The 23-year-old has been dropped from T1’s active lineup, just 17 weeks after their miracle title run in Bangkok.
SOUTH KOREA – T1 have officially moved Ko “Sylvan” Young-sub to the bench, confirming he will not be part of the active roster for the rest of the 2025 season. The decision comes not long after a disappointing Stage 1 run in which the Yoon “Autumn” Eu-teum-led T1 squad finished in 7th-8th place and failed to qualify for VCT Masters Toronto, despite their momentum from a historic win at VCT Masters Bangkok.
Sylvan signed with T1 ahead of the 2025 season on October 2024 after a year-long absence from competition, last seen playing for Gen.G in 2023. Since joining, the team experimented with rotations between Sylvan and Carpe in the starting five, with Carpe taking the reins during the latter part of Kickoff, while Sylvan started during Masters Bangkok and Stage 1.
One of Sylvan’s most iconic highlights came at VCT Masters Bangkok, where he pulled off a memorable 1v5 clutch on Split against EDward Gaming.
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However, signs of his removal from the active roster had been building in recent days. While the rest of T1 traveled to Germany for a bootcamp and team activities, Sylvan stayed behind in Korea, continuing with his regular streaming schedule. Public also noticed his absence from the recent T1 Homeground promotional photo featuring both T1 LCK and VALORANT players.
Following speculation, T1 General Manager Shin “Norman” Jun-ho issued an official statement on Twitter to address the situation. “I believe many fans were confused after seeing the team photo without Sylvan,” he said in Korean. “Following internal evaluations in preparation for VCT Pacific Stage 2, we finalized our roster for the rest of the 2025 season with six players: BuZz, Carpe, DH, iZu, Meteor, and Stax.”
The T1 VALORANT General Manager explained that the team had offered Sylvan other options to continue his career, including transfers to other teams. However, the 23-year-old chose to remain with T1 through the end of the season, despite no longer competing.
“Sylvan expressed his desire to finish out the 2025 season as a member of T1 alongside his teammates,” he added. While he won’t take part in official matches or public activities, he will continue to receive full support as a member of the team.

“We sincerely apologize to the fans who have been eagerly waiting for VCT Pacific Stage 2 and may have been confused by the situation. Amidst these changes, we will continue to give our utmost effort to present our best performance. Thank you.”
T1’s momentum from their Bangkok championship quickly faded during Stage 1, where they closed out the season with four straight losses to RRQ, Talon, DRX, and Paper Rex. Their only victories came against Team Secret, Nongshim RedForce, and ZETA DIVISION while experimenting with role swaps and comp changes.
Their EWC VALORANT qualifier campaign with Kang “DH” Dong-ho came to an abrupt end, suffering early defeats to Global Esports and Paper Rex, with their only best-of-one win coming against Talon Esports.
Now heading into Stage 2, T1’s new starting lineup, likely featuring rookie DH, will be put to the test immediately. They’re set to face fellow Masters winners Paper Rex on Wednesday, July 16 at 16:00 GMT+8.
T1 now have:
- 🇰🇷 Ham “iZu” Woo-joo
- 🇰🇷 Kim “stax” Gu-taek
- 🇰🇷 Kim “Meteor” Tae-o
- 🇰🇷 Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul
- 🇰🇷 Lee “Carpe” Jae-hyeok
- 🇰🇷 Kang “DH” Dong-ho
- 🇰🇷 Ko “Sylvan” Young-sub (Inactive)
- 🇰🇷 Yoon “Autumn” Eu-teum (Head coach)
- 🇰🇷 Seol “indigo” Do-hoon (Coach)
- 🇰🇷 Lee “CheongGak” Il-ho (Coach)
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Cover photo courtesy of Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games