Faker

Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok is the most decorated League of Legends player. He is a 27 year old Korean, playing for T1 as a Midlaner.

Faker has won four World Championships (2013, 2015, 2016, 2023, the most of any player) and 2 Mid-Season Invitationals (2016, 2017), and has 10 combined LCK and Champions Korea titles. He is sometimes referred to as "The Unkillable Demon King" by Korean fans.[1]

Faker originally started playing League of Legends under the name 고전파 (Which can be read as Go-Jeon-Pa or gojeonpa), and initially only played normal games. However, after stacking up on victories, his matchmaking rate ended up being so high that the queue times ended up taking too long, which made him switch to ranked play. Nearing the end of the second season of ranked play in 2012, Faker ended up being ranked second on the Korean ladder, and in the following season claimed the number one spot. [2][3] At first Faker announced himself playing with an amateur team that consisted of himself, Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho, and two other players. Later Faker was approached by coach Kim "kkOma" Jeong-gyun who was a coach for SK Telecom T1, who offered him a position on a team. He was then officially announced as the first player for the sister team SK Telecom T1 2 on February 6th, 2013. [4] With the signing, he also officially changed his gamertag to Faker from 고전파.

The team was later fully revealed on February 28th, officially named SK Telecom T1 K, and saw the additions of Jeong "Impact" Eon-young, Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin, and Lee PoohManDu Jeong-hyeon. [5]

The team debuted in Champions Spring 2013, and in the opening match against CJ Entus Blaze Faker would already break out in his first game. Facing off against Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong who at the time was seen as the country's premier mid laner. In that game Faker managed to secure a solo kill on Ambition to take First Blood, after which he also pushed the advantage by tower diving the bot lane, and killing their jungler after that, he secured four kills in under eight minutes, and led the team to a decisive series victory. [6]

For the remainder of the tournament, Faker was the focal point of the team. He picked up over 36% of his team's kills and accrued a 133 kills in 20 games. In which he placed third overall in these statistics in the event. In addition, he also led the statistic of earned gold per minute and gold share. Even being the only player in the league to earn above 300 GPM. Furthermore, he ranked second overall in creep score, Only Ambition finished further than him in CS per Minute, but he played games that were two and a half times longer than Faker's on average. [8] However despite his efforts the team eventually was defeated in the Semifinals, as they lost against the eventual champions, MVP Ozone. They were able to console themselves with a 3-0 victory against CJ Entus Frost to end the tournament in third overall.

Heading into Champions 2013 Summer had continued to refine his efficiency. Leading the statistic of CS per minute with 9.4, alongside leading the game in earned gold per minute, again being the only player to hit above 300 while also maintaining a 12.6 kills and assists average per game. Powered by an unprecedentedly efficient approach to the game, SKT went 6-0 in their group and only lost a single game on their way to the finals. At the finals, they had to face KT Rolster and initially found themselves behind 0-2 in the series. But in game three showed up with a great performance on Zed, securing a 9/0/8 KDA, and bringing back the team in the series. With another victory in game four, the team had tied up the series. And now had to face off in a blind pick game five. This format led to the Zed mirror match-up against Yoo Ryu Sang-wook in the midlane. Although the game was already heavily in favour of SKT, it did birth one of League of Legends iconic moments as Faker outplayed Ryu. As Faker was able to come back from a huge HP deficit by dodging Ryu's abilities in an intense display of mechanics and managed to kill Ryu. Following the outplay, the series was closed out with SKT's victory, crowning themselves the champions of the tournament. Faker was also awarded the MVP award of the season. [8]

With their victory, they were seeded straight into the finals of the Regional Finals. Here they'd again face off against KT Rolster who made their way through the bracket, and this time SKT won the series in a convincing 3-1 record, with KT even surrendering in the last game. With this victory, Faker was set to make his international debut at the Season 3 World Championship.

Heading into the tournament, Faker was already being seen as the world's best midlaner, if not the world's best player. Following an interview with Oh My God's midlaner Yu "cool" Jiajun after OMG had won a game against SKT in the Group Stage, he stated how hard it was to kill Faker in the game, nicknaming him the Unkillable Demon King, a nickname that would stick throughout time. Apart from their loss against OMG, SKT managed to beat all other teams in their group to secure a 7-1 record to secure their spot in the Quarterfinals where they had to face off against the Gamania Bears which they convincingly beat 2-0. It was only in the semifinals that SKT was tested as they faced off against fellow Korean team NaJin Black Sword. The series would be a back-and-forth going the distance, but ultimately SKT came out on top to qualify for the grand finals. Here they convincingly beat Royal Club in a 3-0 sweep, even closing out the third game in just over 20 minutes. With this victory, Faker had won his first Worlds title at just the age of 17.

Faker at the 2013 World Championship

Faker at the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational

Faker and Duke at the 2016 World Championship

Faker at MSI 2017 Finals

Faker at LCK Summer 2018

Faker at the 2019 World Championship

Faker at LCK Summer 2021

Faker at Worlds 2022

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