In sports, feats sometimes are so athletic that they’re difficult to compute. Michael Jordan defying gravity with his leaping ability, for example.
In esports, there’s the Michael Jordan of esports: Lee Sang-hyeok, the 28-year-old South Korean superstar best known by his in-game handle, “Faker.”
What does it look like when Faker pulls off an incredible esports feat? And how does that transition while competing in one of the world’s biggest competitive gaming tournaments?
Newcomers to the realm of League of Legends (LoL) might want to call technical support for a glitching computer monitor. But that’s just how the four-time LoL world champion moves. Every move is calculated, and every “glitch” is planned.
The 2024 League of Legends World Championships (LoL Worlds) has been an ongoing competition throughout Europe since Sept. 25, with events hosted in Berlin, Paris and London. The event concludes Saturday at London’s The O2 Arena with defending champion T1 competing against Chinese team Bilibili Gaming. Faker has been a household name with T1 — and esports in general — for more than a decade.
Saturday’s final takes top priority, but the Hall of Famer isn’t afraid of discussing plans for more success in the future.
“Even if I get to win Worlds this year,” he said, “(Saturday) is not my last shot.”
Competitive LoL pits two teams of five in a multiplayer online contest. Players level up by defeating computer-generated enemies and vanquishing the avatars of their human foes, with the ultimate goal of taking down their opposing team’s base.
Massive maps and game mechanisms throw in a great dose of unpredictability, requiring Faker and the rest of the gamers to constantly toggle between several interfaces for a better overview. A constant flickering screen happens to be the side product of maximizing efficiency.
Sheer mechanics alone didn’t earn Faker a moniker like “The Unkillable Demon King.” Since debuting as a 17-year-old professional, Faker has claimed 10 domestic titles in League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), and at the biggest stage, the LoL Worlds, he could have a ring for all five fingers on one hand if he can lead his South Korean team to a repeat championship run Saturday.
How popular is Faker? This 2021 photo shows a bus stop billboard in Seoul. (Jung Yeon-Je / AFP via Getty Images)
For some challengers awaiting Saturday’s grand finale, one stat line stands out: T1 is 8-0 all-time against Chinese teams in LoL Worlds.
Teams from the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) in China have etched their names into esports history at LoL Worlds in recent years, hoisting the championship trophy in 2018 (Invictus Gaming), 2019 (FunPlus Phoenix) and 2021 (Edward Gaming). In the next three tournaments, however, Faker led T1 to back-to-back-to-back championship appearances.
Bilibili is the defending LPL champion. With a nation’s hope on their shoulders, the upstarts recognize that Saturday is bigger than a few rounds of games.
“T1 is indeed undefeated against LPL teams at Worlds, but that doesn’t matter much to me,” 22-year-old Bilibili star Chen “Bin” Zebin said. “Our team actually has never lost to T1 in a best-of-five series, so I think the match will be an easy, 3-0 sweep victory for us.”
Bin’s teammate, Zhuo “Knight” Ding, has the tall order of clashing with Faker directly in the mid lane of the map. One of the game’s rare southpaws, Knight was eliminated by Faker and T1 in the semifinals last year as a member of Weibo Gaming. After joining forces with Bin at Bilibili, Knight sees an opportunity to put up a banner and forge a new legacy.
On the other side, Faker is hoping to score a victory, knowing he and Knight have traded wins and losses in previous encounters.
“This time around, all I can do is my best in terms of preparation,” Faker said. “The result will follow.”
Faker will have added motivation to perform well Saturday. He said his family will make the flight from South Korea to London, and a win in front of his grandmother, Kwon Oyun, would rank as one of the greatest accomplishments for someone who already has multiple championships on his resume.
“I’m very grateful that they decided to fly for more than 12 hours in order to support me and give a lot of energy and support,” Faker said. “I didn’t get to spend time with family members, but they were supporting me in and out.”
(Top photo of Faker: Carsten Koall / Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
