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I don't know if there's been a better 36-month span of any e-sport in the history of mankind. League of Legends has been seeing peak viewership year over year, and a lot of it has to do with the greatest of all time, Lee Sang-hyeok "Faker".
Faker is a thing of legend when it comes to anything competitive in the gaming world. He debuted in 2013 with SK Telecom 1, now known as T1 … and it's the only home he's ever known. When he debuted in 2013 he put on a show to vow audiences and captivate fans around the world. Faker ended up winning his first world championship and Korea's maiden title in 2013 in his debut year and took the world by storm. This marked the start of T1s first dynasty and Korea's dominance over the world in League of Legends. Faker went on to win three world championships in 2015 and 2016 (a feat that has never been accomplished by another team) and make another world finals in 2017. Most of the community will tell you that Faker's first half of his career is already enough to call him the GOAT.
In the next couple of years, he faced a bunch of turmoil and entered a major transition period with his franchise. But in 2021, we started to see the blossoming of T1 and their young talent around the GOAT. They developed young talents like Gumayusi, Zeus and Oner and then went out to pick up young superstar support Keira. This roster showed lots of potential, making the semi-final in 2021 and losing in heartbreaking fashion in a five-game series to the defending world champ Damwon Gaming.
But that was just foreshadowing the type of success that Faker and T1 would have in the upcoming years.
In 2022 Faker and T1 had a dominating performance their Spring Split going undefeated the whole way on route to win Faker's 10th domestic title. (That is also another record lol).
Fast forward to the 2022 Worlds, where T1 was a favourite to win it all. They had a very strong tournament, looking like the team to beat consistently through the tournament. As they breezed through and advanced to the final, facing their brethren LCK (Korean) team in DRX, they were the heavy favourites to reignite the T1 dynasty. For those that don't know, DRX was the 4th seed (4 teams from Korea qualify for worlds) and barely made it into the tournament (qualifying in a final series-deciding game). I don't think there was a single prediction in the world (non-biased) that had them running the table and making it to the finals against T1. DRX was a straight-out-of-an-anime series. They had Faker's high school classmate who had never won an intentional title, let alone attended a semi-final on DRX, whose name is Deft. Deft had the whole world cheering for him as they thought it might be his last year competing on the biggest stage. It was the perfect story: a fourth seed with one of the best players to ever do it that didn't have much international success.
Here was a chance for them to make the Cinderella run and get Deft his first international title. Well, here's a spoiler: DRX ended up beating T1 and having the absolute miracle / scripted run, being a team that made the tournament on the 5th and final game of The qualifying tournament. They beat T1 in a highly contested five-game series that was decided at the end on a heartbreak play. T1 even led that series 2-1. That was huge for League of Legends and the e-sport seeing massive viewership numbers. This would be the second time that Faker tasted defeat in the Finals, as his record now stood 3-2.
The beautiful thing about Faker is that every single Worlds he's been to you can pretty much pencil him in for a top 4 finish as his team always makes the semi final. The other thing is that. He never lost to a Chinese team (LPL) in a multi-game series at the world championships, and he had four losses so far in the semi-finals 1 to Samsung Galaxy (Korean) in the 2017 finals, 1 to G2 (European) in 2019 Semi-Finals, 1 to Damwon Gaming (Korean) in 2021 and 1 to DRX (Korean) in 2022.
Here's another fact that will build into the drama, Faker has never been to a World Championship held in Korea. Which set the stage for Worlds 2023 which was held in Fakers home country Korea.
We'll fast forward along to the 2023 Summer Split (Worlds take place from October to November), but teams qualify all year from January to August. Faker had a wrist injury and had to sit out. T1 has some of the best players in the world, but without Faker, they lost almost all their games. The team looked like a shell of themselves, and the community now heavily doubts T1 and their ability to qualify for worlds. At this point, T1 was looking doomed, and the 2023 Worlds was being held in Korea on Faker's 10-year anniversary of his debut and first championship. Well, Faker came back from injury, and I'm sure you can guess: The team goes on a tear to qualify for the World Championships. The stage was set for Faker to make his debut in Korea at a World Championship. A line that would become iconic and synonymous with T1 is that the World is T1's playground.
T1 has a strong showing to start off the tournament in the Swiss stage before knockout stage. Of course they don't lose to the LPL in series. In T1 famous they end up beating a LPL team to qualify for the Knockout stage.
China had some other plans for the host nation. By the time T1's played their first match in the knockout stage… All Korean teams were eliminated from the tournament, making T1 the last remaining team for Korean fans. So it was literally Faker and T1 vs China. Mind you, Faker already beat 1 of the Chinese teams to qualify for the Knockout stage. Well, this is a scripted / Cinderella run. He did exactly what you think he did. He ended up beating the other 3 Chinese teams that qualified on his road to his 4th championship, beating them 10 years after his first championships and winning his first world championship on home soil in Korea. You really couldn't have scripted anything better than that. The scriptwriters have drawn up two incredible scripts in the last year.
Well fast forward to this year. Let's just say that T1 did not have a smooth road to the world championships this year. They did their best impersonation of DRX (insert the Spiderman meme lol) They qualified in the final game 5 in the qualifying tournament to represent Korea as their 4th and final seed. They looked weak all summer and most people were shocked they made it to worlds.
Many experts didn't see T1 as a strong team… but everyone in the world acknowledged the "buff" / "Aura" that T1 get when they get to worlds. This team is just a different animal when it comes to worlds and their playground.
T1 started off losing their first game to an LPL team. But they managed to rally and advance to the knockout stage by beating the number 1 Chinese team, "BLG," in a 3-game series. In the Quarterfinals, T1 made quick work of the 2nd seed from the LPL "TES" in a 3-0 sweep. Mind you, T1 never loses to China, but they've had a majority of their losses to their own brethren. So we head on to the semi-final as T1 faces their biggest mountain to climb as they match up against their biggest rivals that have dominated them in their domestic region of Korea - GenG. T1 has been beaten by GenG for pretty much the last two years in every match that mattered in their domestic league. Well, this is Faker's world, and we are just living in it. They ended up beating GenG with some huge plays from Faker and advancing to face BLG again in the World Finals…. Mind you, this team has been to two world finals in a row, and this is their third. It is insane to think that this roster that T1 put together has been to three consecutive World Championship finals. Which many would argue makes them the greatest team ever.
Do I need to say it again… T1 and Faker do not lose to Chinese teams. Faker and T1 won their unprecedented 5th World Championship and literally flipped the script like DRX did, being a 4th seed that barely qualified and making a miracle run, winning in the final decisive Game 5 of the World Finals after trailing in the series 2 - 1 backs against the wall just like DRX did to them 24 months ago.
It's one of the most ridiculous runs I've ever watched in all of sport but more so I've ever enjoyed. I'm a huge T1 fan and having these last three years filled with the rollercoaster of heartbreak and joy when winning, has been something in my lifetime I'll never forget or probably see again. We have to appreciate these moments in sport and competition regardless if you enjoy the sport. It is impressive to say the least.
I'll sign off with this: Faker has won 5 international titles, the most ever for an individual player. The next closest in championships by an individual player is only by his teammate Bengi, with three winning, all of them in his first dynastic run. After that, there are eight players that have won 2…. 7 out of the 8 were his teammates that won at least one title with him. 6 out of those 8 won their two championships and repeated with him in 2015 and 2016 or 2023 and 2024.
You can split his career up into two halves, and he's the GOAT if you leave out the other half… but one thing that you can never do is match the legacy of Faker.
