Faker’s T1 wins League of Legends global championship

South Korea’s video game team T1 led by local hero and professional player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok won the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, its fourth throne in the annual electric sports competition, defeating Chinese rival Weibo Gaming in Sunday's final watched by about 100 million fans across the world.

T1 of the League of Legends Champions Korea took down Weibo Gaming from China’s League of Legends Pro League 3-0. League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published in 2009 by Riot Games Inc. In the game, two teams of five players battle in player-versus-player combat, to destroy the opposing team’s Nexus, a structure that serves as the primary objective in all MOBA game models, and win the match.

“I was grateful to play the game watched by so many fans,” Lee said in an interview after the victory. “I was happier for the team to win because all the team members made great efforts.”

NO RETIREMENT

Lee, a gold medalist at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou last year, dispelled market rumors that he may quit his playing career after the victory. He renewed a contract with T1 for three years in late 2022.

“I am still under a contract,” the 27-year-old player, the oldest member of the group, said when asked about any retirement plans.

South Korean professional video game players often retire in their mid-20s as they start losing their edge around that age.

Lee is known as the professional game player with the highest annual salary with an estimated more than 7.5 billion won ($5.8 million). He will have a 5.66% stake in SK Telecom CS T1 Co. if he exercises his stock option granted by the operator of T1, according to its filing to a South Korean financial regulator in January.

T1 consists of five players – Lee, Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon, Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, Ryu “Keria” Min-seok and Choi “Zeus” Woo-je. T1 is scheduled to end contracts with three of its members, except for leader Lee and Moon.

MEGA HIT

Riot Games has been hosting the League of Legends World Championship since 2011. The US game publisher has held the annual esports event three times in South Korea – in 2014, 2018 and 2023.

Tens of thousands of League of Legends fans gathered to see if Faker could win his fourth crown in the championship in seven years.

About 18,000 enthusiasts started queuing about two hours before the battle at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. Tickets for the final game were priced at up to about 240,000 won ($186) but they were sold at thousands of dollars on online second-hand market websites.

Some 15,000 fans, who could not get the tickets, got together at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, where crowds gather to watch televised World Cup soccer matches, to enjoy the final. It was the first time fans gathered to watch an esports event at the square.

More game lovers watched the event through livestreams online. The number of viewers was expected to hit a record high this year, according to Riot Games. The number of simultaneous viewers grew to 7.4 million in 2021 from 4.6 million in 2020 and 4.4 million in 2019.

Naz Aletaha, Riot Games’ global head of League of Legends esports said the number of viewers was estimated to surge 65% this year compared to 2022.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at 2JuHyun@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.