Following their 2024 Worlds win, T1 will be expanding its coaching staff with none other than Mata, a legendary LCK player who won the 2014 Worlds with Samsung White. Mata also played for T1 for a little over a year between 2018 and 2019, and might prove a great addition.
Mata’s inclusion was announced by T1 on X on Nov. 21. “Mata has joined T1’s LCK team as a coach,” the post reads. “Show your support as he returns as a coach, and we look forward to building up the future together with him” (translated from Korean by X). Mata’s addition as a coach might be related to the departure of Roach, another of T1’s coaches, due to mandatory military service. The 2014 World Champion has been a coach for a while, helping Gen.G score an LCK 2024 Spring victory (ironically against T1 itself), and working with Royal Never Give Up in the LPL. Now, he’s back at one of his former homes, hopefully ready for a Worlds three-peat.
Apart from his coaching career, Mata, real name Cho Se-hyeong, has been involved with League of Legends for over a decade, starting his career way back in 2012. Only two years later in 2014, Mata was part of the Worlds-winning roster at Samsung White, which lifted the silver chalice at Worlds 2014 and placed itself within the League Hall of Fame. Mata played as a support, a role which he continued to employ throughout his playing career. After his tenure at T1, Mata heeded the call of coaching and moved away from playing, and he has remained a coach since.
T1 is the incumbent Worlds champion after its stellar victory earlier in November. The team is chasing history once again as it tries to score its third consecutive Worlds championship title, and hopefully with Mata, the three-peat dream can become reality.
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