I have been following T1 since S3-4 while they have always been mainstream but now they are the Mainstream team for a lack of a more imposing word.
They get boosted by most of the marketing spend, Faker getting fed good lines by Riot, sponsors and deals clamor for them. More views lead to more interviews and which then leads to even more views, on and on. While everyone else just seems to be left in the dark, sort of.
Seems like your mom, pop, sister, cousin is a T1 fan and everyone who just started league is also a T1 fan.
I wish other teams in the league are developed and not just T1 all the time, seems like they have a marketing budget of $1M and everyone else $100
The first T1 game I’ve watched was the OGN 2013 Summer Semifinals vs MVP Ozone (still remember the stream having huge technical issues and some games being outright unwatchable as a result) and even back then I believe they were already one of the most popular team in Korea, they had more fans than Ozone from what I recall although the CJ Entus teams and probably Najin Sword were still more popular