With his departure, Zeus has broken up the ZOFGK roster that has won LoL Worlds back-to-back, tearing apart one of the greatest League of Legends rosters of all time and leaving fans of this roster at a loss.
From the attitude of T1’s players after their win to the org celebrating the re-signing of their players one at a time, it appeared that this roster would be sticking together. But, as it turns out, Zeus would be ending his time with the org on his own terms.
He came in as a rookie and is leaving as a world-class top laner with 2 international titles under his belt.
𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮, '𝐙𝐞𝐮𝐬'LCK 팀의 ‘Zeus’ 최우제 선수와의 계약이 종료되었습니다.지난 여정을 함께해준 ‘Zeus’ 선수에게 감사의 마음을 전하며, 앞으로의 여정도 응원하겠습니다.Today, we part ways with 'Zeus'. We truly thank him for all that he has accomplished at T1 and wish… pic.twitter.com/RrE0JmvrMm
— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) November 19, 2024
So, who’s replacing him? Who could possibly be a better top lane option than Zeus?
Did T1 perhaps find a new rookie player they wanted to build up and bring in on a budget? After all, Zeus was a rookie at one point before he was rumored to be getting offers from other teams in the range of $3-4 million USD. Training up a new rookie would be a lot cheaper.
No, T1 are bringing in a veteran LCK top laner instead, one who was consistently beaten by Zeus: Doran.
𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞, '𝐃𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐧'‘Doran’ 최현준 선수가 LCK 팀에 합류합니다.T1과 함께 더 높은 곳에서 빛날 ‘Doran’ 선수에게 많은 응원과 격려 부탁드립니다!‘Doran’ joined the T1 LCK team.Please support him as the new top laner for T1 and help him shine even brighter at T1! pic.twitter.com/GztXjUdbQM
— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) November 19, 2024
Fan sentiment has been almost universally negative, with a whole variety of crying emojis, people typing ‘no’ with enough o’s to fill your screen, worst trade deal of all time memes, “what the f**k”, and other reactions of complete disbelief.
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It’s hard to say what happened in T1’s off-season that led them to this decision and whether or not Zeus left because he didn’t want to be with the team anymore, or if T1 wanted to make a change of their own accord.
There is the possibility that T1 couldn’t afford to retain the player, though it’s hard to imagine that Doran was that much cheaper considering he’s been a top 3 LCK top laner for years.
According to veteran LCK reporter Yoo Min-Seop, the deal fell through at the very last minute, with Zeus opting to choose another team on the very last day of his contract.
It’s also worth noting that Faker has yet to officially confirm he’s sticking with the team, though his current contract doesn’t expire until 2025. It’s safe to assume he’ll be sticking around, so Doran is likely to be the only roster change going into the new year.
Zeus’ destination is unknown, though it’s impossible to imagine that he won’t be on a team next year.
