An accidental Discord leak from Effort indicates T1 is signing Polt & LS as its 2021 LCK coaches

Nov 2, 2020

A screenshot accidentally revealed by T1 support Lee "Effort" Sang-ho shows a Discord chat introducing members of the organization's League of Legends team to Choi "Polt" Seong Hun and Nick "LS" De Cesare. The messages state that Polt and LS will be joining T1 for the 2021 League of Legends Champions Korea season as the team's new coaching staff.

Polt is a former Starcraft 2 professional player, and while he has been streaming Teamfight Tactics as of late, his experience in the competitive LoL scene is nil. LS has worked for several teams as a coach and analyst in North America, Europe, and South Korea, and most recently took up the mantle of LCK color caster for its English broadcast.

The leaked signings would be peculiar given Polt's lack of League of Legends experience and LS being just the second Western coach in LCK history after Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi, who coached SANDBOX Gaming in 2020.

Their dynamic could mirror T1's golden era — as SKT, the team won Worlds in 2013, 2015 and 2016 with Head Coach Choi "cCarter" Byoung-hoon overseeing in almost managerial fashion and Kim "kkOma" Jeong-gyun fulfilling the on-stage, analysis, and team-building duties usually attributed to the head coach position.

T1 started 2020 strong with a 14-4 2nd place finish in the LCK Spring Split and a 3-0 sweep of Gen.G in the finals of the LCK Spring Playoffs. Teams caught up to T1 in summer, and after a 4th place 13-5 Summer Split finish, T1 was eliminated in the wild card match of the 2020 LCK Summer Playoffs at the hands of Afreeca Freecs.

*▲ Screenshot of Effort's Discord, leaking LS and Polt's addition to T1*

T1 managed to get its revenge against Afreeca in a 3-1 after the latter swept KT Rolster out of the 2020 LCK Regional Final, but T1 was unable to replicate its success against Gen.G. Gen.G swept T1 3-0, and after missing its third Worlds since the team's inception in 2013, the coaching staff was let go.

T1 nor any other involved parties have made any statements confirming or denying the signing of Polt and LS since the leak.

Disclaimer: A previous version of this article stated that if LS coached T1 in 2021, he would be the first Western coach in LCK history. The mistake has been rectified with the correct information in the current version of this article.

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