This marks the first official use of the "6-man roster" system introduced by T1 for the 2025 LCK season. On Thursday, just hours ahead of the Telecom War between the five-time world champions and KT Rolster, the team announced that Sin "Smash" Guem-jae would be starting as the AD Carry in place of Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyung. “After closely reviewing scrimmages and holding thoughtful discussions — with the sole focus on team performance — it has been decided that Smash will be starting today while Gumayusi takes time to reset and regain form from the bench,” the organization stated in its press release, further emphasizing that “this decision was made by the coaching staff.”

66.7% win rate

T1 explained its choice to communicate the decision publicly “in hopes of alleviating the current confusion, which has unfortunately been shaped by a number of incorrect assumptions — some of which stemmed from our own lack of clarity.” The South Korean organization also noted that “moving forward, unless changes are made due to player illness or injury, we will not be pre-announcing roster decisions. This is to minimize both misunderstandings and any unintentional strategic disclosures.”

As a reminder, Smash, promoted from T1’s academy team in LCK CL, had already appeared with the main roster during the LCK Cup, officially to allow the organization to collect data on the player. The ADC played 15 games, securing ten wins and five losses — a 66.7% win rate — and notably made his debut in a best-of-three series... against KT Rolster, which T1 won 2-1. His run came to an end in Round 1 of the playoffs, with a narrow 2-3 loss to Hanwha Life Esports, the eventual champions of the tournament.

KT using the same formula

KT Rolster also makes changes for this match. The team calls on two of its academic players. The toplaner Shin "Casting" Min-je, - who was part of the famous KTC team that won all the Korean Tier 2 competitions last year- , and the Botlaner Park "Paduck" Seok-hyeon, who has already had the opportunity to try his hand at LCK with DRX. They will replace Lee "PerfecT" Seung-min and Seo "deokdam" Dae-gil, both of whom have had a complicated start to the season with KT.