T1’s League of Legends team has been continuously targeted by DDoS attacks for the past few months, resulting in the team having to completely alter their training methods and cancel their streaming activities. As a result, T1 has taken the step of publicly addressing Riot and urging them to take action.
It has been announced that T1 is being compelled to cease all of its League of Legends streams. Following his return from MSI, Faker began streaming for the first time, but he was immediately plagued by disconnections and connection problems caused by DDoS attacks.
T1 released a statement expressing their immense frustration as they are forced to indefinitely suspend their players’ streams due to the relentless DDoS attacks.
“Despite persisting for nearly six months, we had hoped for a long-term solution from Riot Korea and Riot Games to allow our players and other affected teams to resume their normal training schedules. Unfortunately, this has not yet happened.”
Despite T1’s acknowledgement of Riot’s efforts to implement countermeasures for DDoS attacks at their headquarters during their competition at MSI 2024, these measures were only effective for players playing from the headquarters.
“The problem has evolved to targeting players who are playing alongside our team, causing disruptions during our live streamed SoloQ sessions. As a result, we are forced to temporarily halt our streams, leading to a significant financial impact for our organization.”
Despite the high popularity and cost of retaining T1’s players, the organization is frustrated by their inability to showcase them in front of the fans.
Moreover, this also means that players in solo queue who are solely looking to improve their skills are impacted even if they are just playing with or against T1 players.
“The main priority is for Riot Korea and Riot Games to fulfill their obligations and put an end to these attacks. This matter is not within the control of T1 or our ownership group.”
T1 clarified that they are not accountable for these issues and instead, it is Riot’s responsibility. They also urged T1 supporters not to retaliate against Riot due to the controversy. T1 assured their fans that their statement was solely intended to update them on the internal situation.
During MSI, I asked Gumayusi about this exact issue and he expressed his concern that it would continue to trouble the team once T1 returned from China. This is what he had to say at the time:
“To the best of my knowledge, the DDoS problem in Korea is still unresolved. It may have an impact on both our practice and streaming, and it is crucial that the DDoS issue is addressed as soon as possible.”
It should be noted that these problems are solely a result of a vulnerability in the South Korean league client, and teams in other regions are not experiencing the same issues.
Riot has chosen to remain silent on the matter in order to avoid alerting the assailants of any countermeasures being implemented against them.
Despite the ongoing issue, the situation is not as serious as when the LCK had to be completely postponed due to DDoS attacks, which made it impossible for the regular season to take place.
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