T1’s trainee top laner Noh “Burdol” Tae-yoon recently hit rank one in League of Legends solo queue on the Korean server, according to stats site OP.GG and Korizon Esports translator Kevin Kim.
The 16-year-old joined T1 (then SK Telekom T1) in May 2019 and has been shining in solo queue alongside other T1 players who have been promoted to the main roster. One notable example is T1’s current top laner Canna, who destroyed solo queue and overtook veteran top laner Roach for the starting spot on T1 in November.
[embed]https://twitter.com/KevinKimLoL/status/1286274652843597824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/embed]Burdol is closely followed in his rank one standing by three Damwon Gaming accounts and one from the LPL’s Suning, according to Kevin Kim. Two of those accounts reportedly belong to Showmaker, Damwon’s mid laner who has wreaked havoc on the LCK.
While it’s unclear how long Burdol will hold on to the rank one spot, he should be considered one of the best solo queue players for accomplishing this feat on one of the strongest League servers in the world.
If Burdol continues to play well and improve, it’s possible that he could be promoted to replace the veteran Roach next split, who hasn’t looked great in the games in which he’s filled in for T1 on stage. This is unconfirmed, however.
Burdol doesn’t have an official English stream, but you might be able to catch him sometimes on the T1 Esports Twitch channel. While the League of Legends team is looking great, the Dota team not so much.
Lee “Forev” Sang-don was the first Dota 2 player signed to T1’s roster when the organization made the leap into the competitive scene. And after 11 months with no sustained success, both sides agreed to part ways and explore other options.
Forev was the only player to stick on the team’s roster despite the organization going through two major shakeups before landing on its current lineup.
Since its formation, T1’s Dota team never placed higher than seventh at a tier-two event, with their only wins coming from tier-three tournaments in May—the Hephaestus Cup and SEA Dota Invitational 2020. The organization has never qualified for a tier-one tournament and is usually eliminated by veteran stacks like IO.
A big part of signing Forev was keeping the Korean Dota legacy alive, as he was a part of several legendary rosters like MVP Phoenix. The team couldn’t find the right balance of talent, however, going through more than a dozen players before finally making this move.