The Private Chef For Korea's #1 Gaming Team

T1 is a very well known name in the gaming world. Faker, Keria, Zeus, Oner, and Gumayusi are some of the most famous players in history, and command the popularity of almost K-POP idol-like status. But what fuels these top level players, whose profession requires them to sit for hours on end? What do they eat before competing at LCK Grand Finals?

Meet Alex Kim, Head Chef of T1. Responsible for not only the T1 League Team, Alex and his two sous chefs, Jun and Jake, supervise the cooking and diet for the entire T1 organization. His cooking repertoire is vast, ranging from Japanese, Korean, Western, to Italian food, painstakingly tailored to the players' diets while maintaining optimal flavor.

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a week at the T1 HQ in Gangnam, Korea, where I got to see this culinary wizard in action and capture how things really worked behind the scenes at such a legendary organization.

Thank you to T1, Josh Ahn, Alex, Jun, Jake, The T1 League team (Faker, Keria, Oner, Zeus, Guma), my translators Jess and Junho, and the lovely T1 staff for welcoming me with such open arms. I had a wonderful time seeing the heart that goes into feeding these players, day after day, and I am now a loyal fan for life.

T1 Fighting!

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Chef Alex Kim:

T1 Bap (their food account):

T1 Cafe & Arena:

Clips courtesy of LCK:

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Ending Music Credits:

BigRicePiano
Songs: Golden Hour

[tsoixyz]

he works for T1 and is in bronze? i respect his commitment to feeding in and out of game

[aarog]

'I cook as a fan, not as a coworker" thats so sweet

[galaxychaos]

That man cooks so T1 could cook on stage

[MInchan]

The 5th trophy is for head chef Alex Kim.

[jnesy]

esports needs more of this. so many amazing personalities that never get the camera time, this was a great video

[nikkile]

Hearing him talk about the team made me tear up. I really felt the unconditional love from his cooking and they way he talked about T1. T1 Fighting!

[alvinzhoufilms]

T1

신나다
신나다 신나다 신나다

Side note: This was filmed during the 2023 LCK Spring Finals, but unfortunately I had a large technical delay during the editing process due to some hard drive damage, which took me over a year to resolve. This ultimately ended in me having to re-edit the entire video after already completing 40% of it, which is why this release is a lot later than anticipated.

Thank you again to the T1 team and chef team for their patience, and for welcoming me into their home to tell this story.

[usamaepekonis]

Wasn't expecting to see faker on the thumbnail, I guess all roads really do lead up to him

[AbrahamQuerimitReyes]

*Chef Alex Kim's hard work and dedication to cooking for the T1 League team are outta this world.*

[kennethxu]

Love that he’s kind of just a normal guy on camera, and it seems like he really enjoys his job. Great video

[colinhendry]

This chef is an exemplary reason for why food service was created thousands of years ago. The thoughtfulness and empathy really shows. Thank you Chef Alex!

[Chris_Tofu]

Now that I've finished watching, if I remember correctly, this was recorded at what was T1's 2023 "peak" before Worlds. They came into the 2023 Spring finals having already beaten Gen.G in the winner's bracket semi-finals after an already impressive regular season, but the finals ended up as shown in the video, and then the following Summer season was disastrous. Faker was unable to play for many weeks because of a wrist injury, T1's performances collapsed without him, and they were at real risk of not even making playoffs.

It's warming to know more about the chefs who (alongside the other staff) were there for the players through the Summer season to help T1 back up through their stuggles, rally to reach playoffs, manage to place second regionally once again, and then were even able to fully support them during T1's home World Championships—with T1 becoming Korea's last hope from their quarter-finals match onwards as they romped on to become world champions once more. Not only did they erase the demons from the previous year's World Championship finals loss to DRX, but this victory also made them decide to stick together, as coming into the 2023 World Championships they had considered parting ways after spending many years together as a five.

I can't imagine how overjoyed the head chef was after all of that.

[CHEFPKR]

Nothing but respect for Chef Alex. Seeing his face at the end, you can genuinely see the empathy on his face.

T1 FIGHTING

[calliph]

I knew league was big in Korea, but didn't know it was 10 story building, private chefs level of big.

[Blag_Cog]

btw DAMN Alvin this is such a niche scoop to do an episode on. But soooo interesting.

[PJHR]

잠시 T1에 있었을 때, 카페테리아에 도착하면 항상 컨디션 여쭤봐 주시고, 필요한건 더 없냐고 여쭤보시던 셰프님의 모습이 아직도 생생하네요. 정말 감사했습니다.

[김하은-igb]

T1 선수들과 직원분들의 밥을 챙겨주셔서 감사합니다 ••• 나도 티밥 먹고 힘내고파

[JF]

15:48 "That's why you're bronze" LMAO cameraman's got no filter

[Blag_Cog]

Here for Alvin before the T1 fans find this

[IntriguingPandaChick]

i had to do a double take at the channel and title but WOWWWW this is amazing! as a huge fan of T1 and an enjoyer of anime with alvin, this is a great watch