A few days after the earthquake that shook League of Legends and the LCK, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyung addressed his decision to leave T1 and join Hanwha Life Esports in a livestream on his Instagram account. He shared a few thoughts on his state of mind after watching T1’s farewell video and added some words for the fans.

At the end of his contract this season—and after claiming his third consecutive Worlds title with T1, along with his personal accolade as Finals MVP—Gumayusi surprised fans by choosing to open a new chapter of his career with HLE.

"I cried a little"

"It wasn’t an easy decision. I’m still glad we were able to part ways in the best manner possible," he explained to the fans during a short stream. "Honestly, I cried a little watching the video," he admitted with some emotion. "I was really attached to the T1 staff, and I had one last dinner with my teammates. We ended things on good terms."

He also elaborated on why he chose HLE as his next destination. “A lot of teams reached out to me, but HLE had a genuinely positive opinion of me, and I had a good impression of them as well.” He offered further insight into his decision to leave T1 while expressing gratitude to the fans who supported him over the past five years. “Some people think I switched teams because of fans bullying or hating me, but that’s not true at all. That’s not a problem you fix by changing teams, and I don’t pay attention to it anyway, so I just wanted to clarify that.”

His skin choices are set

During a fan meeting held for his introduction at HLE, Gumayusi answered several questions and spoke briefly about his champion choices for his Worlds skins. As the Finals MVP, Gumayusi will receive two skins, including one Prestige. For the standard skin, he plans to choose Yunara, and for the Prestige edition, Miss Fortune. "For Yunara I'm aiming for a cuter style, and for Miss Fortune I want something more charismatic." His previous selections for his first two titles were Jinx and Varus.