T1 has announced the departures of Kim “Meteor” Tae-oh, Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom, Kang “DH” Dong-ho, head coach Kim “KDG” Dong-gun and assistant coach Lee “CheongGak” Il-ho from its Valorant team. The exits leave Kim “stax” Gu-taek, Yu “BuZz” Byeong-cheol and Ham “iZu” Woo-ju as the only remaining members of the organization’s 2026 roster.
Meteor’s exit closes the longest stint of the five departures. T1 had already let him explore his options, and his contract has now expired. He joined after a 2024 run with Gen.G and became an immediate contributor once he arrived in Korea’s second-ranked team.
Meteor leaves after Masters Bangkok MVP run
Meteor was a central part of T1’s title run at Masters Bangkok in 2025, where he helped the team lift the trophy and earned MVP honors for the event. His move to T1 gave the roster another proven high-end player, and the team found success almost right away after bringing him in.
His departure removes one of the most decorated pieces from T1’s recent core. Meteor had already proven he could slot into a new environment quickly, and the 2025 championship showed how important he became to the team’s best run of the year. He was also the most established of the five outgoing names, having already spent meaningful time with the organization before this offseason change.
Munchkin is also out after arriving from Gen.G ahead of the 2026 season. He joined to add another star to an already loaded roster, and he began the year as T1’s in-game leader while playing Controller. As the season progressed, the team changed the way it used its leaders and role players, which shifted the structure around him.
DH’s time with the main squad was much shorter. T1 had previously brought him up from T1 Academy in 2025, and he was used again in 2026 for a brief period. VLR.gg said he was replaced by stax after four matches in the group stage, with stax returning to the IGL role and Munchkin moving into a secondary-caller position.
DH’s role on the main roster was also narrow compared with the others who left. While he played Duelist for T1 Academy, he was used primarily as a Controller during both of his “super sub” stints with the senior team. His second run also included a few maps on Cypher, but he never settled into a long-term starting role.
T1’s coaching staff also changes
The roster move comes alongside a coaching reset. KDG was named T1’s head coach last offseason after Autumn took the vacant position at EDward Gaming. KDG had come up from T1 Academy, and before that he had served as head coach for Gwangju Shadow.
CheongGak’s exit is another familiar change for T1. He was with the team in 2023, returned for a short spell in 2024, then left for Wolves Esports later that year. He rejoined T1 as part of the rebuild that led to the team’s all-Korean roster, giving him the most continuity of the five departing figures across the team’s recent rebuilds.
The staff departures matter because T1 is losing both a first-year head coach and an assistant who had already been through multiple versions of the roster. That leaves the organization without the pair that helped guide the team through the role changes that unfolded during the 2026 season.
T1’s search now has to cover both the server and the coaching booth. The team has three confirmed players left, but it also needs to replace the people who shaped how those players were used throughout the year.
What T1 still has on the roster
The three players who remain still give T1 a base to work from. Stax is the current IGL and has shown he can handle Controller duties, while he has also played Initiator in the past. BuZz remains the team’s primary Duelist, and iZu is the flexible piece who can cover a range of roles.
That combination gives the team some room to rebuild without starting from nothing. It also means T1 enters the offseason with limited role restrictions, since the remaining core can support a wider range of possible signings than a more rigid lineup would allow.
At the same time, the organization is still looking for its first Pacific title. Finding a third head coach in three years may end up being one of the biggest decisions of the offseason, because the next hire will help determine how T1 handles the unfinished parts of the roster.
The confirmed 2026 roster is now:
- stax
- BuZz
- iZu
Those three names do not tell the whole story of the offseason, though. T1 has lost a former Masters MVP in Meteor, a veteran IGL in Munchkin, a short-term fill-in in DH, and both members of its coaching staff. The team still has a recognizable core, but the next additions will decide how much of the previous identity carries over into the new year.
The departure list also shows how much turnover the roster has already absorbed across the last two seasons. Meteor arrived from Gen.G and became a title-winning piece. Munchkin came in from the same organization to deepen the lineup. DH moved between T1 Academy and the main squad. KDG and CheongGak both arrived through different rebuilds. Now all five are gone at once, and T1 has to put the next version together around the three players who remain.
Losing Meteor and the coaches at once feels like the real reset here, not just another roster shuffle. stax, BuZz and iZu is a fine shell, but the identity is basically gone.
Not really – stax and BuZz are still a proper core, and iZu gives them flexibility. T1 has rebuilt before, so this is messy but not a collapse.
I get the core argument, but Meteor was the guy who turned up and helped win Masters Bangkok, and both KDG and CheongGak leaving means the system goes too. That is more than just losing names, it is losing the way they played. If the next coach changes roles again, then the three remaining players are starting from scratch anyway.
Fair point on the coaching side, but I still think the core gives them options. If the next staff keeps stax in a stable calling setup, they are not as far off as it looks.
Munchkin out after starting as IGL and Controller is the weirdest part to me. That is a lot of role churn for one season, and it usually means the roster never settled.
That is just T1 being T1
yeah, pretty much
Meteor leaving hits hardest because he was the most proven piece in the whole group. A Masters MVP is not the sort of player you casually replace, especially when he already showed he could slot into a new team quickly after Gen.G. T1 still have a base with stax, BuZz and iZu, but the next signings have to be very good if they want to keep the same ceiling.
The coaching reset matters just as much too. You can replace a player, but losing the people who handled the role changes makes the rebuild much trickier.
this feels like when my ranked squad swaps two people and suddenly nobody knows who calls the rotate anymore. losing both coaches too makes it even uglier
The difference is T1 still have stax and BuZz, so they are not starting from zero. Most squads would kill for that kind of remaining core.
been there, sadly
too many cooks
yeah, that is exactly the problem i mean. once the calls are split and the coaches are gone, even good players end up hesitating on execs and retakes. in ranked you can brute force it, but at this level one messy mid-round costs maps. T1 can still recover, but they need a clear voice fast.
do you think stax stays on IGL now, or do they bring in someone new and move him back to a more flexible role? The article makes it sound like the next coach hire changes everything.
new IGL, probably
Maybe, but stax already handled it before and the piece says he can cover Controller or Initiator too. If they trust BuZz as the Duelist and iZu as the flex, keeping stax in charge is the cleanest fix.
fair enough, we’ll see
this is the kind of offseason that looks expensive before they even sign anyone
T1 speedrunning free agency xD
my team did same once and next week we forgot who buy util lol
It is not really speedrunning if the contract situation and roster changes were already happening. Teams do this every offseason, they just usually stagger it instead of dropping five names at once. The timing looks dramatic, but the actual work is the same: keep the good pieces and build around them.
more like house cleaning than speedrun
If you had to pick one of the three left, who is the most important for T1 to keep in the same role? I feel like stax is the obvious answer because of IGL, but BuZz being the main Duelist might matter more if the new coach wants a totally new structure. What do you think the rebuild should protect first?
stax, but why would they change the duelist first?
I would still protect BuZz first if only because elite Duelists are harder to replace cleanly than people think. stax gives you structure, but BuZz is the player who can make a new system look dangerous.
Munchkin leaving is the bigger loss than Meteor
nah, Meteor was the title guy
Meteor was the flashiest name, sure, but Munchkin was the one who could actually stabilise a roster when roles started getting weird. The story even says he began the year as IGL and then got shifted around, so he was doing the dirty work that usually keeps the team from falling apart. Lose that and you often end up with a prettier but shakier lineup.
nice theory, but the guy with MVP and a trophy is still the bigger hit. if T1 needed dirty work so badly, they probably should have kept both anyway
fair, but one trophy does not make him the only pillar. T1 are losing both types of value here, and I still think the IGL hole is the uglier one.
rebuild or goodbye