T1, a leading Korean esports org, said today that their players will postpone their League streams till further notice due to lack of a solution for persistent DDoS attacks.
In a statement released by the organization on June 8, T1 said, “It is with deep frustration that we must announce the indefinite suspension of our players of our players streams due to ongoing DDos attacks.”
The organization emphasized that Riot Korea, a branch of Riot Games responsible for Korean League esports, and Riot Games are working on a “long-term solution” to the problem, which includes implementing stronger security measures and collaborating with internet service providers to identify and block malicious traffic. Despite their efforts, they have yet to resolve the issue, and numerous teams’ training schedules have been disrupted.
While Riot Korea’s temporary remedy during MSI 2024 helped T1 avoid DDoS attacks, the accounts of the players playing alongside them are now being targeted, further “disrupting (their) live SoloQ sessions.”
Streaming is a vital revenue source for any esports business, including T1. “This situation requires us to suspend our broadcasts, which has huge financial ramifications for our business,” the Korean team stated.
After T1’s loss against HLE, a defeat that relegated them to the lower bracket of the LCK playoffs, Faker spoke about the continuous DDoS attacks in the post-match conference, highlighting how they are significantly impacting their overall performance.
Later, the league had to adopt pre-recorded matches to counter DDoS assaults during the LCK, with the matches taking place on an offline LoL arena server that foreign networks could not impact.
T1 commented on the DDoS issues throughout the league, saying, “While some may see the inability to play SoloQ as a minor inconvenience, it is a key component for high-level pro players in Korea to stay sharp, adapt to the meta, and retain top performance.” Despite these challenges, the team advanced to the LCK Spring Split 2024 finals, where they were unable to defeat Gen.G.
T1 encouraged Riot Korea and Riot Games to “fulfill their responsibilities and stop these attacks” so that the situation returns to normal and Korean esports players can compete fairly for the rest of the year. Riot had not released a statement on social media at the time of writing.