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esports
10 things you didn't know about League of Legends supremo Faker
Most esports fans have heard of Faker, but here are 10 things you might not have known about Lol’s greatest ever player.
'The Unkillable Demon King'. 'The Greatest of All Time'. Lee Sang-hyeok has multiple nicknames, but 'Faker' is the one that everyone will remember him by. Since becoming a professional League of Legends player for T1 as a prodigy in 2013, Faker has since become the most successful player in history.
He’s so far the only player to win the World Championship on four occasions, and his individual accolades far outweigh anyone else in any region. If you follow League of Legends esports, then you probably know about Faker, but here are 10 things you might not have known about the game’s best player.
01
Not just a player
In 2020, Faker signed a new three-year deal with T1. Of course, it’s always good news when your star player says he’ll be sticking around, but along with that announcement came a much bigger one. Faker also became part-owner of T1 Entertainment & Sports.
Plus, he announced he was looking ahead beyond his playing career, saying he would be working with the leadership team of the organisation once he finally hangs up his mouse and keyboard. Whatever T1 end up looking like a few years down the line, they’ll have one of the most experienced and technically skilled players of all time behind them all the way.
02
Brand loyalty
Faker is almost synonymous with the T1 organisation, having been there for such a long time and bringing them so much success. No one has more loyalty to a team than Faker, as he has had the longest career with a single team out of anyone in history.
In 2023, he marked 10 years with the org, and signed on to remain until at least 2025. He currently has no plans to retire.
03
Healthy eater
Some fans were confused after the 2015 World Championship finals. Faker had just won his second Worlds trophy, but for some reason one of the first things he did on stage was to wolf down a piece of broccoli. No, really.
He did it in response to a fan, who mentioned to him once that his hair looks like broccoli… apparently.
04
Multi-talented
Faker is the best midlaner around, but as Luka ‘Perkz’ Perkovic and Rasmus ‘Caps’ Winther have proved this year with their tenure at G2 Esports, being a midlaner doesn’t mean you can’t excel at another position as well.
Faker would pick the jungle if he was forced into another role, and indeed, you will often see him on stream venturing into the trees in solo queue if he can’t get his preferred position.
Faker is one of the world's best LoL players
© Daebong Kim/Red Bull Content Pool
05
Other nicknames
And what do junglers do best? They lurk in the bushes, picking the perfect time to strike when the opponents are unaware in their lanes.
One of Faker’s many alternate League of Legends accounts is called “Hide on bush,” and you’ll find variations of that name across multiple regions as well. There are probably a whole raft of players high up on the ladder who have played against Faker without even realising it.
06
Going skinless
Riot Games make a lot of money from people buying skins for their favourite League of Legends champion. But the game’s best-ever player hasn’t blown the bank on in-game cosmetics.
Faker almost never plays with a skin, preferring to let his flashy plays light up Summoner’s Rift, rather than the animations of the characters he’s playing.
07
Multimedia star
Esports stars in Korea are already pretty famous, but Faker crossed over to the mainstream in 2018 when he appeared on variety/game show Hello Counselor. He seemed to take the jokes about him being a professional gamer in his stride, and even got to appear alongside Seulgi and Joy from the K-pop group Red Velvet, one of his favourite bands.
08
Study buddy
Fifty-one million people live in South Korea, so what are the odds that Faker would have gone to the same high school as one of League of Legends’ other top players? He attended school with Kim ‘Deft’ Hyuk-kyu, and they even joined the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) at the same time, in 2013.
They’ve ended up facing each other on Summoner’s Rift dozens of times over the years, including a 1v1 show match at the start of the 2023 season, but we’ve never found out who was the better student.
Faker with former teammates Cuzz and Teddy
© Daebong Kim/Red Bull Content Pool
09
Bloodthirsty...
Not many players have been around as long as Faker, so it’s understandable he holds a number of records when it comes to League of Legends. The midlane maestro became the first player to win four Worlds titles in 2023, and at age 27, was the oldest player to win the tournament.
10
...but not too bloodthirsty
However, for as bloodthirsty as Faker is, he’s only ever achieved one pentakill in a professional game. Perhaps it’s because by now the enemy teams are scared to even go near him, but it’s still a surprising statistic.
It came all the way back in 2015 in the LCK Champions 2015 Spring, as Faker tore up NaJin e-mFire on LeBlanc, making short work of the enemy team and finishing the game with a kill/death/assist ratio of 10/2/6.
