LoL: T1 COO wants other players than Faker to also stay for as long as possible as one-club men

In an interview with the South Korean outlet Chosun Money, Josh Woongki Ahn, Chief Operating Officer of T1, discussed the organization’s financial and commercial performance. He noted that the club, active in nearly seven games including League of Legends and VALORANT, has experienced significant growth, with revenues rising from 34.6 billion KRW in 2023 to 51 billion ($37.7 million) in 2024, an increase of 47.4%, figures previously reported by Sheep Esports.

According to Josh Ahn, merchandising has now emerged as T1’s primary source of income, accounting for roughly 40% of the organization’s annual revenue. This share has surpassed sponsorships, which had long been the leading source of income for the South Korean team and remain the dominant model across most of the esports industry. Despite this shift, sponsorship continues to be a cornerstone of T1’s business, with nearly ten partners — half of them signed within the past year.

Among these is a recent agreement with Red Sea Global, a Saudi company chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, marking the largest sponsorship deal in T1’s history. To win over the Saudi decision-makers, the COO revealed that he had even written a handwritten letter emphasizing that “the vision of T1 and Saudi Arabia are aligned.”

Josh Ahn also highlighted the organization’s Homeground events as a key innovation in T1’s business model. Similar to the KCX events held for several years by Karmine Corp, these gatherings bring South Korean fans together over one or more days to experience matches and events in a major arena. The inaugural edition in 2024 spanned three days at the Goyang Sono Arena, while the 2025 edition was held at Incheon’s Inspire Arena, which has a capacity of 20,000. According to the COO, the event generated between 2 and 3 billion KRW (approximately $1.4 to $2 million) from ticket sales alone over the three days, excluding on-site merchandise sales and sponsorships. The first iteration generated over $1 million in revenue from ticket sales, merchandise, and food, as Joe Marsh (T1 CEO) said in November 2024 in Sports Business Journal.

The COO of T1 declares it a success, explaining that they have “achieved quite good sales.” This is therefore a strategy that T1 intends to develop in the future in order to create new sources of revenue, similar to what is being done in the sports sector: “Our future plan is to take ‘home games’ overseas. Our goal is to hold games at the Sphere in Las Vegas, within a few years. Ultimately, we want to make all of our games home games and build our own stadium.”

In addition to merchandising, sponsorship, and ticketing, T1 also earns revenue from competitions (including cash prizes and revenue sharing from LoL skins), content creation, and physical fan experiences such as the T1 Base Camp. Josh Ahn projects that “fan experience sales will become at least the second source of revenue within the next few years.” To support these initiatives and future projects, T1 announced at the end of 2024 that it aims to raise $35 million to expand its T1 Base Camp PC bang brand and other operations.

The interview also touched on the recent contract extension of Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok with T1 through 2029. Josh Woongki Ahn explained that the South Korean midlaner’s teammates were informed of the announcement only an hour before it was made public — and in the case of most staff members working around the team, just five minutes prior. The COO admitted that he was concerned about leaks and wanted the news to be a genuine moment for fans in attendance.

Speaking about Faker’s teammates, Josh Woongki Ahn stated that “I’d like our other players to also stay with T1 for as long as possible as one-club men,” praising Faker’s loyalty to the organization. However, he acknowledged that for this to happen, “it’s important to create conditions so that those players want to remain at T1,” adding that the organization is doing its utmost to keep the roster together under its colors for as long as possible.