T1’s Revelation Brings Back Faker’s Bitter “Memories”
Recently, T1 made some controversial comments regarding the situation with Gumayusi – Smash. Notably, alongside information about the LCK Cup 2025, T1 representatives also announced that they would start the rest of the season from the 2025 Regular Seasons with a 6-member roster. However, this announcement has made many fans recall Faker’s painful memories.
T1 has used a 6-member roster multiple times in the past. However, 2016 was the last time that the SKT T1/T1 6-member roster achieved success. Since then, whenever T1 brought more than 5 registered players to international tournaments, they have not succeeded. Notably, 2017 can be seen as a haunting year with the image of Faker sobbing after a painful loss to Samsung Galaxy.
In the following seasons, even though they still brought along at least 1 substitute player, SKT T1/T1 hardly ever rotated during ongoing tournaments. In fact, 2021 was considered the most dynamic year for T1’s roster, yet they still played consistently with Canna – Oner – Faker – Gumayusi – Keria. That year, Teddy was not registered in the roster for Worlds.
Many Details Are Repeating Compared to Faker’s 2017
When entering the 2017 season, Faker was at the peak of his career. He and SKT T1 were the reigning champions of Worlds. Another coincidence is that at that time, Faker had just won the MVP (an award later changed to FMVP – an honor Faker recently achieved with T1 at Worlds 2024).
Additionally, the SKT T1 roster at that time also had many similarities. One of the two most stable performers in the roster had an additional substitute option (Peanut – Blank and Gumayusi – Smash). SKT T1 2017 also welcomed a new top laner (Huni) after Duke left at the end of the 2016 season.
Even the playstyles of the two top laners are somewhat similar, as both Huni and Doran can at least perform adequately with various champion matchups, but are not the team’s main damage dealers.
Of course, no T1 fan would want to “relive the past.” However, with T1’s current situation, any scenario is possible, especially when their internal dynamics have been unstable even though Faker is still present and performing well in recent matches.
Nam Minh