T1 Extends Contract with 'Oner' Moon Hyeon-joon Through 2028
[Contract Details] T1 announced via social media on the 24th that they have extended the contract of their star jungler, Moon "Oner" Hyeon-joon, until 2028. While his original contract was set to expire in 2026, this new agreement adds two more years of partnership. According to team officials, this is a guaranteed contract through 2028 without any separate extension options.
[Career and Achievements] Oner is a franchise star who debuted with T1 in 2021. He played a pivotal role in T1’s historic achievement of winning three consecutive LoL World Championships from 2023 to 2025. He is a prime example of a successful "homegrown" talent, having risen from the T1 Academy to become a core player for the main roster.
[Background of the Renewal] T1 reportedly offered the contract extension before the team departed for China for this year’s World Championship, reaching a final agreement during the off-season. T1 General Manager Jeong Hoi-yoon stated, "Given Moon's skill, mindset, and professional attitude, we were certain he would have a long-lasting career. We want him to stay with T1 for as long as possible."
[Player’s Loyalty and Future Goals] Park Jae-seok, CEO of Shadow Corporation (Oner’s agency), remarked, "Moon only had eyes for T1 from the start." He added, "Please support him as he remains steadfast in his choice for T1, having proven himself through results at every moment. His next goal is to be selected for the national team for the Asian Games, and we will do our best to support him in achieving that."
Oner was their best player going into worlds so checks out
Oner has been their best/most consistent player for like 2 years now too.
Last year had some serious hiccups. This year Oner was best/consistent pretty much always
The rest of t1 had some issues in 2024 but outside of summer playoffs and regionals he was easily their best player in all of 2024.
Eh Keria is at least on par I don't think there's been anyone else seriously in the running for best support in the world for the past 3 years
Thats mostly coz supports arent that good across the board the last couple years whereas jungle competition is really stiff
I agree still doesn't reduce Keria's value to T1
Id still say Oner is more important/valuable. Theres a couple games in memory where T1’s botlane kinda inted but they still won anyway whereas i legit csnt remember the last time T1 won a game withan Oner stinker
Both of them are highly valuable to the team. The difference is that when Keria is the one running the show, the game usually looks easy and T1 dominates. This was proven in RTM/MSI and Summer where he picked up a lot of POMs. In games where Oner hard carried (Spring in particular), even in wins, you'd notice the team’s overall play still looked a bit rough. IMO, this is why enemy teams prioritize target-banning Keria. They can at least even out the match by allowing other T1 players their comfort picks (except Azir), but once Keria gains momentum on his, the game often becomes unplayable for them.
Oner's mundo game was half a stinker, can't remember if they won tho
They did…
…but definitely NOT because of Oner Mundo LMFAO
Yeah it's hard to say. I tend to think JG is just more important, but whilst I think Oner is the best jungler in the league, I think Keria just exists in his own league when it comes to supports. Nobody is even close to his peak - nobody has ever been close to his peak actually. Oner is the best there is right now, but Keria is one of a kind. As a T1 fan I'm just glad we have them both!
You could say the same about jungle the last few seasons. I think along with support, it's one of the LCK's weaker roles. Mid and ADC were/are stacked as fuck. Top, jungle, and support are all kind of top heavy.
Canyon's form has been pretty inconsistent.
Peanut played more for lanes/team because his hands aren't the same anymore.
Lucid has not lived up to the hype.
Cuzz has been good but occasionally just ints games.
I mean they had Zeus in top, keria in supp, oner IS amazing but those 2 are in their own league
Keria is in his own league as a support in a way the Oner and Zeus are not for top and jgs
Deadass you can point to Zeus and Bin being equal last year along with Kiin of course. Oner, Kanavi, Tarzan, Canyon, and Peanut are always contending with each other. Keria is the exception where yes players can match him like Delight on engage, Missing in 2023, or more recently Duro but 9/10 people would still choose Keria
2023 summer when Faker left he looked the worst but thank goodness he turned that shit around, what a beast
I hope he manages to win something someday.
Would definitely deserve it
Dude was absolutely smurfing the whole tournament. His Lee Sin and Viego plays were disgusting.
smart move by T1 locking him down early too, you just know every other org was gonna throw bags at him during the offseason
3 championships in a row, I hope they're making bank from sponsorships, appearances, and other product deals now.
Thar recent sponsor money is flowing throughout the org
Very interesting and I think unexpected given T1's salary cap situation. Based on this excellent summary post the actual cost of signing Oner and Keria long term depends massively on if they win LCK this year. The exemptions they could get from wining LCK could in the long run save them like two million+ per year.
summary post doesn't mention the new saudi money that T1 got.
It was made after that happened, and that still doesn't make the post not true. Winning LCK vs not winning LCK could swing expenses by two million+ per year, whether they have the money for that and are willing to spend it is another question entirely.
ye, i am agreeing with the post. just adding that they did not mention the saudi money and if the rumors are right its a lot (i saw 35mil but could just be some larp).
Zeus leaving can be partly attributed to the salary cap, but replacing Gumayusi with Peyz isn't financially motivated at all.
Thats weird, so do Keria and Faker leave in the next 2 years for HLE? and then T1 oner fights Z_FGK?
Keria is rumored already to have re-signed as well, to be revealed soon in Busan. This would lock him up with Faker (2029) and Oner (2028) as T1’s three-man core.
Peyz is signed till 2028 as well. So the only player not signed would be doran.
Doran will depend on military service. If he ends up going to asian games and wins then T1 will re-sign him. I think he only has 1-2 years left.
edit: interestingly doran said on stream im tired of wasting my time because i've only done 1 year contract re-signs... hmmm
Doran shouldnt go to asian games. Kiin should have that spot, unless they make him the sub so he gets his one game vs vietnam like faker got.
Think faker was a special case because if he goes to military pause, I think league itself is going free fall in viewership. Koreans are very vocal about giving people passes on military service. I don’t think Doran has the same leverage faker has.
Faker was never going to the military because he never finished high-school. Before 2021 people who never finished high school enter the social service reserves where only need to go for a few days each year for training, and after 3 years you get a full exemption. Deft and bdd I believe are in the same situation.
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2nd one happened first so the Asian games never mattered for his exemption. They just took him bc hes Faker. He is basically a 2nd coach
Not Deft, bro is still in the military right now
Cuz he finished Korean equivalent of GED
Deft has GED which is equivalent a highschool diploma
BDD and Faker are exempt from military in 2021 as they did not graduate from high school, hence classified as wartime labor service after 3 years of waiting. However, Deft had to go to military while he did not graduate high school but took qulification exam for high school graduate, hence drafted for active duty.
That’s why Zeus, Keria, Kanavi, Ruler and Chovy went to Korea Army Training Center for a month while Faker did not.
That’s not how that works. You do something called 공익 where you basically work at an office from 9-5. You don’t do actual military but you do have to dedicate time for the same time as the service would have been.
I did not know he never finished highschool. Learned something new today. Saw him and Deft go to the same high school and assumed they graduated. That's cool to know.
Faker never finished high school so he's considered a dead beat and only has to do clerical work for his service
Well we will see how they perform this year leading up to MSI. Past performance doesn't really matter.
Also the head coach is probably going to be Kkoma again so...
Kiin is signed through 2026 i believe? I like Doran but if its not working out, Kiin is definitely the best option
Kiin needs to win the Asian games for the military exception or he has to retire to go to the army.
T1 Bwipo soon!
Eww
hopefully they can sign kiin next year
Just leaving it here, I wouldn't mind Zeus back at all 🫣
That ship has sailed, beside Zeus would cost too much and they dont have the wage cap for that.
No disrespect to Zeus, but given Kiin’s champion pool and overall skill set, and considering that T1 is likely to continue playing around bot lane, I can easily see Kiin playing Doran's role and fitting the team at the very least as well as him. Zeus is an exceptional player, but maximizing his impact would require Oner to play more heavily around top lane and on a personal note i would love to see T1 keep playing around Peyz.
Why would you want zeus in T1? If he zeus wanted to stay in T1 he would have done so. and not leave to HLE for few more money , and btw i dont agree with what the clowns ceo and coo at T1 did when they didnt sign him. But if zeus wanted to stay in T1 he would have done so. If you are A T1 fan you dont want zeus in your team ever again. No respect for him.
No, why would T1 sign Zeus ? His departure did create a lot of drama
Faker’s contract is till 2029
can yall drop this bullshit lol
Faker's signed until 2029, so no.
Faker signed till 2029 xd
if anything it might still be T1 Faker vs his homies
Absolutely 0% chance faker doesn’t retire under T1
T1 will be OnlyFans and the boys vs ZGK
Actions speak louder than words. Oner is the T1 star after Faker. He signed his previous contract after MSI in 2022 and now with 1 year left he decided to extend an additional 2 years.
It really speaks how loyal he is. This basically shows he doesn’t care about potential giga contracts offers from other orgs at all, he just wants to stay in T1.
Best jungle probably. If you shut him down the probability of T1 losing the game become so high.
Hope he joins a team called Gabe one day
THATS MY 문도!
I see now why he made the "death flag" comment about how staying with T1 is the best. He already knew he was staying.
his name is Moon, actually surprise why he didn't make his IGN Moon lol
There are tons of people with the last name Moon in Korea
He loves playing for T1 so he named himself Oner, or (T)1r.
So how does e-sport work when league 2 is coming in 2027 and pro scene is starting in 2028 or something according to the rumor?
Same game, just completely reworked
what about the 1 year gap?
Wtf is this 1 year that you keep saying?
It’s probably not happen, since again it’s gonna be the same game at its core. Also I’m pretty sure that’d be a death wish as in this day in age people lose interest in stuff pretty quickly, see LCS to LTA
League isnt stopping?
bro what???
It's not going to actually be "league 2" or whatever, it's almost certainly going to be effectively "1.5" at most. It'll be really needed for the game, certainly, but it probably won't rework the actual gameplay much. Map visual refreshes, maybe some engine changes to clean things up backend, river height might go I'd expect lol, stuff like that. Maybe a couple midscopes/ASUs or something if they're feeling like making it really feel big all at once. It's mostly just going to be QOL and things surrounding the game. No more seperate client that isn't the same application as the game, way better client experience, things like that.
None of that will make big impacts on pro play, it'll just be like any other big new season update for them. And realistically, same for the rest of us, it'll just be an especially nice new season with lots of QOL. Probably.
depends how you see it. I would actually call current iteration league 2 and new one league of legend 3 after the visual update we'll have. current game looking a bit different than this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uskD9fvO78
if that's your thinking, then we've already seen this transition and it will not affect esports at all really in fact it will probably boost esports viewership.
well there is a 1 year gap....
Bro they are not pausing lol esports for a whole year
Where are you seeing this weird 1 year gap thing… whoever said that was clearly making stuff up cause that makes NO sense for about 25 different reasons if you think about it for more than 10 seconds
guess we'll have wait and see. I was thinking the same thing when i intially saw the rumor and said there's no way playerbase will watch old league while playing new one.
They literally did a massive announcement going through all the changes, and explaining that it will NOT be as dramatic a shift as you think/it isn’t league 2. You seen to be really stuck on this idea that it will be a totally new game and pro play will just be like… playing on old patches for a whole year?? You’re truly just making all that up… pro play will be playing the normal game we all are playing?!?!
Don't accuse me of making anything up, please. I watched an ex-journalist in Korea, and he had sources about this.
and our source is from riot???
no way theyre doing League 2 like Smite 2. they’re most likely doing it with how Valve updated DotA 2
can we be done with this T1 storyline already.
What other storyline are there? Not T1's fault every other team falters or implodes after a year.