Why is Faker Considered As The Best League Player?

League of Legends has a lot of amazing players in all of its championship leagues but Faker is known as the “Unkillable Demon King” of League of Legends and is argued upon as the best player in competitive play for a lot of reasons. Let us discuss in this article why he has such a reputation and whether is it genuine to place him as one of the best or not.

Faker has achieved a lot of things in the competitive league scene that no other player has even come close to achieving. He has the most Worlds Trophies to his name and his team is the only one that has won back-to-back Worlds championships.

Who is Faker?

Lee Sang-Hyeok, also known as Faker, is a professional League of Legends player for T1 from South Korea. He was formerly known as GoJeonPa on the Korean server. In 2013, SK Telecom T1 signed him as a mid-laner, and he has been a part of that team since. He is 26 years old and is arguably one of the best, if not the best, player of all of League of Legends. He was born on the 7th of May in Seoul, South Korea. He was raised by a single father who had high ambitions for him to be a prodigious pro gamer.

He used to play other MOBAs but switched to League in December of 2011. He got into high school soon after, but due to him being extremely talented, Esports teams were already looking to sign him. In the end, Faker joined SK Telecom T1, now known as T1, and dropped out of high school. It wasn’t a waste as he quickly climbed to the highs of League pro play and made a name for himself that still is around to this day.

He grew up with his team SKT T1 a lot, he overcame his aggression in light of their coach who guided him properly. He is T1’s largest brand and even a part owner now at T1. After Kkoma left, the team struggled a lot, and certainly, Faker must have too, but now he shows reforming qualities and is becoming a great leader of the team.

Why is Faker Considered the Best?

Here’s some of the reasons why Faker is considered one of the best League of Legends players in the world:

His Solo-Queue Adventures

To start with, he affirms his skills in League of Legend’s ranked solo queue a lot on stream, where he exhibits his hold on the game, Fans from all over the world flock to his stream even though he doesn’t talk in english during his streams. Fans love to watch his raw talent outfold in normal league gameplay outside of pro play.

Over the years, he has accumulated a large fan base outside of his competitive play. On Twitch he has 3.8 million followers, where he doesn’t stream anymore. On Youtube, he has 1.65 million subs to his daily stream highlights, and he streams now on a platform called AfreecaTV, although there he has a more Korean viewer base.

To move on to his professional career, we begin from the start of him joining SKT.

Start of Professional Career and Worlds

As he started his pro career with SKT T1, he quickly rose to the top of the Worlds Regional Qualifiers of Korea, made his way to the Worlds Championship, won his first ever international championship title, and got the Worlds Trophy.

He was one of the brightest pro players in the scene at that time, and he conquered the top stage extremely early in his career. During his next year in pro play, he did not do so well and didn’t even make it to Worlds this time around.

His Second Coming to Worlds

To come back from this dire loss, he even had to cope with roster changes as well; as it happened this new roster worked out well for him and his team. At the end of 2015, they had won the Summers season with an incredible 17-1 score, a record in LCK, won the regional qualifiers, and made it to the Worlds, and with determination and Faker being extremely dominant in his gameplay, they won the Worlds Championship once again and were the only team in League to ever have won two Worlds Championships under their belts.

Acclaiming His Kingdom

As 2016 started, Faker and his team had plans to make this year, THEIR  year. At first, they won IEM Season X World Championship, after this their first ever Mid Seasonal Invitationals (MSI), and to do the unthinkable Faker was making his way to another Worlds Championship. After a great 3-2 series in the finals, Faker and SKT T1 did it again, they had won back-to-back Worlds Championships and were once again the only team to do so even up until today.

It was Faker’s third Worlds Title, and he had asserted his dominance in the mid lane and was dubbed as “The best to ever have touched a mouse and keyboard in League”. Faker in these years with his team and star coach Kkoma had done something that was unrivaled. This was both T1’s and Faker’s peak of their reign.

Fall of an Empire

After this, we saw a huge decline in their dominance, Faker continued to play extremely well, but new prodigious talent in other teams and in other roles was taking over LCK and SKT fell behind, failing to make Worlds in the coming seasons. Although this seems like a sad die-down of a great player, it seems it hasn’t yet ended.

The Emperor Returns?

As 2022 started, Faker looked extremely strong, alongside his team of new talents, he is now not the main focus of the team, yet a leader and a great guide to the new blood in his team. This version of T1 just won the Spring Season with an amazing performance of 18-0 and breaking their own record that they set and winning the whole Season.

Faker might not be in the spotlight but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t worthy of his “Unkillable Demon King” title anymore. He still holds good performance with better than average kill percentage in his matches. Faker is arguably one of the most iconic legends in League history and certainly the most loved. His streams gather a huge amount of viewers that watch him play out solo queue games even with a language barrier, this just goes to show how incredibly amazing his reputation is.

Faker’s days are not close to an end and certainly haven’t ended and all his fans hope that he rises to the top once again.

Final Thoughts

Faker has had one of the most influential careers in League of Legends and is renowned by everyone all over the world as one of the GOATs in the competitive scene. Although we don’t know how he will do in the upcoming future, we wish luck to the legendary “Faker Faker Playmaker” and his endeavors to win and stand on top of the Worlds Championship Trophy Podium.

What do you think about Faker’s career? Do you think he has a chance of being at the top again this season? Who else do you think is a great competitive player other than faker? Is Faker justified being the top player? We love hearing your feedback, so make sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments summoner!