@@colesmith193 Bro doran has been grean domestically since forever, he was top 2 top laner when kiin wasn't in a strong team like geng, he was only getting worse during internationals (like Chovy but people never doubt that he can win worlds) Doran has weaknesses sure, but Zeus did as well, he choked a lot more during recent months and had weak finals before. But to conclude, Doran is still a strong top laner and besides kiin it was impossible to find better within the LCK. Also I would like to add because I am thinking about it, Zeus could also flop hard in HLE, he has never really played outside of T1 and the great shotcalls from Faker and Keria (mostly) but also Oner in some parts. Building superteams to win worlds has proven to be kinda dumb (lets see next year) because at least for the past 3 years "not favorites" teams won : Drx won with 3 "forgotten" or inexperienced players and 2 older players in the bot lane, and T1 was made of 3 rookies with not very much experience (none for oner and zeus and little for Guma) only keria and mostly faker had experience and stats on their backs. So yeah, superteams are fun and they can crush domestically but in the long run, at worlds, it doesn't matter. GenG almost lost to an NA team.
probably got a competitive offer from geng, t1 was going to go for him but they probably weren't offering more than geng and hle since zeus leaving fks their branding. seems like geng also brought out the bag
@@phunki1696 I wonder if they can offer stocks on T1 i dont know the law in Korea but i would assume that getting stocks or royalties on the T1 Merch the 5 times world champion in the long run would be the better decision?
@@Loc123cool "Apparently DK announced BeryL later than intended cause he had to attend a Genshin Impact promotional event, which you can only do if you’re a Free Agent without any ties to other games so they waited till he was done"
1+1 org sided contract will mean t1 can extend or terminate Zeus contract next year depending on his performance. Basically T1 has the say. 1+1 player sided contract by HLE means Zeus can stay, leave or ask for a pay check raise end of next year. Basically Zeus has the say.
@ThePolarpop on the teams side a 1+1 its beneficial since if the player does well they can secure a contract with him for the following year without an increase And on the flip side they can drop the contract early too if he doesn't do well so they aren't stuck with overpaid contracts For the player this usually means orgs can justify higher salaries But on the second year you are completely under the mercy of the org which will usually secure your replacement before droping you late like in canna's case he could've gone to DK with higher salary but T1 decided to transfer him to NS
If Zeus's agency truly wanted the best for Zeus, why were they ghosting, cancelling set meeting, and playing super hardball and not even listen to T1's last proposal? This part is super sus
Also like Dom said, we have no idea what the best for Zeus is. Maybe he really wanted to leave and prove himself, maybe he jus wanted more money, he might’ve wanted to stay but these things are serious decisions too
they wanted what is best for them,T1 has better chance of winning worlds next year than HLE,and money players get from their worlds skins i huge,especially if its popular champion,usually way more than what their annual salary is.But all that money goes directly to player. All his agency wanted was transfer fee.
Please stay in school and hop off tiktok and Instagram reels because your attention span and intelligence is cooked. Zeus did NOT ghost T1 you idiot, his AGENT did.
I completely agree with Dom in the last parts of the video. Maybe Zeus just wanted to try and win with a different team and build his own brand without being in the shadow of Faker. I just think that the way this was handled was extremely messy and that if he really wanted to do that he could have a better discussion with T1 instead of ghosting them (allegendly). At the end of the day, it is T1 marketing that is getting hurt but we us viewers get to watch 2 banger teams with drama, so next year will be very exciting!
See, what I don’t understand why people keep spinning this into an issue of “T1 fans being upset that Zeus is leaving” when most people are just frustrated by how messily it was handled. Obviously there are rabid fans who will unjustly label him a traitor, but I think it’s a safe assumption to make that most reasonable people will wish Zeus well wherever he goes. But I do think in some way it could’ve been handled more gracefully from both parties since it hasn’t been anywhere this bad with people like MaRin.
I don’t know why people are defending the org. I mean, I do, they’re mad Zeus isn’t on T1, but T1 was trying to take advantage of Zeus here. T1 was rushing over to meet Zeus so they could emotionally manipulate him into accepting lower pay. Zeus’s agents did the right thing by protecting him from that possibility and setting a deadline. The fact is that HLE decided Zeus is worth more than T1 did. This is T1s fault for not valuing him to the same level as the market. They fucked around and found out. People are calling Zeus greedy, but T1 is the most profitable org. How are they unable to pay Zeus what other teams are offering? They’re either penny pinching or facing the reality that having 5 world champions on your team is simply unaffordable.
I mean sure. Faker is T1's heart. But ZOFGK has become T1's star roster and I think fans of T1 have slowly morphed into fans of ZOFGK. Hell if T1 rebranded or the entire roster signs to Gen G then I'll root for Gen G since at the end of the day, I'm a ZOFGK fan, not just a Faker/T1 as a brand fan.
When they say t1 is mental boomed atm, they arent kidding. They are royaaaally PISSED atm lol. Not just cuz zeus didnt end up re-signing, no matter what happened with the contracts. Branding is fucked, and the owner was seen outside the building making sailors proud of his language
@@mackassef473 T1 was moving away from Faker-Only branding, ZOFGK was their brand now, they were the Super Team. Its the equivalent of having a new Simpsons season but they replace Bart Simpson with Lenny; Sure, Lenny is popular, and a fairly beloved character, but to behave like he has the same brand recognition as Bart is silly.
@@mackassef473 It's because T1 likely lose TONS of money for all the merch and brand deals they have with the ZOFGK name on it. People claim that Zeus wasn't really clear about leaving T1 and had a verbal agreement he would re-sign. T1's branding plans are likely ruined which could've been avoided if Zeus' agent or even Zeus himself was clear that he will leave T1 after worlds. Another effect of Zeus and his agent's lack of clarity is that T1 missed an opportunity to sign Kiin, their 2nd option if ever Zeus left. This is what most people don't get. T1 and fans aren't mad that Zeus was leaving. They are mad because Zeus left on a bad note.
@@gearguts7259 Wait they are moving to ZOFGK brand wtf? 😂 You do know that F stands for Faker if Faker retires next season then how will that F matters then. You can't brand sports team on your roster that's bs even in football it doesn't happen you can brand it one franchise player but not the whole group when there's no certainty of their form and if they even want to stick it out. I can't believe T1 management is this dumb. They really believe LoL roster is like K-pop idol groups that stay for 5+ years at the minimum even that doesn't happen often nowadays.
Crazy to think that this new T1 roster probably has less pressure to win than HLE and GenG. I mean, if they don't win anything until Worlds and they're just top 2/top 3, it's basically the same path of 2024. And if they win anything, it already surpasses that year. Faker is gonna have to step up his game tho, will be interesting to see if that can happen!
I think the pressure and expectations from T1 are all the same. The team needs to step up their gameplay or else the storyline will change to how T1 is washed and they can't do anything without their old top laner. "If Faker can get Doran to Worlds and win then he'll truly be the Goat." People will call out this team the second it loses a match, of course with how stacked GenG and HLE rosters are, things are going to be same for them with people already calling them the favorites for Worlds 2025 and potential winners.
he was playing with an injury all year long, when they had the time to rest he delivered one of, if not the best performance in a final series at worlds.
@@owenhollow8247 bro who cares if everybody say they're washed, t1 will sit in their facilities looking at 5 worlds trophies and even if they don't win any more for the next decade nobody will even hold a candle to that accomplishment, yall gotta understand that people will hate no mstter what who cares it will die down, faker has been hated by a vocal minority for so long it's time to just ignore them and treat them with the same amount of attention their parents gave them
@@owenhollow8247 Nah, T1 doesn't have to fear much. They can always pivot to saying Zeus screwed us over. If Zeus then proceeds to run it down, then the situation becomes even more favourable for T1.
Exactly as you put it. I am seeing posts that claim Zeus is a toddler and that he was blindsided by his agency and forced to join HLE. Like come on, that's not how these things work
@@ThePolarpop DeAndre Jordan was a former LA Clippers player who went into free agency with a lot of teams pursuing him. Allegedly, his teammates and coaches went to his house to convince him to resign with the team. There was even a picture of one of his teammates barring his door and poking fun at is as an interesting choice of furniture.
T1 and the Org really doesn't mind if Zeus will leave the org , Everyone was pretty much expecting it since 2023 and having them for 3 years was a miracle. What the fans and the org did not like is how it was handled by Zeus and his agency , if Doran was not a free agent T1 will pretty much have to find a top laner that can match the peak of the rest ASAP.
@@neku4449 ok except that this is fundamentally T1’s fault for being unwilling to match HLE’s offer. It’s not like they couldn’t have Zeus. They could, but they had to offer another $800k over 2 years because that’s what HLE was offering.
yeah, that r 3t4rd of Caedrel saying that we can't know if "Zeus had any say in this". The guy thinks the managers can just sell players like slaves to other orgs against their will
@@SuperRainbol Im just gonna say it: if you dont think they treat people like slaves... you havent seen south korea's way of operating with companies... Plus childish af to offend someone bc you dont agree with their vision.
if everything said is true, i think the biggest issue is during the resigning period for zues (before he became a free agent) zues's agency could of used inside information that kiin was going into become free agent and ghosted T1 until zues also became a free agent. and because T1 were in the process of getting zues back, they couldn't realistically also work on getting a possible contract with kiin during that time. so once kiin signed with another team, and zues quickly also signing, T1 is just left with the proverbial scraps of top laners. but yeah, once zues became a free agent, the power is all in zues's hands on the contract deals. not knowing korean contract law, the ghosting while t1 was trying to resign before the end of the contract could potentially be the gray area that zues's agency could get into trouble.
Either the agency and the agent are in cahoots, or the agent conveyed false information to the agency. COO already said that HLE has confirmed to T1 that it was the agent who approached them, not the other way around like what the agent and the agency said. It's going to be one of those situation that's quite common in court cases related to poaching and always gets strike down, party A approaches agency asking if anyone is available, agency says yes and offers person B who was already in negotiations in party B, agency then spin it as party A approaching agency asking for person B. The agent and/or the agency probably didn't expect HLE to side with T1 and underestimated the blowback it'd cause if they force it through.
I want this to be a marin-duke situation. The team composition is also the same as skt 2016 team where they replaced the top and retain their jungle, mid, adc, and support.
@@blisswinters2527 Duke was preety good solo killing smeb all over the place never losing lanes funny thing is i look back at doran last season he was solo killing kiin in reverse matchups all over the place not losing lanes kinda same
@@kaysaiah3000 Maybe I'm just remembering wrong but I mostly remember Duke on either tanks (at the time it's like what, ekko, poppy and maokai?) or Trundle and being mostly a sidelaner that went even. Tbf it's been many years at this point, might be straight up mb underselling him
@@blisswinters2527 yh u remember his champ pool right but he was winning the lanes and solo killing smeb tho or going even at worst but the doran vs kiin matchup is a shocker just last split doran was fucking turret diving kiin i watched all of lck but don't even remember seeign that lol i think t1 will be fine up until worlds unless faker can unlock doran to god tier status and they win again
It's hilarious to me how people in the comments at reddit don't realise they are also speculating and are just as bad as T1 fans just on the other side of the spectrum. Doing exact same thing which is sucking themselves off cuz they think they for sure are right xddd
Its still suspicious, Most of the roster resigned but Zeus was the only one delayed as much as possible from reports. If Zeus and his agent simply said they wanted more money to re-sign instead of strong arming T1. I'm pretty sure they would've been fine. As it stands however, Zeus and Doran need to prove themselves for the decision taken. Toplaners that leave T1 usually fade to obscurity while those that join usually play decent lol. Either way dom is just content farming, his true love is Bin
I don’t think T1 would pay as much as HLE I don’t even think as Dom said T1 would pay more than GENG to have Kiin (Kiin, Canyon, Chovy all wanted to stay tgt anyways) Top is the hardest role to have a Top tier player no pun intended there’s literally only two and a reluctant third in Doran I think it’s pretty scummy how the agent did things but it’s smart also common practice tbh and when you think about it their whole job is to make sure their player gets the best contract possible and the situation is pretty common in sports
lol, zeus and his agent did say that they wanted more money, T1 just would not even match HLE's offer. You see strong arming when what is happening is really just the free market on full display.
If t1 didn't win worlds oner and Zeus were likely to not re-sign. So the fact he's the one that left isn't THAT surprising. But the way it happened is completely fucked for everyone involved, and ofc Doran is getting shots just for being their last second top laner
@@TheBestSnail7668what they lost from now signing Zeus costs way more than what they could've spent if they tried. The thing is that according to rumors, T1 couldn't even properly give their offer to Zeus so it was uncontested pretty much and it is said that T1 would do anything to keep him. It's just that they weren't able to even properly offer to Zeus which fucked them over, again according to rumors.
I think the point Dom makes at the end of this is an absolute bullseye, every title with t1 has somewhat less value for zeus as if being one of the best toplaners of all time is just a foot-note on the increasing greatness of Faker's legacy but in going to HLE, say they do well domestically and then go on to win worlds now instead of being overshadowed by Faker's legacy as the greatest of all time Zeus is building up his own legacy.
All this situation tells me is that none of these people on Reddit or anyone else bitching about the way it went down aren't traditional sports fans in any capacity bc if they were then they would know that this isn't an anomaly. This is how this goes. No matter the situation and who your teammates are its extremely difficult to convince a professional in any sport to play without any guaranteed money for the next year or if the organization you're on can just throw you away the following year if the current doesn't go well. Its the reason why there's so many holdouts in the NFL i.e Hassan Reddick, Jamar Chase ,Saquan Barkley etc.
Finally some intelligent person in the comment section and not T1 crybabies. Zeus has won Worlds twice already when 90% pros won't win one. Hell Chovy doesn't have a Worlds trophy yet and he is on higher money than Zeus. LoL pro scene is short you need to secure the money first because no org including T1 would care after your retirement hell they won't care if your form drops in a couple of years time and drop you in an instant for the next big thing.
@@pratikroy227 The following is how actual sport contract negotiations go majority of the time. Team A offers $$$ -> Agent takes that number to Teams interested -> Team B offers more $$$ -> Agent takes new offer to other teams -> Rinse and repeat How does ignoring SKT get Zeus more money? He should've heard the offer and then tried to get more money from HLE or whatever team he wanted. This sounds like Zeus's agent had ulterior motives or was lazy and looking for a quick payout.
Dom looks like he's been bathing in ambrosia since the news broke, he really hates T1 and T1 fans 😂😂😂 Every shot to diminish the accomplishments of T1 and Faker he takes it
Let's ignore every time he has said any of the following: 1. "I know they were bad during LCK but T1 at Worlds is scary man, they might just win it all again" 2. "Zeus is fucking insane he's one of the best toplaners of all time, definitely in the conversation for the toplane GOAT" 3. "Oner is my favorite jungler in the world, I love him" 4. "I'm so tired to see these motherf*ckers debate on Reddit that Faker isn't the GOAT. Hopefully people will finally stop hating on Faker or arguing that someone else is the GOAT now. Faker is the undisputed greatest player of all time, nobody can deny it. He's so f*cking clutch" 5. "When the meta is ranged support champions like enchanters and Renata and Ashe for example, Keria is the best support in the world" He hates the org and the mentally ill fans, not the players. "Now I can finally support Zeus because he's not on T1. (Here is the reason for the Ambrosia) I love all the players on the team. If this roster was under any other name than T1, it would be my favorite team" T1 did him dirty personally, he hates the org. For good reason.
That last bit at the end. I remember when Bengi left T1, it was basically for this reason (not necessarily the 'better than Faker' part, but moreso wanting the recognition that he felt he wasn't getting (which tbf, he was every bit as important as Faker was to early T1's success).
I think he just knew that he would not have a lot of time as a professional player left, so he went for money. He was not the star player back then to be under Faker´s shadow, he even shared the starting position with Blank
@@conormcfire I watched plenty of those games live back then, the Faker+Bengi mid+jg synergy is exactly what made T1 unstoppable for years, as soon as Bengi left, you started to see cracks in T1s game, as good as they still were. With those 2 together, they looked outright unbeatable.
While I find it easily believable that Zeus would want to go to HLE, I do find it hard to believe both that Zeus+his agent held off until Kiin re-signed to drive up Zeus value as by far the best player on the market only to snap fire sign onto HLE and that no ulterior motives are at play. Surely the longer negotiations go on, the more Zeus+his agent can leverage it. Both HLE and T1 are willing to pay a premium, HLE more so, but having them do a bidding war favours Zeus. Of course this assumes certain things such as what verbal agreement means, maybe there is a standard that I'm unfamiliar with, but if it's just a generic term, is it he said "he WILL play with T1" or that he "is WILLING to play with T1 (with the underlying assumption that HLE doesn't offer him a great contract which it seems like they did)." If he said the latter and T1 assumed the former, it maybe that it was just solely a miscommunication thing that he was always going to go with the best offer regardless of T1 or HLE, and T1 could have just tried to sign Kiin (not saying that it necessarily would have worked because they would have had to pay enough for Kiin NOT to play with Chovy when they are already running into budget issues and IIRC Kiin is already getting paid more than Zeus). Assuming there was some sort of malicious intent from Zeus/ his agency and that there was no miscommunication that occurred, it is still unclear if it was him or his agent with said malicious intent. I could see a world where he lets his agency handle all negotiations and just tell him the results for him for final approval in which case he wouldn't necessarily know anything. However, I could also see a world where he does hate T1 and wants to screw them over because of the attributing all their success to Faker despite Zeus being better. The latter seems less likely as it wasn't as much T1 as the fans doing that. Between these, miscommunication seems most likely followed by malicious intent. I can't imagine pure profit calculations without miscommunication due to the first point.
I think T1 made offer to Zeus where his salary would remain same but he would get more outside of that in bonuses and such so it would be probably same or more to what HLE offered,but such deal would mean less commission for his agency. But if rumors are true and T1 obtains enough evidence to sue,it may block Zeus from being able to play next year and even lose his military exemption because of it.
@@skrattaoppar9753 yes. A super team, filled with talent. Something NOONE has tried before, im sure it wont collapse under pressure of having all those star players
@@skrattaoppar9753 peanut didn't in in worlds lmao. peanut sacrificing for his carry to live is a call even T1 would make. are you gonna call Oner inter for his summer performance? scratch that, i bet you never watch LCK, just worlds then pretend to know something.
Zeus leaving the organization is his choice but i think he had more to offer and achieve than he already did. What's bugging me is the last part of the video where Dom says maybe Zeus wanted to explore he own brand and did not want to be in the shadow of Faker. Reminds me of how Neymar left Barcelona for PSG while Messi was looking to pass the Baton and we all know how it went. I don't think history will repeat itself, but i wouldn't be shocked if it does.
One of the things I don't understand from all the info is... What does Zeus himself want? We hear a lot about what the T1 management wants, and what the agents want, but what does Zeus want? Is he the one that actually gets to make choices or does his agent have all the power? If Zeus wanted to stay with T1, could he?
Based on the latest information that’s out, it’s money. It appears that the contract that was signed at 3:40pm is a non-binding letter of intent and that Zeus’ and his agent’s aim was (1) commit HLE to terms that Zeus wanted (2) T1 announces that Zeus is a FA (3) wait for negative backlash on social media for T1 not resigning Zeus to force T1 to give Zeus the terms that he wants (speculation is 3x increase in offer/higher split of merch as compared to OFGK) (4) Zeus goes to T1 telling them that HLE is willing to sign him and force T1’s hand so that T1 gives Zeus all the terms he wants because of the backlash and Zeus gets more money and continues playing with T1. The issue is that T1 were sick of the games Zeus and his agent were playing. Therefore when the agent tells T1 that Zeus has signed something with HLE, T1 just went “We’re done” and went with signing Doran. That’s why Doran signing for T1 was announced so soon and Zeus’ IG essentially said that the FA announcement was unexpected. It’s because he probably expected that he could still play hardball with T1 after the FA announcement went out.
Only on paper = Both agency's biggest stakeholder(owns majority voting power) is the same company. Think Coke and Pepsi not fighting against each other despite being competitors because their top 5 biggest shareholders are the same 5 company.
The new revelation is that HLE offered 1year +additional year based on the will of Zeus meaning even if Zeus runs it down next year, Zeus can just stay in HLE. T1 initially offered a pay cut not a pay raise ( this is the inital offer that the angency said was not something they could accept) Apparently, Zeus and the agency gave t1 the final HLE contract and from their accounts it seemed like all T1 said was to just wait until they get there.
@@Infidel. All of the other players agreed to the pay cut. The promotional and merchandise money would have more than made up for the difference. T1 was apparently already handling promotional and merchandising deals under the ZOFGK brand, based on their verbal agreement with Zeus.
@@teemopanda02So? Should Zeus really care that his teammates took a paycut so that T1 can take the money they get from that brand? Zeus is thinking about HIS future. You could call him selfish sure but he did what he wanted to do and what he thought was best for him. Cry about it 🤷
@teemopanda02 Why should HE care about that? To make matters worse, the contract was a 1+1, meaning if he happens to have a OFF year in 2025, T1 could potiental terminate him, damaging his career. He should prioritize himself and no multi-million dollar companies that can replace him whenever they want, that said the way he left could have been better.
@@teemopanda02but who says that zeus gets a sizable cut of that? The whole thing with t1 being super profitable was the money that the organization themselves were making from the brand deals and content. Zeus is on a top 2 lck team, doesn't have to thr insane amount of promotional content that he did in t1, and has a player option on his 1+1 and not a team option. And finally more money
If HLE doesn't win Worlds next year, Zeus' legacy is gonna be severely hit. If somehow T1 wins Worlds next year, not only will Dom have an absolute meltdown, but Zeus will FOREVER have to live with the narrative that "he only won because he was with Faker" - based on speculation that Faker is retiring when his contract runs out next year. Dude is under a lot of pressure. Let's see if a superteam can finally win something.
I dont understand why it always has to come down as "money is always a good reason to fuck someone over" No bro,there is something called morals and if i see it right, T1 offered him like 2.3m while HLE offered like 2.7m. Ppl forget the fact,that he also gets a % paycut from merch etc. so T1 and ZOFGK beeing giga popular, i think it would net him more money in the end. In addition, they double played themself probably, after T1 announced Doran BEFORE Zeus HLE was officially confirmed, Zeus and his agency had no power towards HLE anymore since T1 already had Doran and i wouldnt wonder if HLE stepped back a step on their offer lmao On top of everything, im not sure but didnt Kiin also take a paycut to stay in GenG? Brother got fed to GenG by the agency with a less lucrative contract, only to increase the value for Zeus, he would've probably looked into a decent offer from T1. Only good reason for Zeus to leave is to have a less stressful schedule and to build his own empire, money is NEVER the reason, he would definately earn more in T1 in the long run.
Isn't all of this pretty much exactly what an agents job is (as long as he doesn't act against the players wishes)? He used his connections to secure the best possible deal for his player AND he managed to do it in a way that makes it more likely for Zeus to be on a winning team by because he won't just get replaced by Kiin but by Doran so his former team isn't as big of a threat to HLE with Zeus.
Well zeus agency could have intentionally manipulated the market for zeus by allowing kiin to re-sign with geng and forced a higher salary because of the demand of top laners left in LCK which the best top laners left would be zeus or Doran. But the guy is on his TheShy arc so who knows
People who are incredibly mad at Zeus and his agency for this move must not be fans of any professional sports team. This kind of shit happens all the time with free agents in NFL/NBA/NHL. Players go for the best deal available 99% of the time. This was even better than just following the money as HLE roster looks insanely stacked and they should be a serious contender domestically and internationally.
The problem is not Zeus leaving per se (altho yeah some fans are just mad that he left) the real issue is how he left. If Doran hadn't been available then T1 would've been UberFucked and forced to find a prodigy rookie at best. Zeus and his agent should've not lead them on, which is the point of the rumors; if they are true, then the agent (who works with Kiin too) orchestated this to guarantee more money while royally fucking T1 over. Idk if its illegal per se but it doesn't sound super legal? It sounds like a legal loophole at best, bc if it isnt idk how other agencies don't do this shit all the time.
@ I guess the real point of contention is the nature of this “verbal agreement”, because there’s many examples of players in those sports leagues I mentioned who say they will definitely sign an extension with their current team and end up signing with another, but everyone knows in those situations that until pen is put to paper nothing is guaranteed. I don’t know if you can really fault a player or an agent for playing hardball and leveraging a situation to get the most out of it. I suppose if collusion between Kiin and Zeus’ agents can be proven or the verbal agreement can somehow be determined as legally binding then it definitely looks bad for Zeus and his agent. The thing that must be said though, is T1 not just taking for granted that Zeus will re-sign? It’s not on Zeus to make sure T1 is in a good position, that is on the organization.
@@renecon5893 also your initial statement is just wrong if u think fans of traditional sports are not made at these things idk what u watch cause this exact lowballing from the agent/agency everybody was mad at pogba and his agent mino raiola
I dont understand the Zeka disrespect, he was insane last summer and if not for Doran being a bum internationally could have beaten BLG. Also he had the single hardest run to win worlds with a team where he was the primary carry.
If we talking about money, T1 has just as much backing if not more than Hanwa tbh, its Comcast and SK, they pretty much own the legacy media in KR and US. I dont think not having enough money was the issue. There has to be some insider dealing to fk over T1 especially when they already have millions in marketing ZOFGK.
What happen to the community being behind player's free agency? T1 let Zeus contract ran out so Zeus basically became a free agent and is free to choose what team he gets to play on.
If Zeus wanna leave he should have made it known, he made a verbal agreement with t1 to stay, which is why t1 made preparations for all the zofgk merch. Now they have to cancel all of it bc Zeus decided to go to hle. Next Zeus wanted a 2 year contract while t1 want 1+1, but Zeus Sign the same 1+1 with hle. It totally fuk over t1 bc they could have gotten kiin.
tldr, they delayed negotiations until Kiin got signed by GenG to leverage T1 into offering more money, when T1 did offer more they got donowalled by Zeus and his Agent, then gigatilted and had to sign Doran because they knew they'd been fucked over by the Agency that manages both Kiin and Zeus lmao. Just a shitty way to handle things. Kiin gets less money, T1 get the worse trade possible and HLE pree much got everything they wanted. Truly tragic for multiple parties.
Yeah i dont know man as a T1 fan, ill say that the org did seem to maybe undervalue zeus most likely but I wouldnt handle it this way personally considering Zeus probably definetly knew what was going on. Unless he wanted to prove his self worth to show he can win worlds on other teams and not get carried, which kind of doesn't make sense since he was considered as the best player in the team. I really want to hope that it wasnt about money...
@@dimitrijetomic6054 bro just think about what ur saying. Imagine you get paid to play LoL, and someone offers to pay you an extra $800k over 2 years. You’ve already won 2 championships with ur team. You already proved what you set out to prove. Taking the money IS the logical choice. Plus you probably get tired of playing with the same players, even if they’re the best.
@@stone_pilot then just tell them before too late. Dont forget that Zeus used to be T1's trainee / T1 A team. They've been playing / teaming / staying together for over 4 years, this is not how the way you choose to leave, T1 lost a bunch of their product / brand / time / other choices because of Zeus and his Agency
T1 was in it for the long haul. Planned ahead of the season because of the verbal agreement. They have pre order sales for the merch and focus on the brand that the players bring. I don't blame Zeus or his agent for signing the contract with HLE (if it was handled legally and not in bad faith). Wanting more for your work is understandable, each of us knows that. But if we account for what ifs maybe Zeus could have bagged more if he stayed in T1. Who knows time will tell.
@@stone_pilot I really don't see it that way, I would stay with the same team since it's probably a hassle to get used to a new and a new team no point in changing what ain't broke and as you said he already proved everything. To me 800k over 2 years is pennies on the dollar, cuz in the end T1 was allegedly going to give Zeus 2.6 mil and if that irl meeting went through he could have maybe gotten the money he wanted
The last point was interesting but, do you think zeus would be as relevant as he is right now if he never played for T1? He would be still a great player, just like many others in LCK, but would be at the point of clout he is right now?
snake agent aside, nobody is considering this; maybe zeus wana be considered the best player in the world on his own team. yea he has zeka and viper but hes been the best top laner for years now and they have the best team now if hes #1. its like berserk leaving griffith
I see ppl commenting what is legal/illegal and some saying T1 should have done this and that. Do these ppl even know the korean law and riot rules? And some are commenting like they are the insiders.
'you gotta care about yourself' - I mean yeah but to make money you also need to have fans care about you...Zeus decision is just strange in all respects: he burned all bridges to an org that brought him up, paid him and with which he won the WC twice, an org that's almost omnipotent in the space and that his best friends are on...he did it to get more money? well yeah but only slightly and on a 1+1 deal which is super short-term focused (maybe he doesn't expect to be around too long) because the best long-term deal was almost certainly staying put - his image and sponsorship potential also took a massive hit with the legal situation and general public sentiment towards his exit all this is strange because it just didn't have to be like that at all - if he had made that decision and communicated it clearly I dont think there would have been any backlash - but the timing is horrible: after everyone resigned with paycuts to stay together, after kiin re-signed, after branding deals closed and verbal agreements were reached? just a bad look and completely unnecessary - HLE would have paid him regardless
@@stone_pilot that is if Doran doesn't perform. If Doran does well and the fans like him, Zeus would be fucked. Again, leaving T1, specially in the way he did if the rumors are true, means he either was ready to risk a lot or was unaware of how fucked he would be if ANYTHING goes below Fucking Perfection. Think about it; what happens if Zeus doesn't do well? What happens if Doran does well? What happens if Zeus chokes, or has poor chemistry with his team? What happens if T1 fans never let the grudge go, or HLE fans dont warm up to him? What about his rep? Being seen as a traitor is a bad bag to carry, he can let it go if he stomps, but if he doesn't? and for the first few months it may be real rough, specially bc ZOFGK was the star of Two entire Worlds tournaments, their fans where built around them as a group, not necessarily individuals, and they are *pissed* atm.
@@stone_pilot The damage was already done to T1. They have functionally deleted his entire presence from the org, and seem unlikely to work with him again. T1 can always pivot to Faker's legacy to recover financially. They won't risk this situation happening again, as Zeus has demonstrated he has no loyalty to their brand.
If the “collusion” is real Kiin is the one who got the most fucked over as he could have joined T1 for a much more inflated contract or forced GenG to match it by waiting?
@@B0lzenlol Yes, T1 pays 2nd best in LCK, only after HLE which has very enthusiastic owner backing them up. Especially after everyone else essentially took a slight pay raise only to keep the roster, T1 did have enough money to match Gen G
@@Sunless-Sunny we don’t know whether the agency offered Kiin to T1. I think you would have to assume that they would have. Not out of courtesy but if you were trying to maximize money then you would shop around.
@@stone_pilot They didn't. The agency protracted negotiations with T1 until after Kiin signed. When that happened Zeus' market value skyrocketed. The way the tactic works is to negotiate a decent deal for one player in order to get a great deal for the other. Kiin was the screwed one in this scenario.
"Individually Zeus is better player than faker this year" oh how short your memory is. Do u rly not remember zeus twisted fate top? And how he was getting caught on top on repeat etc whole year besides EWC and worlds??? Rly? And I'm not saying faker was playing any good but cmon
Dont you remember faker at MSI? faker during the melee ap jg meta, faker more bad games than zeus, he isnt saying zeus was the best player of T1, unironically the most consistent play was guma
So in conclusion the people that got fucked are: Kiin since he was probably sold under market value HLE since they most likely had to pay an enormous sum of money in order to get Zeus Guma, Keria and Oner as they most likely accepted a lower salary because they thought the Avengers would assemble atleast one last time Doran as he initially was treated like trash online, but seems like people got over it T1 as a whole because of the whole merch drop not being worth anything anymore The people that profited from this situation are: Zeus and Kiins agency GenG as they got Kiin for a low amount Still up for debate would be Zeus and his parents as we don't know for sure what impact they had on the whole situation, keep in mind that Zeus is only 20 he could've easily been manipulated by both his agency and parents and he got alot of hate
Good insights. I'm just wondering. You've been doing this for a long time. Why do you pronounce Zeus' name as same with the god? Everyone else (himself included) doesn't say it that way.
@@DenselyPerfect it's the name of a mythological being, it has many pronounciations. In my country it would be something like z'eh-oo-z. I understand that in english it would be pronounced Z-U-Z. I don't think there is only one way to pronounce it... unless it's the greek version, the original.
@@PeoplePleaser578 and then you leave out the part where they don't give out the fair shot for T1 to counter offer. So the rest you say is true but you leave out the scandal part.
@@3000wouter They literally gave them multiple chances to counter offer… T1 didn’t offer what HLE did. They signed with HLE - It’s not a scandal. T1 could have offered him the money at any point, they tried to get him cheaper - It backfired. That’s it. The agency is under no obligation to work with T1 or give T1 more time than they have anyone else. There is nothing illegal or scandalous happening.
@@3000wouter oh yeah, T1 just has no time to counter offer even though they have... *checks note* the entirety of this year to talk to him. Do you really think T1 hasn't already made a counter offer that was not up to the standards of Zeus? Why even let them counter offer when you KNOW they aren't willing to go as high as you wanted anyways?
Zeus knew and the agent knew. Idk about anything else, but those two 100% knew what they were doing Edit: how is it his best interest to move teams when faker will retire soon and the team will be looking for a new leader.
Why did T1 signed Guma first before Zeus? I mean, Guma said himself that he will stay T1 no matter what. Why not priority Zeus signing instead of Guma?
Not that they didn't they couldn't. Bro was stalling for a better contract. Guma, Keria. Oner all accepted pretty subpar contracts (only slight pay raises with less years) so they can stay on the team. It was the same last year too, Zeus was the last one to sign not because T1 undervalues him but bcs he wanted more.
Now I wanna know everyone else’s salary, what are the chances that Zeus, the best performing player on T1 year round, is getting paid less than the other players (obviously faker is the face of LOL)
@@KuLifefinnyeah but when face against Knight from BLG, he couldn't do any shit of it, your KEKA otp Yone couldn't do anything much at all, that's why lost
@stevenmah2070 bro calm down why are you so mad you can credit two players at the same time zeka had an insane performance in 2022 and he did all he could vs blg if you actually use ur eyes he couldnt have done more if you think otherwise then ur genuinely delusional
@@stevenmah2070why are you changing subject ..he still beat faker and chovy in final when it matter ...stop coping with knight argument ...faker also lost to knight in msi ..di you forget??
even if zeus and his agent aired t1 there’s nothing remotely illegal about that no? as soon as his contract with t1 is up he has no obligation to negotiate with them, t1 has no rights to him after his contract.
The illegal portion is the agent of kiin and zeus are under the same parent company. By using privilege information, they were using it to temper situation to benefit your contract decision, thats the potentially illegal part.
@@Korialx I don’t know how it works in Korea but at least in the U.S. it would be perfectly legal. It’s not like they have a monopoly on talent. There are millions of LoL players, they just have 2 of the most famous top laners. Leveraging your assets is just good business strategy.
@@stone_pilot its a conflict of interest because they are supposed to help kiin get the best contract possible but in this case they sort of fucked him over in favor of zeus
@@stone_pilot It's also illegal in the USA to do that. Benefitting from market changes is perfectly legal, however, if you intentionally manipulate negotiations to tamper with the market, that is very much so grounds for a lawsuit. There's judicial precedence in that regard. Also, verbal agreements can be legally binding if proved. Meaning if Zeus and his agent made a verbal agreement with T1 and then played around after, then they could be considered in violation of contracts. That is also what happens in the US>
It’s sad to see this roaster split up, but what I don’t get is. If faker really wanted Zeus to stay he could have easily payed whatever Zeus needed. Or helped the negotiations. And faker has far and beyond more money then Zeus. So why are people calling Zeus or his agent greedy when faker could easily pay half of Zeus contract xD
shits wild that fans of a team who has been to the finals 7 out of 13 years and won 5 of them still manages to act like a victim and an underdog year after year.
@@timreinhardt7452 if u watch dom ur obvi biased to some degree but to say that u wouldn't be upset that one of ur key players left in such a unprofessional manner is dumb
@@zweiigorgon8980 Or you are dumb for thinking Zeus cares more for T1 than his future. Zeus has won Worlds twice he doesn't maybe care to win it one more time he rather secure his bag for his future as LoL future is uncertain unlike football and in football players do this all the time so they can secure a better pay for their future post retirement. Zeus's agent isn't some evil wizard manipulating a naive disney princess into submitting to his will Zeus knew what his agent wanted for both of themselves and he agreed T1 if valued him so much should have agreed to any and every term Zeus and his agent proposed because in negotiation you can fail they can screw over and if that happened why are you crying then. They wanted to emotionally exploit Zeus into signing a less paying contract that his agent blocked which for me is fair enough. Don't cry and move on because Zeus clearly has so support Doran your new top laner.
@@pratikroy227 ur making a lot of assumptions on what I think and feel my guy and idk what u mean by T1 is exploiting Zeus emotionally that has no merit? First off let’s talk about money. Do you really think T1 cannot afford zeus let’s be real T1 is not some broke team with no funding whatsoever idk why theres this narrative that T1 can’t afford Zeus Second it wouldn’t make sense to leave T1 since without T1 Zeus is basically risking his career growth to gamble with a random team that no one truly cares about like HLE when you literally have a insane brand to franchise off of? Again even monetarily it makes no sense to do that
Is delusional to blame everything on the agency. Of course Zeus gets final say on where he wants to go he prolly just wanted to leave. And why wouldn’t he the hle is a good team, hes getting more money, and he doesn’t have be a in the nightmare t1 schedule of nonstop fan meetings and bullshit 24/7
u can fr stop shitting on t1 fans, sure some of us are more restrained while others are more emotional, but it all comes from the passion we have towards our favorite team, i dont even have to mention the other teams "fans" that shit on t1 in every given moment, insulting our players of being bad after being ddosed for half an year, calling faker washed up while his wrist was injured, at this point its safe to say we aren't the delusional ones cause the results speak for themselves
Dom is just mentally ill or what? If Zeus saw his teammate's performance "all year" and therefore thought he was worth more than Faker, then he should damn well also know that he would have won NOTHING this year if it WASNT for Faker? What kind of double standard bs is this?? Zeus played very well, nobody can deny that, But Faker was THE reason that they won the finals against BLG. Not to mention Zeus spent over an entire split running it down with ranged toplaners himself, I guess thats not relevant either? Also, playing with Faker DOESNT limit how much money you can get, its quite the contrary actually. Faker's salary is paid by SKT themselves, NOT T1. T1 by definition has more lee way with contracts than most other orgs, not to mention the staggering amount of money they can make through brand deals etc.
19:41 No dom, it's your hatred for T1 that is justifying by labeling all T1 fans like that. Most T1 fans know that there are flaws in T1, most noticeable is their drafting half the time. You can't say draft was not the issue when they are 2 times world champ when not doing TF top and Braum Keria type sht. If they lacked hands and skills then they wouldn't be 3 times world finalists, and 2 times champ. Every one was calling out when Keria was not performing and Faker was struggling on ad mid meta and Zeus would get owned by Kinn and Doran domestically, we never say T1 is flawless. It's your hatred for T1 that is justifying this mentality of yours.
Another L Dom take about T1. “Zeus was way better than Faker all last year”. Bro didn’t even watch the games then. Zeus was running it down domestically all season. Meanwhile Faker hard carried T1 through worlds after a mediocre domestic season. SMH
I wasn't on board with "T1 Hater" label that was thrown over dom and always viewed it as a speculation from crazy fans etc. However, holy are your takes one sided.. to the point it got boring after a while.
Yeah but if those things were at the back of his mind would it have been better when they talked together before going on holiday and be honest just straight up say you can't do it you want to finish go your own way or just say it's there you need time to think about it then say it so other players can think about their options too. I don't know but in the end he signed off on the contract and chose to leave so it's whatever just sux how it ended but I wish him all the best. Joe Marsh actually answered questions about this on fm korea something like that
"yo we want to play with you but we don't have the money the other team has" T1, the richest org out there would say this? lmao seriously doubt that. if they would, they'd need a reality check xD
I don't think the zeus thing with the agent at the end is that bad, to me the worst part is with Kiin, because if they really ghosted t1, the agents might not even have given the info of the offer to Kiin
agent shouldn't have to tell t1 how much kiin was getting. The only "illegal" thing they could've done is collusion but it's smart that zeus agent waited until kiin signed so he can make more money from either team he goes to
@@phunki1696 bro, read what I said again lol. I did not say that the agents needed to give the info about gen g offer, what I said is that Kiin might have not known that t1 made an offer for him in the first place because the agents didn't tell him that they got one
Ppl are saying that Zeus' agent and Kiin's agent collaborated...but is that really logical? Zeus wanted 2+1. T1 made a counter-offer that Zeus didn't like. T1 would have been less likely to change their mind if Kiin (Top 2 most wanted top laners in LCK) was still a FA, and they had a plan B. Once Kiin signed with Gen.G, T1 has less choices, and therefore might change their mind and accept Zeus' offer. Side note: T1's COO said that they were on their way to meet with Zeus for further negotiations. In my opinion it sounds more like they were trying to convince Zeus, because if they would've been okay with 2+1, T1 would've contacted Zeus' agency to let them know before heading over, and discuss the fine details after meeting. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. For those of you saying that Zeus' agency and Kiin's agency was working together to get Kiin signed off to Gen.G ASAP to screw over T1, I wanted to clarify that Gen.G was adamant on picking up Kiin, because he was the keystone in acquiring the Gen.G 2025 roster. First, Canyon didn't really have any other teams to go to that are able to pay close to his salary (already getting a paycut in Gen.G than what he's worth), and that are a contender for worlds champions from LCK (T1 and HLE and Gen.G, but T1 and HLE both have their priority of junglers already so they would not bother paying more for Canyon). One of Chovy's conditions for re-signing with Gen.G was that he wanted to play with Kiin again. So, to sign Chovy, they NEED KIIN. By signing Kiin, they have Kiin top, Canyon jungle, and Chovy bot. At this point, Gen.G can just call Ruler and be like "Yo Ruler, we got KCC top side, want to play on our team?" For Ruler, if he wanted $$ he would've stayed in LPL. Only choice for $$ in LCK is HLE, but HLE have Viper. He came back to LCK to win, and the other org that would be contending for worlds champions would be T1 and Gen.G, but T1 wanted ZOFGK, meaning their first priority was Guma, not Ruler. Once Gen.G gets KCCR, then ANY support would want to play on that team. So for Gen.G, they had to sign Kiin ASAP in order to make their roster for 2025. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not a T1 fan (still respect Faker), so I was looking at this situation from a third-person POV. It just looks like Zeus was doing whatever that would be in his best interest, but people are just trying to accuse him of malicious intent. Players change teams all the time in esports, mostly because of duration and salary. In fact, it happens in regular professional sports. Also, feels like this is a big issue because Zeus was on T1. Doran and Peanut moved to HLE last year after 2 years on Gen.G for a higher salary. I don't remember them receiving any hate from the Gen.G fans calling them traitors and whatnot. I don't understand all the toxicity and speculations.
Shocker, corporatioms doing corporate stuff, trying to get the best deals. Who could have thought. Never happened before. Let's blame the player, the one that actually holds the value. Oh noooo Zeus and his agency fucked t1, cause they thought they can bluff him out. This is a professional sport, people think this is about 50 bucks or smth.
Long story short the player and the agent want the max compensation and acted in their best financial intrest. The parasocial T1 fans cant accept that and will scream foul play. Zeus should have the balls to admit it but due to kpop and korean culture in general hes pandering to the fan base making it look like hes been held at gunpoint to be paid his millions of dollars. Cruel world.
except the agent admitted the salary is similar and the only thing they disagreed on is 1+1 vs 2 year. which is fine if HLE offered a 2 year contract except HLE gave zeus a 1+1 contract also. this suggested to me that zeus wants to go to another team which is fine but he told t1 he wanted to resign with them which made them lose out on opportunities to sign other tops
@@MrWizardjr9 1+1 isnt just a blank thing. hle offered a player option while t1 offered a team option. completely different. player option>>>>>>>>2yr contract>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>team option Same in every sport
Zeus got a bag, his agents job is to get that bag and get the blame His agent is a beast and is not like Zeus was set up with a bunch of no names, is a top 3 team in the LCK easy.
People acting like T1 is some kind of big family, and they are all part of it. T1 is an organisation. Business at first and making money is the main job of that organisation. YOU THE FANS are their customer base, and players are walking, talking living billboards, and presenting you shit. That's why they have sponsors and merchandise. Everyone should know that players are not there as family members. They are employees. Nothing more, nothing less. Just because YOU THE FANS glorifying them doesn't mean they are any more than that. Organisation can get rid of them the moment they find that employee to be the threat to the organisation profits or image. So, if we are on the same team, and fucker besides me make 7 million euros and I make 1-2 million euros. And especially in any industry where you can work in a few years like Esports or sports. Of course you go for the money. Bro is 20, something years old, he needs to think what he is going to eat when he is 40. Economy and inflations are real things. Only old players or washed-up players in football (soccer) will be willing to take the pay cut to continue playing for the team. And THEIR MARKETING VALUE IS HIGLY CONSIDERED. Modrić started his career back in 2002. 23 years ago. He probably started earning proper living money in 2006. After he signed for Madrid in 2012, in 13 years there, his grand-grandchildren dont need to worry about the money. And this year, when he is 39, he takes a wage cut of 75% to stay playing for the club that he loves. How much of this is possible in the Esports? How many players will be able to play for 23 years, and for 19 of those years earning high amounts of money. And then being so powerful with marketing and achievements that they do not need to worry about future? Especially how everyone says that LoL is dying and RIOT defunding leagues while pumping Lux skins and NOT FIXING THE FUCKING CLIENT. Zeus didn't screw T1 over, Zeus asked for his market value, and T1 basically said to him that he isn't worth that. Zeus did right, and he should have.
Don't under rate Doran tbh he's great domestically but internationally he's known as a choker just like someone else, I wonder who that is 🤔 btw chovy isn't a choker it's normally his team mates that hinder him winning internationally
am not the greatest lol player or i have anything to say but the t1 wincon was zeus only in the last words other then that he is either mid or even the lose con i think doran if he got controlled and stopped from going to his iconic troll playes going to be greater then zeus pls dont cook me just correct me
Depends. Its a high risk high reward move, if he pops off he's gonna be massive, if he doesn't then all the hate he's getting now not only will be doubled but he also risks falling into irrelevancy. Being the guy who "gave away his legacy for cash" is never a good look. Ofc I hope the best for him, I'm just saying that this may have been a riskier move that he thought, that is if he was thought it was a risky move at all.
@@gearguts7259 people dont understand that his playstyle most of the time worked because his team allowed him to play like that. Lets see if Zeka and Viper can do the same and let him be the carry
@@Xilo29 Yeah team synergy is going to play a MASSIVE role in HLE next year. I've seen this before, being stacked to the brim with amazing players means nothing if they have low synergy in their playstyles or they have protagonist syndrome and can't cooperate. We just have to wait and see.
It's just a smart move if you're on his shoes. If its a money issue, its a win for Zeus as HLE offered more. If its a legacy issue, Zeus no longer has anything to prove in T1, he already won worlds twice. Or maybe he just wanted a new environment. Who really knows
@@FripChopIt hurts his branding as an individual player though. If he's that sneaky regarding contracts high-paying teams will be wary of scouting him in the future because they might get screwed out of potential FA's if he's available, and this also causes his long-standing fanbase to be irreparably fractured. While they wish him well with his future it also taints his image as a person, so either way he wins short-term but his long-term career is muddied by an ungraceful exit. Edit : Also this puts even more pressure on him to perform outside of T1 as well. Because if he underperforms even for a couple of series he will get flak and there's really no counterargument for it.
@reishiki8682 I'd say his initial plans were just to get the bag and play with less stress and pressure (cause let's admit it, T1 players are so busy with things not even related to practicing) but didn't realize the backslash it will get. The expectation of the roster coming into 2025 is basically get to worlds finals and nothing less. As a 20 year old up and coming player, having financial freedom that young is so op I wouldn't blame him. HLE is no slouch either, people forget they just won LCK and now replaced their weakest link with one of the, if not the best top laner currently.
@@FripChop Super team do well domestically but will always fumbled in worlds. I say he got swayed by his agent. He gets good money but lost credibility and some fans.
T1 is throwing hissy fits because they can't use ZOFGK brand anymore and they have lost their revenue (supposedly 10s of millions) they thought they had it in the bag. If what Zeus situation was illegal, T1 can immediately cancel the HLE contract publicly, instead of leaking T1 HQ response drama. What Zeus did to the org that raised him may be awful ethically, but this is the norm in any sports (including NBA, NFL, MLB etc). Ashley Kang's "SK's Market is different" is such bs, cuz that is only formality, there is no legal code saying it's illegal to do so.
if zeus don't have verbal agreement with t1 then I agree with you or maybe don't wait till for so long and just, and yeah if the verbal agreement can be proved the agency is fucked, and if they also proved the agency did something dirty zeus might get penalty and can't play, is it worth it, if he wants to leave just leave and don't say to t1 u want to stay.
"Make Doran win worlds" is the greatest T1 revenge arc...
Good luck with that. Better off signing a prospect with potential.
@@colesmith193 good luck with that. better off playing 4v5.
@@colesmith193 Bro doran has been grean domestically since forever, he was top 2 top laner when kiin wasn't in a strong team like geng, he was only getting worse during internationals (like Chovy but people never doubt that he can win worlds)
Doran has weaknesses sure, but Zeus did as well, he choked a lot more during recent months and had weak finals before. But to conclude, Doran is still a strong top laner and besides kiin it was impossible to find better within the LCK.
Also I would like to add because I am thinking about it, Zeus could also flop hard in HLE, he has never really played outside of T1 and the great shotcalls from Faker and Keria (mostly) but also Oner in some parts. Building superteams to win worlds has proven to be kinda dumb (lets see next year) because at least for the past 3 years "not favorites" teams won : Drx won with 3 "forgotten" or inexperienced players and 2 older players in the bot lane, and T1 was made of 3 rookies with not very much experience (none for oner and zeus and little for Guma) only keria and mostly faker had experience and stats on their backs.
So yeah, superteams are fun and they can crush domestically but in the long run, at worlds, it doesn't matter. GenG almost lost to an NA team.
if doran can win worlds again ik in my heart league is dead
I mean Kiin got fk then. He could've had a higher salary if things didnt play out the way it did.
probably got a competitive offer from geng, t1 was going to go for him but they probably weren't offering more than geng and hle since zeus leaving fks their branding. seems like geng also brought out the bag
Kiin, Canyon, Chovy all wanted to stay tgt
@@bobmarley4214 if you gonna based that on them saying it then zeus also wanted to stay? gen g didnt pay kiin 2.7 mil i can tell you that much
@@phunki1696 lol chovy ruler canyon and kiin who do you think took a pay cut its impossible for them to stay together without someone taking a paycut
@@phunki1696 I wonder if they can offer stocks on T1 i dont know the law in Korea but i would assume that getting stocks or royalties on the T1 Merch the 5 times world champion in the long run would be the better decision?
Lmao the Beryl tweet at the bottom is crazy
I dont see it
That man has his priorities sorted out
@@Loc123cool "Apparently DK announced BeryL later than intended cause he had to attend a Genshin Impact promotional event, which you can only do if you’re a Free Agent without any ties to other games so they waited till he was done"
@@theoafman9068beryl is the fucking GOAT lmaooooo
I don't even like beryl but holy fucking based 😂@@theoafman9068
The most shocking part is he ended with a 1+1 contract anyways
I've seen this a few times. What does this even mean though ?
@@ThePolarpop i think +1 means after your contract ends, team has the option to extent your contract if they want
He went from 1+1 (org sided) contract to 1+1 (player sided) contract, it's way different
1+1 org sided contract will mean t1 can extend or terminate Zeus contract next year depending on his performance. Basically T1 has the say.
1+1 player sided contract by HLE means Zeus can stay, leave or ask for a pay check raise end of next year. Basically Zeus has the say.
@ThePolarpop on the teams side a 1+1 its beneficial since if the player does well they can secure a contract with him for the following year without an increase
And on the flip side they can drop the contract early too if he doesn't do well so they aren't stuck with overpaid contracts
For the player this usually means orgs can justify higher salaries
But on the second year you are completely under the mercy of the org which will usually secure your replacement before droping you late like in canna's case he could've gone to DK with higher salary but T1 decided to transfer him to NS
If Zeus's agency truly wanted the best for Zeus, why were they ghosting, cancelling set meeting, and playing super hardball and not even listen to T1's last proposal? This part is super sus
Because by the time they signed with HLE they were sure or fairly confident that T1 wouldn’t match the salary
Also like Dom said, we have no idea what the best for Zeus is. Maybe he really wanted to leave and prove himself, maybe he jus wanted more money, he might’ve wanted to stay but these things are serious decisions too
they wanted what is best for them,T1 has better chance of winning worlds next year than HLE,and money players get from their worlds skins i huge,especially if its popular champion,usually way more than what their annual salary is.But all that money goes directly to player.
All his agency wanted was transfer fee.
@@tundebashorun8071 what i do know is Zeus 1000% had at least some idea what was going on and prob did think about leaving T1
As a T1 fan if Zeus wants out i wouldnt mind its his choice, but ghosting and stalling its just not right
It's his agent
Please stay in school and hop off tiktok and Instagram reels because your attention span and intelligence is cooked. Zeus did NOT ghost T1 you idiot, his AGENT did.
I completely agree with Dom in the last parts of the video. Maybe Zeus just wanted to try and win with a different team and build his own brand without being in the shadow of Faker. I just think that the way this was handled was extremely messy and that if he really wanted to do that he could have a better discussion with T1 instead of ghosting them (allegendly).
At the end of the day, it is T1 marketing that is getting hurt but we us viewers get to watch 2 banger teams with drama, so next year will be very exciting!
See, what I don’t understand why people keep spinning this into an issue of “T1 fans being upset that Zeus is leaving” when most people are just frustrated by how messily it was handled. Obviously there are rabid fans who will unjustly label him a traitor, but I think it’s a safe assumption to make that most reasonable people will wish Zeus well wherever he goes. But I do think in some way it could’ve been handled more gracefully from both parties since it hasn’t been anywhere this bad with people like MaRin.
I don’t know why people are defending the org. I mean, I do, they’re mad Zeus isn’t on T1, but T1 was trying to take advantage of Zeus here.
T1 was rushing over to meet Zeus so they could emotionally manipulate him into accepting lower pay.
Zeus’s agents did the right thing by protecting him from that possibility and setting a deadline.
The fact is that HLE decided Zeus is worth more than T1 did. This is T1s fault for not valuing him to the same level as the market.
They fucked around and found out.
People are calling Zeus greedy, but T1 is the most profitable org. How are they unable to pay Zeus what other teams are offering?
They’re either penny pinching or facing the reality that having 5 world champions on your team is simply unaffordable.
That’s stupid. No player leaves a mega team for a bottom org
I mean sure. Faker is T1's heart. But ZOFGK has become T1's star roster and I think fans of T1 have slowly morphed into fans of ZOFGK. Hell if T1 rebranded or the entire roster signs to Gen G then I'll root for Gen G since at the end of the day, I'm a ZOFGK fan, not just a Faker/T1 as a brand fan.
I am leaning more towards him carving out a name for himself.
When they say t1 is mental boomed atm, they arent kidding. They are royaaaally PISSED atm lol. Not just cuz zeus didnt end up re-signing, no matter what happened with the contracts.
Branding is fucked, and the owner was seen outside the building making sailors proud of his language
I don't understand why is is so fkd if only one person left. I highly doubt it's that bad of a situation
@@mackassef473 T1 was moving away from Faker-Only branding, ZOFGK was their brand now, they were the Super Team.
Its the equivalent of having a new Simpsons season but they replace Bart Simpson with Lenny; Sure, Lenny is popular, and a fairly beloved character, but to behave like he has the same brand recognition as Bart is silly.
@@mackassef473 It's because T1 likely lose TONS of money for all the merch and brand deals they have with the ZOFGK name on it. People claim that Zeus wasn't really clear about leaving T1 and had a verbal agreement he would re-sign. T1's branding plans are likely ruined which could've been avoided if Zeus' agent or even Zeus himself was clear that he will leave T1 after worlds. Another effect of Zeus and his agent's lack of clarity is that T1 missed an opportunity to sign Kiin, their 2nd option if ever Zeus left. This is what most people don't get. T1 and fans aren't mad that Zeus was leaving. They are mad because Zeus left on a bad note.
@@gearguts7259 Wait they are moving to ZOFGK brand wtf? 😂 You do know that F stands for Faker if Faker retires next season then how will that F matters then. You can't brand sports team on your roster that's bs even in football it doesn't happen you can brand it one franchise player but not the whole group when there's no certainty of their form and if they even want to stick it out. I can't believe T1 management is this dumb. They really believe LoL roster is like K-pop idol groups that stay for 5+ years at the minimum even that doesn't happen often nowadays.
@@pratikroy227because ZOGK was supposed to be the successor. Anybody with a room temperature iq could have understood this. 😉
Crazy to think that this new T1 roster probably has less pressure to win than HLE and GenG. I mean, if they don't win anything until Worlds and they're just top 2/top 3, it's basically the same path of 2024. And if they win anything, it already surpasses that year.
Faker is gonna have to step up his game tho, will be interesting to see if that can happen!
I think the pressure and expectations from T1 are all the same. The team needs to step up their gameplay or else the storyline will change to how T1 is washed and they can't do anything without their old top laner. "If Faker can get Doran to Worlds and win then he'll truly be the Goat." People will call out this team the second it loses a match, of course with how stacked GenG and HLE rosters are, things are going to be same for them with people already calling them the favorites for Worlds 2025 and potential winners.
he was playing with an injury all year long, when they had the time to rest he delivered one of, if not the best performance in a final series at worlds.
@@owenhollow8247 bro who cares if everybody say they're washed, t1 will sit in their facilities looking at 5 worlds trophies and even if they don't win any more for the next decade nobody will even hold a candle to that accomplishment, yall gotta understand that people will hate no mstter what who cares it will die down, faker has been hated by a vocal minority for so long it's time to just ignore them and treat them with the same amount of attention their parents gave them
AD mids are not as viable anymore so next year should be easier. Oner struggles playing AP junglers and Faker struggles with AD mids.
@@owenhollow8247 Nah, T1 doesn't have to fear much. They can always pivot to saying Zeus screwed us over. If Zeus then proceeds to run it down, then the situation becomes even more favourable for T1.
Exactly as you put it. I am seeing posts that claim Zeus is a toddler and that he was blindsided by his agency and forced to join HLE. Like come on, that's not how these things work
That's exactly what happened.. Now it's confirmed..
T1 was unable to give Zeus the DeAndre Jordan treatment iykyk
I don't know but now I'm so curious
@@ThePolarpopif you know you know
@@ThePolarpop DeAndre Jordan was a former LA Clippers player who went into free agency with a lot of teams pursuing him. Allegedly, his teammates and coaches went to his house to convince him to resign with the team. There was even a picture of one of his teammates barring his door and poking fun at is as an interesting choice of furniture.
@@Honneylemz he's my goat bench warmer in nuggets we need him
they did but agent said "nah fam already sold too bad so sad"
T1 and the Org really doesn't mind if Zeus will leave the org , Everyone was pretty much expecting it since 2023 and having them for 3 years was a miracle. What the fans and the org did not like is how it was handled by Zeus and his agency , if Doran was not a free agent T1 will pretty much have to find a top laner that can match the peak of the rest ASAP.
@@neku4449 ok except that this is fundamentally T1’s fault for being unwilling to match HLE’s offer.
It’s not like they couldn’t have Zeus. They could, but they had to offer another $800k over 2 years because that’s what HLE was offering.
FR heck they already want to pivot to kiin if he still available but hey they make kiin signed to increase Zeus offer so well doran it is
What boggles my mind is how ppl think zues didnt know this was going on.
yeah, that r 3t4rd of Caedrel saying that we can't know if "Zeus had any say in this". The guy thinks the managers can just sell players like slaves to other orgs against their will
@@SuperRainboltheres been shady shit with managers multiple times within the league scene, the fuck are you talking about
@@SuperRainbol u okay buddy?
@@SuperRainbol Im just gonna say it: if you dont think they treat people like slaves... you havent seen south korea's way of operating with companies...
Plus childish af to offend someone bc you dont agree with their vision.
@@SuperRainbolI am the war chief
if everything said is true, i think the biggest issue is during the resigning period for zues (before he became a free agent) zues's agency could of used inside information that kiin was going into become free agent and ghosted T1 until zues also became a free agent.
and because T1 were in the process of getting zues back, they couldn't realistically also work on getting a possible contract with kiin during that time. so once kiin signed with another team, and zues quickly also signing, T1 is just left with the proverbial scraps of top laners.
but yeah, once zues became a free agent, the power is all in zues's hands on the contract deals.
not knowing korean contract law, the ghosting while t1 was trying to resign before the end of the contract could potentially be the gray area that zues's agency could get into trouble.
IWillCopeinate will personally pay for Zeus’ lawyer. Before becoming Zeus’ lawyer next year
you sound like a salty T1 fan, typical bitch
No, that role belongs to Caedrel 😂
@@timreinhardt7452 its just a game 😂 why are you so mentally ill
@@timreinhardt7452Getting this mad at a joke.. who's the bitch now? 😅
@@timreinhardt7452 Meanwhile dom has been hating on t1 for years and they just keep winning xD Dom made a carrer out of beeing a whiny little bitch xD
Either the agency and the agent are in cahoots, or the agent conveyed false information to the agency. COO already said that HLE has confirmed to T1 that it was the agent who approached them, not the other way around like what the agent and the agency said. It's going to be one of those situation that's quite common in court cases related to poaching and always gets strike down, party A approaches agency asking if anyone is available, agency says yes and offers person B who was already in negotiations in party B, agency then spin it as party A approaching agency asking for person B. The agent and/or the agency probably didn't expect HLE to side with T1 and underestimated the blowback it'd cause if they force it through.
I want this to be a marin-duke situation.
The team composition is also the same as skt 2016 team where they replaced the top and retain their jungle, mid, adc, and support.
Much like Duke, Doran is also strongly mediocre lmfao
@@blisswinters2527he ended up being good surprisingly
@@blisswinters2527 Duke was preety good solo killing smeb all over the place never losing lanes funny thing is i look back at doran last season he was solo killing kiin in reverse matchups all over the place not losing lanes kinda same
@@kaysaiah3000 Maybe I'm just remembering wrong but I mostly remember Duke on either tanks (at the time it's like what, ekko, poppy and maokai?) or Trundle and being mostly a sidelaner that went even.
Tbf it's been many years at this point, might be straight up mb underselling him
@@blisswinters2527 yh u remember his champ pool right but he was winning the lanes and solo killing smeb tho or going even at worst but the doran vs kiin matchup is a shocker just last split doran was fucking turret diving kiin i watched all of lck but don't even remember seeign that lol i think t1 will be fine up until worlds unless faker can unlock doran to god tier status and they win again
It's hilarious to me how people in the comments at reddit don't realise they are also speculating and are just as bad as T1 fans just on the other side of the spectrum. Doing exact same thing which is sucking themselves off cuz they think they for sure are right xddd
Reddit in a nutshell 😂
Nah the T1 fans are mentally ill
Its still suspicious, Most of the roster resigned but Zeus was the only one delayed as much as possible from reports. If Zeus and his agent simply said they wanted more money to re-sign instead of strong arming T1. I'm pretty sure they would've been fine. As it stands however, Zeus and Doran need to prove themselves for the decision taken. Toplaners that leave T1 usually fade to obscurity while those that join usually play decent lol.
Either way dom is just content farming, his true love is Bin
I don’t think T1 would pay as much as HLE I don’t even think as Dom said T1 would pay more than GENG to have Kiin (Kiin, Canyon, Chovy all wanted to stay tgt anyways) Top is the hardest role to have a Top tier player no pun intended there’s literally only two and a reluctant third in Doran
I think it’s pretty scummy how the agent did things but it’s smart also common practice tbh and when you think about it their whole job is to make sure their player gets the best contract possible and the situation is pretty common in sports
lol, zeus and his agent did say that they wanted more money, T1 just would not even match HLE's offer. You see strong arming when what is happening is really just the free market on full display.
gigabin
If t1 didn't win worlds oner and Zeus were likely to not re-sign. So the fact he's the one that left isn't THAT surprising. But the way it happened is completely fucked for everyone involved, and ofc Doran is getting shots just for being their last second top laner
@@TheBestSnail7668what they lost from now signing Zeus costs way more than what they could've spent if they tried. The thing is that according to rumors, T1 couldn't even properly give their offer to Zeus so it was uncontested pretty much and it is said that T1 would do anything to keep him. It's just that they weren't able to even properly offer to Zeus which fucked them over, again according to rumors.
I think the point Dom makes at the end of this is an absolute bullseye, every title with t1 has somewhat less value for zeus as if being one of the best toplaners of all time is just a foot-note on the increasing greatness of Faker's legacy but in going to HLE, say they do well domestically and then go on to win worlds now instead of being overshadowed by Faker's legacy as the greatest of all time Zeus is building up his own legacy.
All this situation tells me is that none of these people on Reddit or anyone else bitching about the way it went down aren't traditional sports fans in any capacity bc if they were then they would know that this isn't an anomaly. This is how this goes.
No matter the situation and who your teammates are its extremely difficult to convince a professional in any sport to play without any guaranteed money for the next year or if the organization you're on can just throw you away the following year if the current doesn't go well. Its the reason why there's so many holdouts in the NFL i.e Hassan Reddick, Jamar Chase ,Saquan Barkley etc.
Finally some intelligent person in the comment section and not T1 crybabies. Zeus has won Worlds twice already when 90% pros won't win one. Hell Chovy doesn't have a Worlds trophy yet and he is on higher money than Zeus. LoL pro scene is short you need to secure the money first because no org including T1 would care after your retirement hell they won't care if your form drops in a couple of years time and drop you in an instant for the next big thing.
@@pratikroy227 The following is how actual sport contract negotiations go majority of the time.
Team A offers $$$ -> Agent takes that number to Teams interested -> Team B offers more $$$ -> Agent takes new offer to other teams -> Rinse and repeat
How does ignoring SKT get Zeus more money? He should've heard the offer and then tried to get more money from HLE or whatever team he wanted. This sounds like Zeus's agent had ulterior motives or was lazy and looking for a quick payout.
Dom looks like he's been bathing in ambrosia since the news broke, he really hates T1 and T1 fans 😂😂😂
Every shot to diminish the accomplishments of T1 and Faker he takes it
Let's ignore every time he has said any of the following:
1. "I know they were bad during LCK but T1 at Worlds is scary man, they might just win it all again"
2. "Zeus is fucking insane he's one of the best toplaners of all time, definitely in the conversation for the toplane GOAT"
3. "Oner is my favorite jungler in the world, I love him"
4. "I'm so tired to see these motherf*ckers debate on Reddit that Faker isn't the GOAT. Hopefully people will finally stop hating on Faker or arguing that someone else is the GOAT now. Faker is the undisputed greatest player of all time, nobody can deny it. He's so f*cking clutch"
5. "When the meta is ranged support champions like enchanters and Renata and Ashe for example, Keria is the best support in the world"
He hates the org and the mentally ill fans, not the players.
"Now I can finally support Zeus because he's not on T1. (Here is the reason for the Ambrosia) I love all the players on the team. If this roster was under any other name than T1, it would be my favorite team"
T1 did him dirty personally, he hates the org. For good reason.
Faker should get paid directly by riot for his “marketing” value
It seems silly that T1 has to fully pay that themselves
That last bit at the end. I remember when Bengi left T1, it was basically for this reason (not necessarily the 'better than Faker' part, but moreso wanting the recognition that he felt he wasn't getting (which tbf, he was every bit as important as Faker was to early T1's success).
Lol, Faker was way more important than Bengi. What are you smoking
I think he just knew that he would not have a lot of time as a professional player left, so he went for money. He was not the star player back then to be under Faker´s shadow, he even shared the starting position with Blank
@@conormcfire I watched plenty of those games live back then, the Faker+Bengi mid+jg synergy is exactly what made T1 unstoppable for years, as soon as Bengi left, you started to see cracks in T1s game, as good as they still were. With those 2 together, they looked outright unbeatable.
While I find it easily believable that Zeus would want to go to HLE, I do find it hard to believe both that Zeus+his agent held off until Kiin re-signed to drive up Zeus value as by far the best player on the market only to snap fire sign onto HLE and that no ulterior motives are at play. Surely the longer negotiations go on, the more Zeus+his agent can leverage it. Both HLE and T1 are willing to pay a premium, HLE more so, but having them do a bidding war favours Zeus.
Of course this assumes certain things such as what verbal agreement means, maybe there is a standard that I'm unfamiliar with, but if it's just a generic term, is it he said "he WILL play with T1" or that he "is WILLING to play with T1 (with the underlying assumption that HLE doesn't offer him a great contract which it seems like they did)." If he said the latter and T1 assumed the former, it maybe that it was just solely a miscommunication thing that he was always going to go with the best offer regardless of T1 or HLE, and T1 could have just tried to sign Kiin (not saying that it necessarily would have worked because they would have had to pay enough for Kiin NOT to play with Chovy when they are already running into budget issues and IIRC Kiin is already getting paid more than Zeus).
Assuming there was some sort of malicious intent from Zeus/ his agency and that there was no miscommunication that occurred, it is still unclear if it was him or his agent with said malicious intent. I could see a world where he lets his agency handle all negotiations and just tell him the results for him for final approval in which case he wouldn't necessarily know anything. However, I could also see a world where he does hate T1 and wants to screw them over because of the attributing all their success to Faker despite Zeus being better. The latter seems less likely as it wasn't as much T1 as the fans doing that.
Between these, miscommunication seems most likely followed by malicious intent. I can't imagine pure profit calculations without miscommunication due to the first point.
I think T1 made offer to Zeus where his salary would remain same but he would get more outside of that in bonuses and such so it would be probably same or more to what HLE offered,but such deal would mean less commission for his agency.
But if rumors are true and T1 obtains enough evidence to sue,it may block Zeus from being able to play next year and even lose his military exemption because of it.
Zeus is Kevin Durant when he left the Warriors... now the problem is what has KD won since he left the Warriors?
The problem is the team that Zeus joined is HLE, it is mega stacked and unstoppable.. If Peanut doesn't int
@@skrattaoppar9753So were the nets supposedly
@@skrattaoppar9753 yes. A super team, filled with talent. Something NOONE has tried before, im sure it wont collapse under pressure of having all those star players
@@skrattaoppar9753 so is Real Madrid. They lost 3 1, on their own stadium, against the seventh place of serie A
@@skrattaoppar9753 peanut didn't in in worlds lmao. peanut sacrificing for his carry to live is a call even T1 would make. are you gonna call Oner inter for his summer performance? scratch that, i bet you never watch LCK, just worlds then pretend to know something.
Zeus leaving the organization is his choice but i think he had more to offer and achieve than he already did. What's bugging me is the last part of the video where Dom says maybe Zeus wanted to explore he own brand and did not want to be in the shadow of Faker.
Reminds me of how Neymar left Barcelona for PSG while Messi was looking to pass the Baton and we all know how it went. I don't think history will repeat itself, but i wouldn't be shocked if it does.
One of the things I don't understand from all the info is... What does Zeus himself want? We hear a lot about what the T1 management wants, and what the agents want, but what does Zeus want? Is he the one that actually gets to make choices or does his agent have all the power? If Zeus wanted to stay with T1, could he?
Money, thats all he want and Its pretty fair after getting 2 world champs but they burn all the money on grandpa faker so whatever
Based on the latest information that’s out, it’s money. It appears that the contract that was signed at 3:40pm is a non-binding letter of intent and that Zeus’ and his agent’s aim was (1) commit HLE to terms that Zeus wanted (2) T1 announces that Zeus is a FA (3) wait for negative backlash on social media for T1 not resigning Zeus to force T1 to give Zeus the terms that he wants (speculation is 3x increase in offer/higher split of merch as compared to OFGK) (4) Zeus goes to T1 telling them that HLE is willing to sign him and force T1’s hand so that T1 gives Zeus all the terms he wants because of the backlash and Zeus gets more money and continues playing with T1.
The issue is that T1 were sick of the games Zeus and his agent were playing. Therefore when the agent tells T1 that Zeus has signed something with HLE, T1 just went “We’re done” and went with signing Doran. That’s why Doran signing for T1 was announced so soon and Zeus’ IG essentially said that the FA announcement was unexpected.
It’s because he probably expected that he could still play hardball with T1 after the FA announcement went out.
Only on paper = Both agency's biggest stakeholder(owns majority voting power) is the same company. Think Coke and Pepsi not fighting against each other despite being competitors because their top 5 biggest shareholders are the same 5 company.
The new revelation is that HLE offered 1year +additional year based on the will of Zeus meaning even if Zeus runs it down next year, Zeus can just stay in HLE.
T1 initially offered a pay cut not a pay raise ( this is the inital offer that the angency said was not something they could accept)
Apparently, Zeus and the agency gave t1 the final HLE contract and from their accounts it seemed like all T1 said was to just wait until they get there.
Well, no one I'm their right mind would take the initially T1 Contract after winning World's back to back. Frankly, the first offer was disrespectful
@@Infidel. All of the other players agreed to the pay cut. The promotional and merchandise money would have more than made up for the difference. T1 was apparently already handling promotional and merchandising deals under the ZOFGK brand, based on their verbal agreement with Zeus.
@@teemopanda02So? Should Zeus really care that his teammates took a paycut so that T1 can take the money they get from that brand? Zeus is thinking about HIS future. You could call him selfish sure but he did what he wanted to do and what he thought was best for him. Cry about it 🤷
@teemopanda02 Why should HE care about that? To make matters worse, the contract was a 1+1, meaning if he happens to have a OFF year in 2025, T1 could potiental terminate him, damaging his career. He should prioritize himself and no multi-million dollar companies that can replace him whenever they want, that said the way he left could have been better.
@@teemopanda02but who says that zeus gets a sizable cut of that? The whole thing with t1 being super profitable was the money that the organization themselves were making from the brand deals and content. Zeus is on a top 2 lck team, doesn't have to thr insane amount of promotional content that he did in t1, and has a player option on his 1+1 and not a team option. And finally more money
If HLE doesn't win Worlds next year, Zeus' legacy is gonna be severely hit. If somehow T1 wins Worlds next year, not only will Dom have an absolute meltdown, but Zeus will FOREVER have to live with the narrative that "he only won because he was with Faker" - based on speculation that Faker is retiring when his contract runs out next year.
Dude is under a lot of pressure. Let's see if a superteam can finally win something.
This devilish agents made zeus join a better team for a bigger salary i cant bealive they would do this to him...
The 6th trophy is for DOGFK 🐕🐕🐕
DOFGK*
@hsfan1337 take 5 seconds to think about why i ordered it that way...
It is my humble opinion that you, sir, just won the Internet.
Should have kept Rekkles as a sub just to make it DOGFKR
I dont understand why it always has to come down as "money is always a good reason to fuck someone over" No bro,there is something called morals and if i see it right, T1 offered him like 2.3m while HLE offered like 2.7m. Ppl forget the fact,that he also gets a % paycut from merch etc. so T1 and ZOFGK beeing giga popular, i think it would net him more money in the end.
In addition, they double played themself probably, after T1 announced Doran BEFORE Zeus HLE was officially confirmed, Zeus and his agency had no power towards HLE anymore since T1 already had Doran and i wouldnt wonder if HLE stepped back a step on their offer lmao
On top of everything, im not sure but didnt Kiin also take a paycut to stay in GenG? Brother got fed to GenG by the agency with a less lucrative contract, only to increase the value for Zeus, he would've probably looked into a decent offer from T1.
Only good reason for Zeus to leave is to have a less stressful schedule and to build his own empire, money is NEVER the reason, he would definately earn more in T1 in the long run.
Isn't all of this pretty much exactly what an agents job is (as long as he doesn't act against the players wishes)? He used his connections to secure the best possible deal for his player AND he managed to do it in a way that makes it more likely for Zeus to be on a winning team by because he won't just get replaced by Kiin but by Doran so his former team isn't as big of a threat to HLE with Zeus.
Bro ran the LCK market
“I am not depressed my life is very fucking good actually” lmaoo
When I saw that the T1 Boss was heard cursing I could only think of him like Miller from MGS5 "They played us like a damn Fiddle!"
Well zeus agency could have intentionally manipulated the market for zeus by allowing kiin to re-sign with geng and forced a higher salary because of the demand of top laners left in LCK which the best top laners left would be zeus or Doran. But the guy is on his TheShy arc so who knows
Agent is in huge issue. He used Kiin as a stalking horse and dishonoured his client. Id be suing him myself, no need for T1 to do it.
People who are incredibly mad at Zeus and his agency for this move must not be fans of any professional sports team. This kind of shit happens all the time with free agents in NFL/NBA/NHL. Players go for the best deal available 99% of the time.
This was even better than just following the money as HLE roster looks insanely stacked and they should be a serious contender domestically and internationally.
The problem is not Zeus leaving per se (altho yeah some fans are just mad that he left) the real issue is how he left.
If Doran hadn't been available then T1 would've been UberFucked and forced to find a prodigy rookie at best. Zeus and his agent should've not lead them on, which is the point of the rumors; if they are true, then the agent (who works with Kiin too) orchestated this to guarantee more money while royally fucking T1 over.
Idk if its illegal per se but it doesn't sound super legal? It sounds like a legal loophole at best, bc if it isnt idk how other agencies don't do this shit all the time.
@ I guess the real point of contention is the nature of this “verbal agreement”, because there’s many examples of players in those sports leagues I mentioned who say they will definitely sign an extension with their current team and end up signing with another, but everyone knows in those situations that until pen is put to paper nothing is guaranteed.
I don’t know if you can really fault a player or an agent for playing hardball and leveraging a situation to get the most out of it. I suppose if collusion between Kiin and Zeus’ agents can be proven or the verbal agreement can somehow be determined as legally binding then it definitely looks bad for Zeus and his agent. The thing that must be said though, is T1 not just taking for granted that Zeus will re-sign? It’s not on Zeus to make sure T1 is in a good position, that is on the organization.
@@renecon5893 also your initial statement is just wrong if u think fans of traditional sports are not made at these things idk what u watch cause this exact lowballing from the agent/agency everybody was mad at pogba and his agent mino raiola
That agent's "commission" must've been good. Don't think Zeus had much of a say.
I dont understand the Zeka disrespect, he was insane last summer and if not for Doran being a bum internationally could have beaten BLG. Also he had the single hardest run to win worlds with a team where he was the primary carry.
He had deft and beryl what are you coping about
@thegodkira3953 yeah deft and Beryl carried him not the sylas akali meta and zeka's proficiency on those picks, surely I am coping
No, T1 actually pays the second best contracts.
HLE is just mega rich.
They 100% had the money for Kiin and the agency knew this.
If we talking about money, T1 has just as much backing if not more than Hanwa tbh, its Comcast and SK, they pretty much own the legacy media in KR and US. I dont think not having enough money was the issue. There has to be some insider dealing to fk over T1 especially when they already have millions in marketing ZOFGK.
@@solemityprudent1869pretty sure skt doesn't pump money into t1 aside from fakers salary
Kiin, Canyon, Chovy all wanted to stay tgt
In the end there is a salary cap in korea so actually its not about the funding of the teams, they are super rich
@@bobmarley4214but when money come in front of your eyes, your statement will twist 180 degree
The dom quoting reditors voices is too good
What happen to the community being behind player's free agency? T1 let Zeus contract ran out so Zeus basically became a free agent and is free to choose what team he gets to play on.
Everyone is against corporations until their entertainment gets hit.
Zeus leaving is not the issue. It's the way his agent conducted the process.
If Zeus wanna leave he should have made it known, he made a verbal agreement with t1 to stay, which is why t1 made preparations for all the zofgk merch. Now they have to cancel all of it bc Zeus decided to go to hle. Next Zeus wanted a 2 year contract while t1 want 1+1, but Zeus Sign the same 1+1 with hle. It totally fuk over t1 bc they could have gotten kiin.
His departure isn't the big problem, the way it happened is.
tldr, they delayed negotiations until Kiin got signed by GenG to leverage T1 into offering more money, when T1 did offer more they got donowalled by Zeus and his Agent, then gigatilted and had to sign Doran because they knew they'd been fucked over by the Agency that manages both Kiin and Zeus lmao. Just a shitty way to handle things. Kiin gets less money, T1 get the worse trade possible and HLE pree much got everything they wanted. Truly tragic for multiple parties.
crazy thing is kespa agency laws was created so they cant talk directly to players and abuse them mentally and effect their decisions
Yeah i dont know man as a T1 fan, ill say that the org did seem to maybe undervalue zeus most likely but I wouldnt handle it this way personally considering Zeus probably definetly knew what was going on. Unless he wanted to prove his self worth to show he can win worlds on other teams and not get carried, which kind of doesn't make sense since he was considered as the best player in the team. I really want to hope that it wasnt about money...
@@dimitrijetomic6054 bro just think about what ur saying.
Imagine you get paid to play LoL, and someone offers to pay you an extra $800k over 2 years.
You’ve already won 2 championships with ur team. You already proved what you set out to prove.
Taking the money IS the logical choice. Plus you probably get tired of playing with the same players, even if they’re the best.
@@stone_pilot then just tell them before too late. Dont forget that Zeus used to be T1's trainee / T1 A team. They've been playing / teaming / staying together for over 4 years, this is not how the way you choose to leave, T1 lost a bunch of their product / brand / time / other choices because of Zeus and his Agency
T1 was in it for the long haul. Planned ahead of the season because of the verbal agreement. They have pre order sales for the merch and focus on the brand that the players bring.
I don't blame Zeus or his agent for signing the contract with HLE (if it was handled legally and not in bad faith). Wanting more for your work is understandable, each of us knows that. But if we account for what ifs maybe Zeus could have bagged more if he stayed in T1. Who knows time will tell.
@@stone_pilot I really don't see it that way, I would stay with the same team since it's probably a hassle to get used to a new and a new team no point in changing what ain't broke and as you said he already proved everything. To me 800k over 2 years is pennies on the dollar, cuz in the end T1 was allegedly going to give Zeus 2.6 mil and if that irl meeting went through he could have maybe gotten the money he wanted
It's actually so disrespectful to the rest of T1 that Faker is about to win back to back esports player of the year.
The last point was interesting but, do you think zeus would be as relevant as he is right now if he never played for T1? He would be still a great player, just like many others in LCK, but would be at the point of clout he is right now?
snake agent aside, nobody is considering this; maybe zeus wana be considered the best player in the world on his own team. yea he has zeka and viper but hes been the best top laner for years now and they have the best team now if hes #1. its like berserk leaving griffith
I see ppl commenting what is legal/illegal and some saying T1 should have done this and that. Do these ppl even know the korean law and riot rules? And some are commenting like they are the insiders.
Really hard to believe t1 wouldn’t shell out an extra 300 k lmao
Somebody is lying and Zeus is lookin like he pulled a rat move
This feels like the Neymar situation when he left Barcelona for PSG
outside of KT has Doran ever been on a roster where he's not the worse player.
First time first on my favorite content creators video! I love when you upload longer breakdowns like this keep up the good work Dom :)
'you gotta care about yourself' - I mean yeah but to make money you also need to have fans care about you...Zeus decision is just strange in all respects: he burned all bridges to an org that brought him up, paid him and with which he won the WC twice, an org that's almost omnipotent in the space and that his best friends are on...he did it to get more money? well yeah but only slightly and on a 1+1 deal which is super short-term focused (maybe he doesn't expect to be around too long) because the best long-term deal was almost certainly staying put - his image and sponsorship potential also took a massive hit with the legal situation and general public sentiment towards his exit
all this is strange because it just didn't have to be like that at all - if he had made that decision and communicated it clearly I dont think there would have been any backlash - but the timing is horrible: after everyone resigned with paycuts to stay together, after kiin re-signed, after branding deals closed and verbal agreements were reached? just a bad look and completely unnecessary - HLE would have paid him regardless
@@johnkirk1772 He didn’t burn all bridges lmao, if HLE would let him go RIGHT NOW you really think T1 wouldn’t grovel and let him back in?
@@stone_pilot that is if Doran doesn't perform. If Doran does well and the fans like him, Zeus would be fucked.
Again, leaving T1, specially in the way he did if the rumors are true, means he either was ready to risk a lot or was unaware of how fucked he would be if ANYTHING goes below Fucking Perfection.
Think about it; what happens if Zeus doesn't do well? What happens if Doran does well? What happens if Zeus chokes, or has poor chemistry with his team? What happens if T1 fans never let the grudge go, or HLE fans dont warm up to him?
What about his rep? Being seen as a traitor is a bad bag to carry, he can let it go if he stomps, but if he doesn't? and for the first few months it may be real rough, specially bc ZOFGK was the star of Two entire Worlds tournaments, their fans where built around them as a group, not necessarily individuals, and they are *pissed* atm.
@@stone_pilot The damage was already done to T1. They have functionally deleted his entire presence from the org, and seem unlikely to work with him again. T1 can always pivot to Faker's legacy to recover financially. They won't risk this situation happening again, as Zeus has demonstrated he has no loyalty to their brand.
@@stone_pilotMy guy, they cleansed Zeus presence from all T1 establishments and all social media LMAO
@@engryfill9047yea lol canna incident doesnt even compare to this lol for canna t1 even hold his room for him
If the “collusion” is real Kiin is the one who got the most fucked over as he could have joined T1 for a much more inflated contract or forced GenG to match it by waiting?
Implying T1 can pay enough compared to Gen.G
@@B0lzenlol Last year of Faker, I am 100% sure T1 would pay out their ass to get Kiin instead of Doran.
@@B0lzenlol Yes, T1 pays 2nd best in LCK, only after HLE which has very enthusiastic owner backing them up.
Especially after everyone else essentially took a slight pay raise only to keep the roster, T1 did have enough money to match Gen G
@@Sunless-Sunny we don’t know whether the agency offered Kiin to T1. I think you would have to assume that they would have. Not out of courtesy but if you were trying to maximize money then you would shop around.
@@stone_pilot They didn't. The agency protracted negotiations with T1 until after Kiin signed. When that happened Zeus' market value skyrocketed. The way the tactic works is to negotiate a decent deal for one player in order to get a great deal for the other. Kiin was the screwed one in this scenario.
"Individually Zeus is better player than faker this year" oh how short your memory is. Do u rly not remember zeus twisted fate top? And how he was getting caught on top on repeat etc whole year besides EWC and worlds??? Rly? And I'm not saying faker was playing any good but cmon
Dont you remember faker at MSI? faker during the melee ap jg meta, faker more bad games than zeus, he isnt saying zeus was the best player of T1, unironically the most consistent play was guma
@@ColonelMeteorz Again do u remember Zeus during this lck season? disgusting, getting caught 24/7 on side lane, playing tf for no reason
Nobody has ever won any international tournaments (Worlds/MSI) after leaving T1, maybe that will change but who knows
Technically untrue as Scout was part of SKT T1 for a short period and won with EDG after. Duke is another example, who won with IG after.
Scout, who was Faker's understudy, went on to be one of the best mids in LPL history and won worlds 2021.
@@LordWencelWolfscout was not a starter on SKT, and Duke was not a starter on IG
It amazes me how this old man with no family no life goals or passions outside a game keeps milking an organization that cares 0 about him
So in conclusion the people that got fucked are:
Kiin since he was probably sold under market value
HLE since they most likely had to pay an enormous sum of money in order to get Zeus
Guma, Keria and Oner as they most likely accepted a lower salary because they thought the Avengers would assemble atleast one last time
Doran as he initially was treated like trash online, but seems like people got over it
T1 as a whole because of the whole merch drop not being worth anything anymore
The people that profited from this situation are:
Zeus and Kiins agency
GenG as they got Kiin for a low amount
Still up for debate would be Zeus and his parents as we don't know for sure what impact they had on the whole situation, keep in mind that Zeus is only 20 he could've easily been manipulated by both his agency and parents and he got alot of hate
Good insights. I'm just wondering. You've been doing this for a long time. Why do you pronounce Zeus' name as same with the god? Everyone else (himself included) doesn't say it that way.
Because it's written the same?
bc his brain cant understand Zeus is korean so he keeps calling him as if he was english-
@@TkokatThat’s not how it’s supposed to be pronounced
@@DenselyPerfect it's the name of a mythological being, it has many pronounciations. In my country it would be something like z'eh-oo-z. I understand that in english it would be pronounced Z-U-Z. I don't think there is only one way to pronounce it... unless it's the greek version, the original.
@@wolfroarxx6055 okay so we should pronounce Faker as "Paker" then
This has future major major scandal written all over it
scandal suggest that something is illegal but this is normal practice
You realised it is normal practice for teams to negotiate with multiple teams and stall for time to drive up market value.
@@PeoplePleaser578 and then you leave out the part where they don't give out the fair shot for T1 to counter offer. So the rest you say is true but you leave out the scandal part.
@@3000wouter They literally gave them multiple chances to counter offer… T1 didn’t offer what HLE did. They signed with HLE - It’s not a scandal. T1 could have offered him the money at any point, they tried to get him cheaper - It backfired. That’s it. The agency is under no obligation to work with T1 or give T1 more time than they have anyone else.
There is nothing illegal or scandalous happening.
@@3000wouter oh yeah, T1 just has no time to counter offer even though they have... *checks note* the entirety of this year to talk to him. Do you really think T1 hasn't already made a counter offer that was not up to the standards of Zeus? Why even let them counter offer when you KNOW they aren't willing to go as high as you wanted anyways?
Zeus knew and the agent knew. Idk about anything else, but those two 100% knew what they were doing
Edit: how is it his best interest to move teams when faker will retire soon and the team will be looking for a new leader.
Why did T1 signed Guma first before Zeus? I mean, Guma said himself that he will stay T1 no matter what. Why not priority Zeus signing instead of Guma?
Not that they didn't they couldn't. Bro was stalling for a better contract. Guma, Keria. Oner all accepted pretty subpar contracts (only slight pay raises with less years) so they can stay on the team. It was the same last year too, Zeus was the last one to sign not because T1 undervalues him but bcs he wanted more.
Bro you should ask Joe Marsh not us, if you think it's easy to negotiate then you are totally clueless
So money limit doesn't apply to T1?? It's kind of unfair to the rest of LCK, no??🤔🤔
Now I wanna know everyone else’s salary, what are the chances that Zeus, the best performing player on T1 year round, is getting paid less than the other players (obviously faker is the face of LOL)
Not only did this agent f T1, but also fd Zeus, because he has to now play with Zeka lmfao
Zeka won worlds and won LCK last year… he also gets to play with Peanut and Viper.
zeka is better than faker what are you on?
@@KuLifefinnyeah but when face against Knight from BLG, he couldn't do any shit of it, your KEKA otp Yone couldn't do anything much at all, that's why lost
@stevenmah2070 bro calm down why are you so mad you can credit two players at the same time zeka had an insane performance in 2022 and he did all he could vs blg if you actually use ur eyes he couldnt have done more if you think otherwise then ur genuinely delusional
@@stevenmah2070why are you changing subject ..he still beat faker and chovy in final when it matter ...stop coping with knight argument ...faker also lost to knight in msi ..di you forget??
even if zeus and his agent aired t1 there’s nothing remotely illegal about that no? as soon as his contract with t1 is up he has no obligation to negotiate with them, t1 has no rights to him after his contract.
The illegal portion is the agent of kiin and zeus are under the same parent company. By using privilege information, they were using it to temper situation to benefit your contract decision, thats the potentially illegal part.
@@Korialx I don’t know how it works in Korea but at least in the U.S. it would be perfectly legal.
It’s not like they have a monopoly on talent. There are millions of LoL players, they just have 2 of the most famous top laners.
Leveraging your assets is just good business strategy.
@@stone_pilot its a conflict of interest because they are supposed to help kiin get the best contract possible but in this case they sort of fucked him over in favor of zeus
@@stone_pilot It's also illegal in the USA to do that. Benefitting from market changes is perfectly legal, however, if you intentionally manipulate negotiations to tamper with the market, that is very much so grounds for a lawsuit. There's judicial precedence in that regard.
Also, verbal agreements can be legally binding if proved. Meaning if Zeus and his agent made a verbal agreement with T1 and then played around after, then they could be considered in violation of contracts. That is also what happens in the US>
@@stone_pilot lol it's illegal in the us stop commenting on things you don't know about it doesn't make you look smart.
It’s sad to see this roaster split up, but what I don’t get is. If faker really wanted Zeus to stay he could have easily payed whatever Zeus needed.
Or helped the negotiations.
And faker has far and beyond more money then Zeus.
So why are people calling Zeus or his agent greedy when faker could easily pay half of Zeus contract xD
Zeus leaving is one thing but leaving like this just leaves a bad taste in people's mouths especially the psycho T1 fans in SK lol
Just sign another player who start his name with "Z" and you good to go
5th one was for rekkless.
6th one was for dogfk
Very short term move by the agency… if they want to do this long term, burning bridges with a top tier team like T1 probably isn’t very good business
shits wild that fans of a team who has been to the finals 7 out of 13 years and won 5 of them still manages to act like a victim and an underdog year after year.
not sure what's so difficult to understand that people aren't upset that zeus left, they're upset at the shit he stirred up while leaving
@@sirpancakes5128not sure if your brain is actually functioning.
@@timreinhardt7452 if u watch dom ur obvi biased to some degree but to say that u wouldn't be upset that one of ur key players left in such a unprofessional manner is dumb
@@zweiigorgon8980 Or you are dumb for thinking Zeus cares more for T1 than his future. Zeus has won Worlds twice he doesn't maybe care to win it one more time he rather secure his bag for his future as LoL future is uncertain unlike football and in football players do this all the time so they can secure a better pay for their future post retirement. Zeus's agent isn't some evil wizard manipulating a naive disney princess into submitting to his will Zeus knew what his agent wanted for both of themselves and he agreed T1 if valued him so much should have agreed to any and every term Zeus and his agent proposed because in negotiation you can fail they can screw over and if that happened why are you crying then. They wanted to emotionally exploit Zeus into signing a less paying contract that his agent blocked which for me is fair enough. Don't cry and move on because Zeus clearly has so support Doran your new top laner.
@@pratikroy227 ur making a lot of assumptions on what I think and feel my guy and idk what u mean by T1 is exploiting Zeus emotionally that has no merit?
First off let’s talk about money. Do you really think T1 cannot afford zeus let’s be real T1 is not some broke team with no funding whatsoever idk why theres this narrative that T1 can’t afford Zeus
Second it wouldn’t make sense to leave T1 since without T1 Zeus is basically risking his career growth to gamble with a random team that no one truly cares about like HLE when you literally have a insane brand to franchise off of? Again even monetarily it makes no sense to do that
Is delusional to blame everything on the agency. Of course Zeus gets final say on where he wants to go he prolly just wanted to leave. And why wouldn’t he the hle is a good team, hes getting more money, and he doesn’t have be a in the nightmare t1 schedule of nonstop fan meetings and bullshit 24/7
u can fr stop shitting on t1 fans, sure some of us are more restrained while others are more emotional, but it all comes from the passion we have towards our favorite team, i dont even have to mention the other teams "fans" that shit on t1 in every given moment, insulting our players of being bad after being ddosed for half an year, calling faker washed up while his wrist was injured, at this point its safe to say we aren't the delusional ones cause the results speak for themselves
Dom is just mentally ill or what? If Zeus saw his teammate's performance "all year" and therefore thought he was worth more than Faker, then he should damn well also know that he would have won NOTHING this year if it WASNT for Faker? What kind of double standard bs is this?? Zeus played very well, nobody can deny that, But Faker was THE reason that they won the finals against BLG. Not to mention Zeus spent over an entire split running it down with ranged toplaners himself, I guess thats not relevant either?
Also, playing with Faker DOESNT limit how much money you can get, its quite the contrary actually. Faker's salary is paid by SKT themselves, NOT T1. T1 by definition has more lee way with contracts than most other orgs, not to mention the staggering amount of money they can make through brand deals etc.
if you want a market evaluation why woul,.d you try to close in half a day?
19:41 No dom, it's your hatred for T1 that is justifying by labeling all T1 fans like that.
Most T1 fans know that there are flaws in T1, most noticeable is their drafting half the time. You can't say draft was not the issue when they are 2 times world champ when not doing TF top and Braum Keria type sht. If they lacked hands and skills then they wouldn't be 3 times world finalists, and 2 times champ.
Every one was calling out when Keria was not performing and Faker was struggling on ad mid meta and Zeus would get owned by Kinn and Doran domestically, we never say T1 is flawless. It's your hatred for T1 that is justifying this mentality of yours.
Another L Dom take about T1. “Zeus was way better than Faker all last year”. Bro didn’t even watch the games then. Zeus was running it down domestically all season. Meanwhile Faker hard carried T1 through worlds after a mediocre domestic season. SMH
Faker played good in 2 series at worlds lmao stop the glazing 😂🤣🤡
This Dom shit ass always downplay faker but Faker play out of his mind 😂😂😂
@@colin5197 mfer if faker didnt peak on worlds final at 2-1 down in the series to hard carry bring it back 3-2 they dont win worlds. You 🤡
@@colin5197 awww. You poor butthurt gen g simp. Must hurt watching T1 win worlds all the time while you and Choky cry. 😢🤡
@ typical LPL/GenG fanboy throat goat
I wasn't on board with "T1 Hater" label that was thrown over dom and always viewed it as a speculation from crazy fans etc. However, holy are your takes one sided.. to the point it got boring after a while.
Yeah but if those things were at the back of his mind would it have been better when they talked together before going on holiday and be honest just straight up say you can't do it you want to finish go your own way or just say it's there you need time to think about it then say it so other players can think about their options too. I don't know but in the end he signed off on the contract and chose to leave so it's whatever just sux how it ended but I wish him all the best. Joe Marsh actually answered questions about this on fm korea something like that
"yo we want to play with you but we don't have the money the other team has" T1, the richest org out there would say this? lmao seriously doubt that. if they would, they'd need a reality check xD
I don't think the zeus thing with the agent at the end is that bad, to me the worst part is with Kiin, because if they really ghosted t1, the agents might not even have given the info of the offer to Kiin
agent shouldn't have to tell t1 how much kiin was getting. The only "illegal" thing they could've done is collusion but it's smart that zeus agent waited until kiin signed so he can make more money from either team he goes to
@@phunki1696 i mean kiin is known to go for money contract , so im pretty sure if he thougth there was a chance to get paid 2.7 mill he would take it.
@@phunki1696 bro, read what I said again lol. I did not say that the agents needed to give the info about gen g offer, what I said is that Kiin might have not known that t1 made an offer for him in the first place because the agents didn't tell him that they got one
No, both players did not get the most amount one signed early and one waited till the last second
Not even remotely close to the last second. The deadline zeus agency gave t1 was completely arbitrary. Free agency JUST started.
Ppl are saying that Zeus' agent and Kiin's agent collaborated...but is that really logical?
Zeus wanted 2+1. T1 made a counter-offer that Zeus didn't like.
T1 would have been less likely to change their mind if Kiin (Top 2 most wanted top laners in LCK) was still a FA, and they had a plan B.
Once Kiin signed with Gen.G, T1 has less choices, and therefore might change their mind and accept Zeus' offer.
Side note: T1's COO said that they were on their way to meet with Zeus for further negotiations. In my opinion it sounds more like they were trying to convince Zeus, because if they would've been okay with 2+1, T1 would've contacted Zeus' agency to let them know before heading over, and discuss the fine details after meeting.
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P.S. For those of you saying that Zeus' agency and Kiin's agency was working together to get Kiin signed off to Gen.G ASAP to screw over T1, I wanted to clarify that Gen.G was adamant on picking up Kiin, because he was the keystone in acquiring the Gen.G 2025 roster.
First, Canyon didn't really have any other teams to go to that are able to pay close to his salary (already getting a paycut in Gen.G than what he's worth), and that are a contender for worlds champions from LCK (T1 and HLE and Gen.G, but T1 and HLE both have their priority of junglers already so they would not bother paying more for Canyon).
One of Chovy's conditions for re-signing with Gen.G was that he wanted to play with Kiin again. So, to sign Chovy, they NEED KIIN.
By signing Kiin, they have Kiin top, Canyon jungle, and Chovy bot. At this point, Gen.G can just call Ruler and be like "Yo Ruler, we got KCC top side, want to play on our team?" For Ruler, if he wanted $$ he would've stayed in LPL. Only choice for $$ in LCK is HLE, but HLE have Viper. He came back to LCK to win, and the other org that would be contending for worlds champions would be T1 and Gen.G, but T1 wanted ZOFGK, meaning their first priority was Guma, not Ruler.
Once Gen.G gets KCCR, then ANY support would want to play on that team. So for Gen.G, they had to sign Kiin ASAP in order to make their roster for 2025.
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I'm not a T1 fan (still respect Faker), so I was looking at this situation from a third-person POV. It just looks like Zeus was doing whatever that would be in his best interest, but people are just trying to accuse him of malicious intent. Players change teams all the time in esports, mostly because of duration and salary. In fact, it happens in regular professional sports. Also, feels like this is a big issue because Zeus was on T1. Doran and Peanut moved to HLE last year after 2 years on Gen.G for a higher salary. I don't remember them receiving any hate from the Gen.G fans calling them traitors and whatnot. I don't understand all the toxicity and speculations.
Shocker, corporatioms doing corporate stuff, trying to get the best deals. Who could have thought. Never happened before. Let's blame the player, the one that actually holds the value. Oh noooo Zeus and his agency fucked t1, cause they thought they can bluff him out. This is a professional sport, people think this is about 50 bucks or smth.
Long story short the player and the agent want the max compensation and acted in their best financial intrest. The parasocial T1 fans cant accept that and will scream foul play. Zeus should have the balls to admit it but due to kpop and korean culture in general hes pandering to the fan base making it look like hes been held at gunpoint to be paid his millions of dollars. Cruel world.
except the agent admitted the salary is similar and the only thing they disagreed on is 1+1 vs 2 year. which is fine if HLE offered a 2 year contract except HLE gave zeus a 1+1 contract also. this suggested to me that zeus wants to go to another team which is fine but he told t1 he wanted to resign with them which made them lose out on opportunities to sign other tops
tldr: I am a dom fan and I spend my time fantasizing about shadowboxxing t1 fans
@@MrWizardjr9 1+1 isnt just a blank thing. hle offered a player option while t1 offered a team option. completely different.
player option>>>>>>>>2yr contract>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>team option
Same in every sport
this whole ''zofgk'' situation is so k pop coded its funny
Zeus is really good but i think Doran's with faker macro mastermind can do as good or better (a little worse in lane but a lot less picked off)
summer T1 ZEUS
Zeus got a bag, his agents job is to get that bag and get the blame
His agent is a beast and is not like Zeus was set up with a bunch of no names, is a top 3 team in the LCK easy.
People acting like T1 is some kind of big family, and they are all part of it.
T1 is an organisation. Business at first and making money is the main job of that organisation. YOU THE FANS are their customer base, and players are walking, talking living billboards, and presenting you shit. That's why they have sponsors and merchandise.
Everyone should know that players are not there as family members. They are employees. Nothing more, nothing less. Just because YOU THE FANS glorifying them doesn't mean they are any more than that. Organisation can get rid of them the moment they find that employee to be the threat to the organisation profits or image.
So, if we are on the same team, and fucker besides me make 7 million euros and I make 1-2 million euros. And especially in any industry where you can work in a few years like Esports or sports. Of course you go for the money. Bro is 20, something years old, he needs to think what he is going to eat when he is 40. Economy and inflations are real things.
Only old players or washed-up players in football (soccer) will be willing to take the pay cut to continue playing for the team. And THEIR MARKETING VALUE IS HIGLY CONSIDERED. Modrić started his career back in 2002. 23 years ago. He probably started earning proper living money in 2006. After he signed for Madrid in 2012, in 13 years there, his grand-grandchildren dont need to worry about the money. And this year, when he is 39, he takes a wage cut of 75% to stay playing for the club that he loves.
How much of this is possible in the Esports? How many players will be able to play for 23 years, and for 19 of those years earning high amounts of money. And then being so powerful with marketing and achievements that they do not need to worry about future? Especially how everyone says that LoL is dying and RIOT defunding leagues while pumping Lux skins and NOT FIXING THE FUCKING CLIENT.
Zeus didn't screw T1 over, Zeus asked for his market value, and T1 basically said to him that he isn't worth that. Zeus did right, and he should have.
Don't under rate Doran tbh he's great domestically but internationally he's known as a choker just like someone else, I wonder who that is 🤔 btw chovy isn't a choker it's normally his team mates that hinder him winning internationally
am not the greatest lol player or i have anything to say but the t1 wincon was zeus only in the last words other then that he is either mid or even the lose con i think doran if he got controlled and stopped from going to his iconic troll playes going to be greater then zeus pls dont cook me just correct me
Good business move by Zeus tbh 😊
Not really
Depends.
Its a high risk high reward move, if he pops off he's gonna be massive, if he doesn't then all the hate he's getting now not only will be doubled but he also risks falling into irrelevancy. Being the guy who "gave away his legacy for cash" is never a good look.
Ofc I hope the best for him, I'm just saying that this may have been a riskier move that he thought, that is if he was thought it was a risky move at all.
@@gearguts7259 people dont understand that his playstyle most of the time worked because his team allowed him to play like that. Lets see if Zeka and Viper can do the same and let him be the carry
@@Xilo29 Yeah team synergy is going to play a MASSIVE role in HLE next year.
I've seen this before, being stacked to the brim with amazing players means nothing if they have low synergy in their playstyles or they have protagonist syndrome and can't cooperate.
We just have to wait and see.
HLE is seemingly not even offering more and its also a 1+1 contract. Zeus just left because he wanted to lmao.
It's just a smart move if you're on his shoes. If its a money issue, its a win for Zeus as HLE offered more. If its a legacy issue, Zeus no longer has anything to prove in T1, he already won worlds twice. Or maybe he just wanted a new environment. Who really knows
@@FripChopIt hurts his branding as an individual player though. If he's that sneaky regarding contracts high-paying teams will be wary of scouting him in the future because they might get screwed out of potential FA's if he's available, and this also causes his long-standing fanbase to be irreparably fractured. While they wish him well with his future it also taints his image as a person, so either way he wins short-term but his long-term career is muddied by an ungraceful exit.
Edit : Also this puts even more pressure on him to perform outside of T1 as well. Because if he underperforms even for a couple of series he will get flak and there's really no counterargument for it.
@reishiki8682 I'd say his initial plans were just to get the bag and play with less stress and pressure (cause let's admit it, T1 players are so busy with things not even related to practicing) but didn't realize the backslash it will get. The expectation of the roster coming into 2025 is basically get to worlds finals and nothing less. As a 20 year old up and coming player, having financial freedom that young is so op I wouldn't blame him. HLE is no slouch either, people forget they just won LCK and now replaced their weakest link with one of the, if not the best top laner currently.
@@FripChop Super team do well domestically but will always fumbled in worlds. I say he got swayed by his agent. He gets good money but lost credibility and some fans.
I heard that with the HLE 1+1 Zeus gets to decide whether he stays, so it is advantage to the player instead of advantage to the team in a normal 1+1.
Zeus wanted to stay with T1
T1 is throwing hissy fits because they can't use ZOFGK brand anymore and they have lost their revenue (supposedly 10s of millions) they thought they had it in the bag.
If what Zeus situation was illegal, T1 can immediately cancel the HLE contract publicly, instead of leaking T1 HQ response drama.
What Zeus did to the org that raised him may be awful ethically, but this is the norm in any sports (including NBA, NFL, MLB etc). Ashley Kang's "SK's Market is different" is such bs, cuz that is only formality, there is no legal code saying it's illegal to do so.
the agent playing with the data they had might be illegal
if zeus don't have verbal agreement with t1 then I agree with you or maybe don't wait till for so long and just, and yeah if the verbal agreement can be proved the agency is fucked, and if they also proved the agency did something dirty zeus might get penalty and can't play, is it worth it, if he wants to leave just leave and don't say to t1 u want to stay.
@@AhfLabib ah yeah, verbal agreement, which no one outside of T1 can verify of its existence.GL proving that !!!!