KT Rolster: Korea's Oldest Rival and the Final It Nearly Won

On November 9, 2025, in Chengdu, KT Rolster was one game from the Summoner's Cup. It led T1 2-1 in the Worlds final after its mid laner Bdd and ADC deokdam had taken over Games 2 and 3. Then T1 won the last two games and its third straight title. For KT, it was the closest it had ever come, and it came against the one team it most wanted to beat.

KT is one of the oldest names in Korean esports and the other half of the country's longest rivalry. Here is the story of the club, from StarCraft to its first world final, and what came after.

Born in the StarCraft era

KT's esports team was founded in 1999, with Korea Telecom as its main sponsor, long before League of Legends existed. It began as a StarCraft team called KTF n016, became KTF MagicNs in 2001 and, after its sponsor merged with Korea Telecom, went through several names before settling on KT Rolster in August 2009.

In StarCraft, KT was a powerhouse. It won the Shinhan Bank Proleague in 2009-10 and 2010-11, and its roster over the years included some of the most famous names in the game, among them Flash, Nal_rA, YellOw and NaDa. After moving to StarCraft II, it won the SK Telecom StarCraft II Proleague in 2014.

The telecom derby

KT's great rival has always been SK Telecom's team, now T1. The two companies are Korea's biggest mobile operators, and their teams have been rivals since the StarCraft Proleague days. Fans call it the telecom derby.

The rivalry carried straight over into League. KT added two League teams in October 2012, built from players of NaJin Shield and the disbanded StarTale. In the summer of 2013, one of KT's teams met SK Telecom T1 in the domestic final, and Faker's one-on-one outplay of KT mid laner Ryu in that series became one of the most replayed moments in League history. SKT won 3-2, and the derby had its first great League chapter.

Titles, near-misses and Chengdu

KT's League trophy cabinet is smaller than its reputation. It has won the LCK twice, in Summer 2014 and Summer 2018. At Worlds, it reached the quarterfinals in 2015, 2018 and 2023 without getting further.

That changed in 2025. KT entered the Worlds Swiss stage as a seeded team and went 3-0, beating Movistar KOI, Team Secret Whales and Top Esports. It swept CTBC Flying Oyster 3-0 in the quarterfinals and then beat Gen.G 3-1 in the semifinals, stopping the team that had dominated the LCK all year with a 29-1 regular season. The line-up was PerfecT, Cuzz, Bdd, deokdam and Peter.

The final against T1 was one of the best in the event's history. T1 took Game 1, but KT answered with Bdd dominating Game 2 on Mel and deokdam starring on Corki in Game 3. In Game 4, T1 went back to a classic composition and its ADC Gumayusi was involved in 14 of its 17 kills. In Game 5, Keria's Leona shut down KT's Smolder, and a contested Atakhan fight went T1's way. T1 won 3-2, and Gumayusi was Finals MVP.

KT left with the runner-up share of the $5 million prize pool and the best result in its League history.

2026: rebuild and reset

The off-season pulled the finalist team apart. KT's entire bot lane moved to DN SOOPers, and the club rebuilt around its top half: PerfecT, Cuzz and Bdd stayed, Aiming joined at ADC and Ghost, a long-time ADC, switched to support. The head coach is Score, who won Asian Games silver for Korea as a player in 2018.

The results were respectable rather than spectacular. KT went 13-5 in the first half of the LCK, fourth best, and reached the Road to MSI. It finished fifth in the Legend group at 15-11 and had to beat Hanjin Brion 3-2 in the season Play-In to reach the playoffs, but it did not earn one of Korea's four Worlds places.

Why it matters

Every great rivalry needs a challenger that occasionally wins. KT has spent most of the League era chasing T1, but the 2025 final showed how small the gap can be, and its StarCraft history means the telecom derby is older than most of today's players. Next year KT will hope Bdd and the new bot lane can get it back to the international stage. For the other side of the derby, read our history of the SKT T1 dynasty.