T1 Esports Academy Rookie, the renowned training hub of the Korean powerhouse
, has just annsounced this Friday on their socials the arrival of Heo "
PawN" Won-seok as a coach. He thus emerges from several years without an official role on the
League of Legends circuit. This news comes after the team's first-place finish in the LCK AS 2025 Championship, where they dominated Dplus KIA Youth (3-0).
The former LCK legend thus returns to coaching, which he had already experienced at Liiv SANDBOX in 2022. As a reminder, PawN is a former midlaner who
won Worlds with Samsung White in 2014, then moved to EDward Gaming in 2015 to claim MSI. His career also includes an LPL title, a Demacia Cup, and a KeSPA Cup won with KT Rolster.
T1 is an organization with a storied tradition of recruiting retired legends to coach and mentor its players. Key examples include Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin, the S3 Worlds champion ADC from SKT T1's dynasty era, who is officially still one of the team’s coaches. Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, the three-time Worlds-winning jungler and Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok's longtime teammate, served as Academy head coach starting in late 2020, helping groom talents before being promoted to coach the main LCK team. We can also mention Choi "Polt" Seong-hun, the ex-StarCraft legend who turned into LoL head coach with T1 involvement back in 2022 with ZOFGK.
