LoL World Champions T1 keep Doran for another year of LCK

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 17/11/2025

The League of Legends 2025 World Champions, T1, have extended the contract of Choi ‘Doran’ Hyeon-jun for another year.

The LCK toplaner was the only new member of the team last year after T1 had won the previous two iterations of LoL Worlds.

Yet, even with a new teammate, the ‘OFGK’ core of T1 led by Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok helped Doran win his first Worlds trophy.

While it was the third LoL Worlds title in a row and a record sixth in total for the organisation

Before joining T1, Doran had infamously struggled in high-pressure scenarios.

So much so that British streamer Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont agreed to go bald if T1 won Worlds with Doran.

Doran’s contract was supposed to expire today (November 17th 2025), but now it has been extended for the 2026 season.

The toplaner has been a different player since joining, showing himself as an excellent Ambessa player after primarily playing weakside before his T1 stint.

T1 are choosing what champions will get their LoL Worlds 2025 winners’ skins and Ambessa is looking like Doran’s likely choice.

Now with his first international trophy under his belt, Doran will be looking to win his first LCK title.

Despite dominating at Worlds every year, T1 haven’t won an LCK title since the LCK Spring Playoffs back in 2022.

And T1 fans are now desperately waiting to hear contract news about legendary support player Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok.

Keria is still under contract until November 16th next year, but fans are anxious to keep him as long as possible.

The three-time World Champion has been staking his claim as possibly the best support player of all time.

Arguably, he is now the most important player to the team behind the all-time great, Faker.

Especially, after the departure of Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyeong.

Gumayusi departs T1 after three LoL Worlds titles

Despite Doran re-signing, T1 are still undergoing a rehaul of their roster before the 2026 season.

On the same day as Doran’s contract extension, T1 revealed that Gumayusi is leaving and the OFGK quartet is over.

The elite botlaner is looking for a new team now that his contract has expired.

It was a difficult year for Gumayusi, which saw him occasionally benched for rookie Shin ‘Smash’ Geum-jae and receive death threats from some T1 fans.

Gumayusi then went on to win LoL Worlds for a third consecutive year and won the tournament MVP award.

It’s not known where Gumayusi will go next, but Sheep Esports has reported he will be replaced by former Gen.G and JD Gaming botlaner Kim ‘Peyz’ Su-hwan.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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