The collaboration we didn’t know we needed. South Korean Esports team, T1, joined Korean boy band, BTS for a day of games both in-person and online. T1 made their debut on the latest episode of Run BTS, the boy band’s weekly web series, earlier this week. The two groups, both at the top of their respective industries, bonded through their mutual love of gaming.
The web series, Run BTS, has the band compete in weekly challenges where they can earn rewards or be given punishments. In this episode, BTS and T1 played with and against each other in a series of games. The ice breaker game had the teams in a lengthy name game called “Frying Pan Game” where the boy band prevailed. The second game involved a variation of “rock, paper, scissors” that included a giant hammer and bowl. They also battled it out in a singing competition of BTS hits. For obvious reasons, members of BTS had the upper hand for the in-person challenges; but after moving the competition online, it was a whole different ball game. Teams were mixed to include both groups and they started off competing in League of Legends, with Mundo Dodgeball. Then, moving on to What the Box?, a shooter game where they played as boxes with knives for weapons.
During the episode, both groups revealed how starstruck they were of each other. The Bangtan Boys are huge League of Legends and T1 fans, especially of player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, who is one of only two players to win the League of Legends World Championship three times. On T1’s website, Faker reacted to the experience, saying, “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.” Later on in the episode, T1 player Lee “Effort” Sang-ho, admits to the band that he dyed his hair to look like BTS member V in the “Boy with Luv” music video. According to GameRant, Effort is known to be a major stan of the boy band, he’s even “a registered member of the official ARMY fanclub.”
T1 is a Korean esports team, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor. The League of Legends team includes Faker, Effort, Park “Teddy” Jin Seong, Moon “Cuzz” Woo Chan, and Kim “Canna” Chang-Dong. They will also join BTS for another episode of Run BTS, where they will play Gang Beasts and Fall Guys. The next episode of Run BTS will air on November 10.