Embarrassing launch of T1 store in South Korea

The opening of the T1 shop in South Korea could hardly be more catastrophic. Who knows what the organizers were thinking when the T1 merch store opened? Maybe nothing at all, because nothing goes wrong without a plan, as the saying goes.

Actually, one would expect more from T1. After all, it is one of the most renowned esports organizations in the world with its own building that has everything an esports heart could wish for, from its own nutritionist and sports coach to English classes. Then how does the store opening go so awry with even Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong’s name being misspelled on the jerseys?

Anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong

Murphy’s Law fully applied here, because just about anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. A great many Korean fans shared their experience of the launch on Twitter and the most embarrassing thing was that star ADC Gumayusi’s name was misspelled on the shirts. It said “Gumayushi” and the way that was “covered up” is just cheeky!

Just take a bit of tape, nobody will notice. But those responsible were very wrong. It’s clear that nobody would seriously buy a shirt with the player’s name wrong on it. You would only buy it as a gag or as a memento for the chaotic launch day. The tape is also a reminder of TSM, who simply taped over the suffix on their jerseys after the scandal of their sponsor FTX.

Over the past few years, Gumayusi has emerged as one of the most promising players in Korea and has already started building his legacy with the team. You would actually expect a professional esports organization to properly print their players’ names on their jerseys. But maybe the intern was having a bad day?

Big crowds, long queues

But the name wasn’t the only problem. The organizers of the store opening made no attempt to get the crowd under control, which is why there were long waiting times for the many fans. Only 15 people were allowed in the store at a time and this caused frustration among the fans.