T1 player streams are indefinitely suspended “again”, less than a week after announcing their return. The community is calling for Riot Games to quickly solve the DDoS issue.
Four-times League of Legends (LoL) Worlds Champion, T1, expressed “deep frustration” after the recent Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on their players' streams.
The statement was posted on their official channels on social media on June 8, including an announcement that they will go back to indefinite suspension, again. This news was not well received by the community, especially given T1's high profile status.
T1 suspends all player streams after persistent DDOS attacks
General Manager of T1, Jeong “Becker” Hoi-yoon stated on Mar. 21 that the DDoS attacks still occurred, specifically targeting their LoL player’s streaming and personal practices, which marks the first call for the streaming hiatus.
After two months of countermeasures, he stated on Jun. 3 that the players will resume their streams after temporarily suspending it since April. However, the DDoS attacks occurred after less than a week, forcing them to again suspend it indefinitely starting on Jun. 8.
The Issue Started on 2024 LCK Spring
The allegedly related issue started back in Feb. 25, during the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Group Stage matches between DRX and Dplus KIA. As a result, the best-of-three matches were halted eight times and took seven hours to finish.
The DDoS attacks continued, affecting the following matches on Feb. 28 between T1 and FearX. After being forced to halt the first match multiple times, the LCK took the decision to transition the second match to a recorded broadcast without an audience, with refunds for the matches’ ticket holders.
LCK Secretary General Lee Jung-hoon made a formal apology on Mar. 4, stated that they had took steps to report the attacks on LCK to the relevant authorities and law enforcement immediately after it happened as they believed that these attacks were clear criminal acts while also working with Riot Games' global teams, relevant departments, and internal and external experts to analyze the cause of the attack and apply countermeasures.
Riot Korea and Riot Games yet to find long-term solution says T1
It is unfortunate that the six months long DDoS issue has yet to be solved. As it is beyond the control of T1 or their ownership group, the South Korean organization seeks long-term solutions from Riot Korea and Riot Games, which “regrettably have not yet occurred”.
During the MSI 2023, T1's collaborative effort with Riot Korea had led to the implementation of a solution to prevent the DDoS attacks targeting the players. However, this instead resulted in attacks on those who played alongside T1 players, which still directly affects the players’ SoloQ experiences.
Despite that, T1 emphasized that neither Riot Korea or Riot Games are at fault for the challenges T1 and other teams face in SoloQ, and the statement was made in the spirit of transparency without the intention of encouraging the community to go against them.
They also assure that the statement serves as nothing more than a communication tool to the fans, and that Riot has been informed of our intention to make the statement.
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Impact of DDoS on T1
The DDoS attack obviously not only saddens T1 fans and LCK viewers, but also brings a huge impact to T1 mentally and financially.
In their official announcement on March 21, Becker stated that the attacks affected players’ condition and personal practices.
While some may perceive the inability to play SoloQ as a minor inconvenience, a critical component for high-level pro players in Korea to stay sharp, adapt to the meta, and maintain peak performance, as mentioned on their latest official announcement from June 8.
Not being able to execute their streaming schedule could lead to complications for T1 to meet partnership obligations for streaming contracts, resulting in significant financial implications for the organization.
How Community React on T1 DDoS
T1 already stated that the message was not a call to action for fans or the community to take any actions against Riot Korea or Riot Games. However, the LoL community worldwide still shares their disappointment.
Desk Host & Interviewer of LoL Esports Laure Valée “can’t believe this keeps on happening”, while GAM Esports analyst Molecule hopes Riot Games to “step up”.
The community also connected this with Faker's controversial US$500 Ahri Skin, with some community member stating that Riot Games only cares about Faker and T1 when it comes to money.
There is still no statement from Riot Games and Riot Korea at the time of this article writing. We hope that the issue can be solved before the LCK Summer 2024 starts on Jun. 12.
Riot Games Responded
Meddler added that Riot Games have been working with T1 for months and successfully addressed a number of issues that had resulted in prior attacks on their HQ. One point to be highlighted from Meddler's statement is that, these accidents are different from the earlier attacks.
As for now, Riot Games promises to continue deploying every resource to investigate causes and find solutions while working closely with T1 to create a safe playing and streaming environment.
Stay tuned on esports.gg to get the latest update on the T1 DDoS attack story.
