Writer's Note: This piece was inspired by riptide's Final Edit, Masters of the Universe, written in August 2009. Please take the time to have a look and read it if you have not already, as it gives a detailed and depth history of SK Telecom T1.

In what was one of the most one-sided grand final matches in the history of League of Legends, the Korean Regional champion, SK Telecom T1, swept the Chinese powerhouse Royal Club Huangzu in a total of less than ninety minutes. For the victors, the title of 'Season 3 World Championship Winner' has reinforced to not only Korea, but the world, that SK Telecom T1 still remains one of e-Sports most storied dynasties.

From what once was a team known as 'Boxer's Team' through the golden age of Korean e-Sports, the Korean behemoth had a rocky start in League of Legends. Beginning in early 2013, the team developed two squads. One of them was led by star free agent Reapered after he was benched by AZUBU Blaze in favor of the rising top-laner Flame. The other was led by former Chaos Clan Battle, Starcraft II and League player Kkoma, retiring from his playing days into a coaching role after the StarTale League team folded due to a lack of funding. These two were offered the luxury of picking and choosing their team, and molding them the way they wanted.

For Reapered, he picked players that he felt gelled well with his play style. Kkoma was quite the opposite - he picked up Korea's hottest solo queue stars in order to grind together a super team. The two teams entered Champions Spring 2013 with high expectations.

While many were familiar with Reapered, Impact and PoohManDu from their times on AZUBU Blaze, Xenics Storm and GSG respectively, the two teams showcased some of Korea's next generation of players. For the first team led by Reapered known as 'Terminator' - the biggest talk of the team was mid-laner SuNo. Known for his dominating play in solo queue, many were wondering whether he could live up to his skills on the Korean ladder. On the other hand, the second team was led by what many deemed to be SuNo's 'rival' - Faker. Much like SuNo, Faker was an extremely talented solo queue player who came with a lot of hype. Champions Spring was a perfect setting for summoners over the world to see what they could do.

By the end of the season, despite the first team making it to the bracket stage, Reapered and friends could not renegotiate a new contract, and with the exception of Beelzehan, left the organization in search of greener pastures. Reapered and friends would eventually be picked up by the brand new Jin Air Green Wings organization a month or so later. However, the second team looked very promising. Despite going down to eventual champions MVP Ozone in the semi-finals, they managed to sweep CJ Frost in the 3rd/4th place match 3-0. The team however, was largely dependent on Faker snowballing and carrying the game - an issue Kkoma would resolve over the off-season.

As the second team transitioned to be the only squad for the SK Telecom T1 organization, the Summer season was of extreme importance to them. As they were not around during the previous Winter 2012-13 season, they were a very long shot of making it to the World Finals due to a lack of circuit points. Anything but a victory would most likely have seen them not make it to the grand stage in Los Angeles. We all know how the story goes after that. A nail-biting grand final against eternal rivals KT Rolster saw them secure the top seed in the Korean Regionals, where a week later, they swept the Bullets in a brutal beat down. The world was now going to see the behemoths of Korean e-Sports take action on the international stage.

With their victory at the Staples Center, SK Telecom T1 has risen from what was only a team recognized by a select few amount of people around the community to a team recognized by a lot of people. The individual skills of Faker and Piglet have skyrocketed their popularity through out the World Championships. With WCG 2013 and the upcoming Winter season of Champions coming up, the expectations will be set even higher for them. It is up to them whether they can keep up their level of play and continue to bring home trophies for Korea's biggest e-Sport team.

While SKT T1 was busy conquering the World stage, new teams emerged in their homeland, ready to challenge the 2013 World Champions in their own region. This Winter Season may be the most competitive League of Legends Season in Korea yet. A lot of new teams sprouted in Korea to challenge the old guard and their counterparts alike for those highly important slots in OGN and NLB. At least the addition of a new league within the Korean LoL Proleague scene gives the new (and old) teams a few more chances at glory.

The new teams in Korea are Mook, VTG, Alienware, Prime (two teams), Sirius (two teams), Bigfile (two teams) and “양학하러왔습니다” or “We Came to Slay the Peasants.” To make it into OGN Champions Winter, they all must fight through an online and offline qualifier, battling each other, other unknowns, and last season’s second-tier teams such as CTU, KT Arrows, Xenic Storm, and Xenic Blast. This proving ground will not only lead to a stacked OGN Season but to a stacked NLB Season as well, since so many professional teams will be struggling to reach the stage for the winter season.

Fans of Brood War may recognize Bigfile as the sponsor of the 2010 MSL. With the increasing popularity of League of Legends in Korea, Bigfile wants to be active once more in the Korean e-Sports scene. One of their teams, Bigfile Miracle, formed very recently. Another lineup, Mook, which originated from Starcraft’s clan WeRRa, won the last nicegametv Clan Battle in Korea and had a strong showing in the WCG Korea Qualifier, destroying Reapered in his mid lane debut. VTG isn’t a new team, but they failed to qualify for OGN Champions last year. This will be another shot at the big time. Their most noteworthy result was a 2:0 victory against KT Arrows in the AMD Inven Championship. In the WCG Korea Qualifier they went winless, but nevertheless showed a lot of potential. We’ve already seen Sirius Vega in the WCG Korea Qualifier where they lost to Falcons and Shield as well as in nicegametv Clan Battle where they took second place, but we haven’t seen anything from Sirius Altair. 양학하러왔습니다 (“We Came to Slay the Peasants”) is a team of SoloQ stars led by Apdo, the #1 Ranked player on the KR ladder. With such a backstory, we must wonder whether “We Came to Slay” can become another SKT T1 and Faker. Unfortunately, the team’s members have a reputation for being toxic (and elo boosting), so we’ll have to see if they can work together and conquer their losses rather than start flaming each other like typical solo queue players.

Recently, the former Starcraft 2 player MarineKingPrime switched from SC2 to League of Legends (and there are even rumors that another famous SC2 player will be switching soon). MKP was one of the most iconic players in Starcraft 2, a genius of unit micro, and the inventor of marine splitting against banelings. Now he is part of the Prime League of Legends squad. Since both Prime teams are composed of inexperienced players, an eSports veteran like MarineKing could become a pillar for both teams even if he personally does not succeed in League of Legends. I wish him all the best on the Rift!



At the previous Summer Finals it was announced that KeSPA will host a League of Legends Proleague. The very first Proleague was a Starcraft team league hosted on OGN in 2003. MBC, the competitor of OGN, hosted their own team league, but in 2005 the leagues fused into one and the 2005 SKY Proleague Round 1 was born. Now, a decade later, it will be interesting to see which kind of format KeSPA will choose for the LoL Proleague. Starcraft fans who followed the scene know how the Proleague used a BO5 format where each player could only play once except for the Ace match (the fifth game of the BO5). I would love to see a format similar to OGN Club Masters where teams could make rosters with their both squads, so there would be a chance to see the CJ Monster Team (Flame, Madlife, Shy, Daydream and Space). Another important factor will be how OGN Champions and the KeSPA Proleague will interact with each other whether they try to work together or compete against each other.

If there’s one winner it is us, the viewers, who are in for an awesome Winter Season in Korea. The players should pack their shorts because this Winter is going to be hot.