T1 meets BTS on ‘Run BTS’

League of Legends players from T1 Entertainment & Sports made a guest appearance on global superstar band BTS’ variety program “Run BTS!” on Tuesday, becoming the program’s first-ever guests in time for its 114th episode.

T1 superstars Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, Park “Teddy” Jin-sung, Lee “Effort” Sang-ho, Mun “Cuzz” Uchan and Kim “Canna” Chang-dong met with BTS’ RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook on the set of the variety show. Both world-class groups played ice-breaking games before splitting into two teams to show off their singing and dancing skills. Then they enjoyed several rounds of LoL’s Mundo dodgeball and a variety of other games.

“It was quite an experience and honor to be the first official guests on ‘Run BTS!’ especially being able to meet them in person and share each other’s interests,” said Faker. “It might have been a short time, but it was awesome for us as some of the cultural leaders of Korea came together. Hopefully we can meet the group again in the near future.”

The members of BTS had mentioned in a 2017 interview that T1 was their favorite esports team and Faker was their favorite athlete. T1 member Effort dyed his hair blue this year after winning the spring season, the same color as V of BTS, and had a phone case decorated with an animated version of V.

Faker and BTS are seen as some of the leading cultural figures in South Korea, excelling in their respective fields.

After Tuesday’s episode aired, however, T1 came under criticism by some who said the shooting must have taken in place in August, one of the busiest times for T1. T1 had to play the World Championship qualification match at the end of August. To make matters worse, T1 was going through many changes in its starting lineup at the time, and the three-time world champions ultimately failed to qualify for the World Championships.

On the other hand, many welcomed the collaboration between the two groups, with the video getting over 4 million views and over 260 million likes as of Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, T1 CEO Joe Marsh said the team would announce new coaching staff next week.

The second episode of “Run BTS” featuring T1 will be shown Nov. 10 on BTS’ V Live channel and its global fan community platform, Weverse.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)