LCK Twitter Sparks Controversy: T1 Employees Criticize Favoritism in Support of MAD Lions

The official LCK Twitter account tweeted a tweet to engage in some friendly competition with MAD Lions and support them in their encounter against T1. Since then, T1 employees have criticized the account’s operators for favoring other clubs. It’s standard procedure for esports leagues and organizations to use their social media presence to generate excitement for forthcoming matches. Both parties benefit from having a significant social media presence, and creating buzz only increases viewership.

The LCK Twitter account and the MAD Lions were pulling for Gen.G to defeat G2 during their brief conversation on Twitter. In return, the LCK account teased a battle between Gen.G and MAD that would only take place at that point if T1 lost their opening MSI 2023 encounter. This seemingly innocent post caused a social media explosion as T1 supporters criticized the League for saying things that would help their club lose. T1 employees have since spoken in, accusing the LCK of showing partiality.

The T1 team considers the LCK Twitter comments to be “wrong”

Few esports companies have the global presence of T1, and a large part of that presence comes from signing Faker to their League of Legends team and their consistent success both domestically and abroad. This group’s fame is accompanied by a sizable fan base with a history of spending hundreds of dollars on sending trucks with large billboard messages attached to them to frequently swarm LoL Park, the venue for most LCK matches. Fans flocked to a tweet that hinted that MAD Lions would defeat T1; this wasn’t surprising.

The tweet has received much more views than any other aspect of the engagement between the two organs, with over 2 million as of the time of writing, so much so that some T1 employees have heard about it. T1 employees’ comments and COO Ahn Woong-ki’s statement were included in a Cookie News piece. He provided Cookie News with his thoughts on the tweet: “I have always viewed the culture of trading funny tweets favorably and believe it will bring excitement to the esports audience. But as T1’s COO and a supporter, I don’t think it can be laughed off as an oversight or a joke because he adopted a stance that appeared to back a particular team on the League’s official account.

Jeong Hoi-yoo, general manager of T1, said, “Isn’t this a bit wrong?” in response. The T1 staff is upset by the statement made on the LCK Twitter account. However, as of the time of writing, the tweet has been up for a few days, and neither the League nor the debate surrounding it has been addressed.