On the evening of April 17 (Vietnam time), the LCK community and T1 fans in particular, as well as the global League of Legends community in general, were stirred up. Specifically, in a stream segment (which was later deleted), Faker had to speak out about the exploitative schedule imposed by T1’s management. He was forced to juggle promotional activities, fan meetings, movie promotions… while also ensuring his daily livestream schedule according to the team’s plan. This really made Faker feel extremely exhausted, and his gaming performance was also affected.
Not to mention, aside from T1’s management scheduling a “grueling” work routine for Faker, KeSPA also played a role. According to some sources from the LCK community, KeSPA has even begun to summon 10 players for the final selection round and started training. This makes Faker’s schedule even more intense, especially when T1 also has to prepare for MSI 2022. Faker himself admitted that he is overloaded, but all his words “have no effect”.
After Faker’s stream was released, the LCK community was outraged and condemned T1’s management as well as KeSPA. While T1 is already notorious for fully exploiting their star player and has faced backlash before, KeSPA is being criticized for the cumbersome selection process for the South Korean representative at the 2022 Asian Games. The unreasonable scheduling by the involved parties has put Faker in a state of overload, leading him to speak out.
Following the outrage from the LCK community, T1’s management had to swiftly cancel all streaming schedules of T1 members that very night. However, beneath the announcement, fans’ anger remained as the team continues to “exhaust” Faker.
Recently, KeSPA also had to take action after facing immense public pressure. Specifically, this committee announced that all public match schedules would be canceled, and the selection process would only take place internally. The standards will not be removed, but the audience will only know the final 6 names after the selection process concludes.
KeSPA also had to cancel the initial plans for open selection matches and announced that the entire selection process for the 2022 Asian Games would be conducted internally.
Once again, Faker proves his influence, protecting himself as well as other players. If Faker hadn’t spoken up, this situation could have persisted and directly impacted the performance of Faker, T1, and the South Korean team in the upcoming important tournaments.