T1 CEO Joe Marsh said Monday that the organization would remain based in North America after a recent Valorant trade with Cloud9 led fans to speculate that T1 might set up shop in South Korea.

T1 acquired Son ‘xeta’ Seon-ho and coach Yoon ‘Autumn’ Eu-teum from Cloud9 in exchange for retired American player Rahul “curry” Nemani. The deal went through Sunday shortly after Cloud9’s first match of the Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2 Challengers.

Because T1 has esports teams in both South Korea and North America, the move led some to think that the organization was building an all-Korean Valorant squad so they could franchise in that region instead.

Marsh said on social media Monday that that wasn’t the case.

“Our plan is to stay in North America,” Marsh wrote. “After meeting with (Joshua ‘steel’ Nissan) and our GM we felt that the success we had with a mixed nationality roster … (was the) best path forward with us since we have scouts in both US and Korea and gives us a larger pool to pull from.”

T1 released their previous Valorant head coach, David Denis, on Friday.

–Field Level Media