offseason was already full of surprises, November 19 was a day that nobody saw coming. Following their second two-peat and fifth overall Worlds win, T1 announced the departure of superstar top laner Choi "Zeus" Woo-je. Filling his vacancy would be Choi "Doran" Hyeon-jun from Hanwha Life Esports (HLE), the latter quickly announcing Zeus’ arrival shortly after. What was a seemingly lopsided trade in HLE’s favor led to a continuing battle in the court of public opinion between the T1 organization and Zeus (and his agent).

After T1 lifted the trophy at Worlds 2024, the organization had just a moment to breathe as they realized all their players’ stock values had soared to all-time highs. The entire starting lineup minus Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok would become free agents beginning November 18, 2024, the official global start date of the LoL Esports free agency period. Any reported roster moves before that day would not be officially recognized and would effectively be verbal agreements.

A big shock

As previously reported by Sheep Esports, T1 had re-signed Ryu "Keria" Min-seok, Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun, and Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong on November 14, 15, and 17 respectively. Keria and Oner signed on until the end of 2026 while Gumayusi only for another year. With only Zeus remaining, it was a no-brainer to continue the winning formula having beaten the odds time and time again. The news of Zeus leaving was a complete shock to just about everyone. Reports and speculation would spread like wildfire throughout South Korean publications and social media. Both the T1 organization and Zeus’ agency worked to get the first word in on the entire situation.

On November 21, FMKorea released an AMA with T1 CEO Joe Marsh. According to Marsh, T1 were willing to go to great lengths to retain Zeus. However, negotiations with Zeus had stalled after multiple proposals, and no counteroffers were sent leading up to the 19th. Despite being told Zeus and his agent agreed to meet in person at T1 HQ on the morning of the 19th, they were instead met with a notification that Zeus would already be signing with HLE, citing T1’s failure to meet the deadline to counteroffer. Upon learning the news, T1 quickly signed the newly teamless Doran to complete the roster.

He said, she said

Zeus’ agency, THE PLAY, responded to the AMA with a tweet stating Marsh’s claims were “exaggerated or untrue” and announced a more detailed statement from their end. The following day, THE PLAY released a multiple-page statement recounting their timeline of events for the past week and a half. Based on a fan translation from the League of Legends subreddit, the statement claims that negotiations started on November 12 and both parties were actively communicating back and forth. Although not specified in the statement, HLE had likely sent offers to Zeus early on in the timeline.

By November 19, T1 and THE PLAY had gone through multiple rounds of negotiation to no avail. According to THE PLAY, HLE had set a 3 PM KST deadline that day for Zeus to accept their offer and sign. After numerous proposals and counters that day between T1 and THE PLAY, both parties could not reach an agreement by 3 PM KST and negotiations officially ceased by 3:30 PM. Zeus would presumably sign with HLE shortly thereafter.

With both parties currently stuck in a “he said, she said” scenario in the public discourse, only time will tell how the situation will develop if at all. One thing is for certain, fans will be tuning in for the next LCK match between T1 and Hanwha Life Esports.

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