Legendary South Korean esports team T1 has revealed plans to return to Dota 2, as the organization looks to expand and grow their presence across the esports scene.
T1 Aims For Dota 2 Return Amid Esports Expansion
The Esports Foundation (the organization behind the Esports World Cup) gathered executives from a range of esports organizations for an online media session centered around the Esports World Cup 2026 and its Partner Program. The most interesting news to come out of the event, for us Dota 2 fans that is, is T1’s ambitions to make a Dota 2 return.
Per Inven’s coverage, T1’s Chief Operating Officer Josh Woongki Ahn confirmed that “the team’s performance in the Esports World Cup (EWC) over the past two years fell short of expectations”, hinting that the organization would aim to improve on their results going forward. This is backed by their stated goal to achieve “a corporate value of $1 Billion”, which is five times their current value.
The key for us, however, is one of his final statements, where Ahn states that “EF’s support served as a reliable anchor that enabled us to consider new games like Counter-Strike and Dota.”
With T1 already having a history in Dota 2, looking to expand in esports, and being open to managing teams outside of Korea, things seem set for the legendary organization to return to Dota 2. The question is when.
T1’s Dota 2 History
Despite being one of the biggest esports teams in the world, T1 have a brief three year history in Dota 2, with not many notable results to speak of. The team operated in Dota from 2020 to 2022, but struggled to find stable rosters, often shifting players, or even entire rosters, around, with a focus on the South East Asian scene.
Their biggest success came with a 7th to 8th finish at The International 2021, with a roster headlined by SEA legends Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon and Carlo “Kuku” Palad. However the team quickly lost key players after a string of bad results post-TI, eventually settling on a surprising roster featuring both Anathan “ana” Pham and Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen.
This roster unfortunately failed to secure any notable results in 2022, missing out on The International 2022, before falling apart in November that year, leading to T1’s departure from Dota 2.
