T1 League of Legends star Faker discussed the removal of head coach Yang “Daeny” Dae-in and coach Lee “Zefa” Jae-min, who were fired yesterday as a result of T1’s campaign (6-5 right now) in the 2021 LCK Summer Split, following their 2-0 victory over KT Rolster today. Despite the news of T1’s coaching staff being fired from the team just a few hours prior to the match, T1 took a dominating victory against KT.
After the match, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok joined the press room for a post-match interview with invenglobal.
“After we heard the news, I presumed that everyone would be upset, and they definitely still are,” Faker said in a post-match interview. “However, they kept their head in the game tonight, as pro players should do so, so I’m very grateful.”
Faker also stated that since Stardust and Moment took over the team as the primary coaching staff, the team’s direction took a turn.
“Daeny/Zefa were very knowledgeable about the game, so the team’s direction was mostly based on their in-game knowledge. Now, the coaching staff and the players are acting more as a unit in finding our direction.
Right now, everyone’s very confused and upset, but from the day before our match to tonight, we all tried to focus on nothing else but the match. Internally, we’re trying to set the right atmosphere to focus on what’s in front of us.
Our team’s direction has changed quite drastically, and everything’s pretty hectic overall, so my level of confidence has definitely [went] down. However, if we can overcome our obstacles and move forward one step at a time, I think winning Worlds is definitely doable.”
In his last statement, Faker said that Daeny and Zefa provided T1 with a lot of game knowledge. There are lots of reasons behind the organization’s decision, but Faker believes that “everyone has their perspective of the story, so I urge everyone to not make any wrong assumptions.”