When mentioning Faker’s influence in the League of Legends (LoL) scene specifically and Esports in general, many people can probably recount countless pieces of evidence. It’s not just about his professional skills or limited to T1; Faker’s influence has spread across the entire LCK and even the global Esports scene. The achievements of T1 in the recent Summer Split or the fact that Esports is now an official medal event at ASIAD are some of the latest examples.
In fact, not only does he impact the community, but Faker also holds a significant voice even with Riot. Many might still remember the incident where Faker experienced game disruption while trying hard in Korean ranks in 2022, which significantly contributed to Riot Korea’s decision to tighten the distribution of ranked accounts on the Korean server. The VCS also faced severe consequences as professional teams found it increasingly difficult to obtain Korean ranked accounts for practice.
Recently, a humorous incident occurred in the rank when Faker was trying hard in preparation for the 2023 World Championship. As mentioned, while climbing the ranks, Faker teamed up with Zven and had a moment using Kennen that was about to achieve a Pentakill. However, a teammate’s Gragas executed a Flash – Body Slam and used all his combos to take down the opposing Rakan, causing Faker to lose the Pentakill. In fact, the “Demon King” then continuously pinged his teammate and flashed in place out of frustration.
But according to Zven’s account, what happened next was truly humorous. Specifically, the Cloud9 player stated: “This guy stole Faker’s Pentakill in my ranked game. But the funny part is that he kept apologizing profusely afterward, and he even kept chatting apologies while we were in the waiting lobby, as if he had done something wrong to the president.”
Zven’s comments quickly attracted a lot of attention. One player even mentioned: “My friend had 1200 points in Korean Challenger, but one game he faced Faker. That game just happened to be one where he played poorly, and Faker had to ask: ‘What is this Jungler doing? Cheating with win trading? He’s useless at all.’ And right after that, this guy’s account got banned immediately.” But in this case, many believe that he might have ‘fed’ too much or had actions mistaken for game disruption, and Riot handled it without waiting for Faker to speak up.
But it cannot be denied that Faker truly has an immense influence, even on the subconscious of regular players. And Faker’s great career is the answer to any questions about the impact of the “Demon King” on the global League of Legends scene.