T1 finally speaks out on Zeus controversy

T1 issued a statement today, shedding light on the sudden departure of Zeus from its League of Legends roster on July 23.

“First, I fully acknowledge that the initial offer made to The Play (Zeus’ agency) and Zeus during the transfer negotiations. It could’ve been felt less than respectful from the player’s perspective,” Josh Ahn, T1 Chief Operating Officer, said in the statement on YouTube. 

He also added that Zeus wanted to “prioritize” his original team and had a “genuine desire” to stick with the T1 League roster during the negotiation process. 

The Korean team apologized for sharing “inaccurate information” on the matter and admitted that the handling of the situation after Zeus left the team has been sub-optimal. The team is now setting the record straight with a statement to stop the spread of misinformation. 

T1 said it had reasons to believe the deal with Zeus was closed with The Play, but HLE had a last-minute offer for Zeus. While The Play communicated to T1 that the counteroffer had a deadline, the organization’s call with HLE didn’t mention any deadline, leading to a misunderstanding. 

T1 believes that due to a “lack of careful internal communications” within the organization, the mishap in the Zeus deal happened. It also urged fans to not criticize Zeus and bring harm to his family. 

After Zeus left for HLE, T1 was scrambling for top laner options before the trade window closed and were able to secure the services of Doran. 

While T1 hasn’t won any titles with Doran so far, they were runner-up at MSI 2025. HLE, meanwhile, won First Stand, the first international League tournament of the year.