The Telecom War continues: KT Rolster takes down T1 to kick off LCK’s second split

KT Rolster has defeated T1 on the opening day of the LCK’s week 10 matches, toppling the reigning world champions with a 2-0 scoreline. The win marks another milestone in the Telecom War, a rivalry between KT and T1 that has existed for almost the entirety of competitive League of Legends.

The win continues a spate of unfortunate T1 results, including their early departures from MSI and EWC, and a surprising loss to Nongshim Red Force in the KeSPA Cup earlier this week.

Meanwhile KT have potentially recaptured the energy they had during their undefeated run earlier this year. However, the team, known for its erratic and unreliable performances over a season, are still a long way from the end of the season.

T1’s woes continue after defeat to rivals KT

The Telecom Wars, named so due to KT and T1’s parent organizations, KT Corporation and SK Telecom, have waged for over a decade as the Korean communication carriers moved their in real life business competition to the rift with sponsorships of some of the country’s best League of Legend teams.

While T1 has historically been the ‘better’ team, six-time world champions, and winners of multiple LCK titles, KT has always been a thorn in their side, with the Telecom War matches seemingly providing a catalyst for KT to outperform their usual standard.

In typical form today (June 29), KT’s demolition of T1 both showcased some of the best of KT’s players, with Gwak "Bdd" Bo-sung humbling the ‘Unkillable Demon King’ Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok in an uncharacteristic performance for the latter player.

To take nothing away from KT’s performance, the defeat continues an unfortunate trend for T1, who have been off form these past weeks. The aforementioned tournament defeats, and most recently, a behind the scenes corporate conflict, seem to have rattled a team usually known for its stoic indifference in defeat or, more often, victory.

KT is, for its part, a notoriously inconsistent team. They kicked off the season as a whole with yet another defeat of T1, and then proceeded to go 8-0. But their undefeated run earlier this year ended unceremoniously after five weeks. The team then missed out on MSI and EWC, instead enjoying the benefits of a few weeks reprieve over late June and July.

So is this just a case of a well-rested team defeating an exhausted championship squad (Who by last year’s standards are probably on about 50 days of sponsorship commitments already)? Probably. Or maybe T1 needs to stop trying to get Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan to play Mages, when he’s clearly not comfortable with them. Whatever the case, a solid win for KT, and an unfortunate loss for T1.