T1 has announced to its fans in English and Korea that Head Coach Kim “kk0ma” Jeong-gyun will take a leave of absence with immediate effect for the Spring split. The organization will now promote Im “Tom” Jae-hyeon as Interim Head Coach.

The news comes as a surprise, with the sudden announcement of one of T1’s most prestigious coaches, both in the early SKT era and the fairly recent back-to-back Worlds-winning roster in the modern era.

A MESSAGE FROM T1 pic.twitter.com/n323FMVdu2

— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) March 23, 2026

Is T1 cooked?

With the sudden change of leadership in the head coach position, we see a perhaps shaky start for the roster. However, Tom has experience with swapping from his regular coach to Interim Head Coach. This last occurred on July 7, 2023, when Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong left the team, right before kk0ma joined T1 ahead of the new season on November 20, 2023.

During this timeline, Tom actually won Worlds 2023 with T1, with the roster getting their first recent Worlds trophy lift, starting the treble that T1 has done with both kk0ma and Tom as head coaches.

So, we shouldn’t underestimate Tom taking over the reins going forward.

Yet, in terms of the regular split, history would show that in Summer 2023, T1 did have a rough regular season. The organization finished 5th place, going 9-9. However, this was partially due to Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok also being injured at the start of the regular split, with Noh “Poby” Sang-won, now NAVI’s mid laner in the LEC, taking the role, where T1 lost part of the structure.

So, the floor is on for Tom to once again prove he’s extremely capable on this roster, heading it up where needed once again.

The challenges ahead

While we’ve set the historical circumstances for Tom’s elevation to Interim Head Coach, it’s operating a bit differently this year.

The LCK is a single, continuous season broken into rounds. Rounds 1-2 detail the road to MSI and the Esports World Cup, too. The regular season (Round 1) is looking to crown teams that can make it to the playoffs, with Round 2 being the playoff run.

Round 1 contains a best-of-three regular split, where the top 5 make it into a Legends Group. The other 5 teams enter the Rise Group for future seedings. Yet, players want to get into the top 6 to at least make it into Round 2, aka the Road to MSI leg, which will send two teams to MSI, and the number one team to Esports World Cup in July.

When the spring portion is over and the Summer segment begins, the Rise and Legends Group will affect seeding for the remainder of the split. This is where you want the best seeding possible, as it will matter a lot for grinding your way into the playoffs, where LCK teams are looking to bag their slot at the Worlds finals.

T1 hitting a similar 5th place like last time Tom was head coach will see them enter Playoffs and Legends, but it’s cutting it close.

The LCK this year sees Gen.G, a seriously strong team, despite licking its wounds from G2 beating them at First Stand. It also sees a resurgent Dplus KIA, and a FearX team that’s also upset many last playoffs. Then the teams below them look to have had a rough start, with Hanwha Life having many issues that should hopefully be fixed in the split, given the strength of its roster.

A similar can be said for KT Rolster, who were scraping for the World Finals last year against T1, with a similar strength roster as the final.

It’s a dangerous time to be here, but T1 shouldn’t be messing up that hard. Especially with their strong early cup showing this year, albeit losing to the two upstart teams, Dplus KIA and FearX, in the cup playoffs.