Remember last year on Faker’s 24th birthday, fans rented an LED screen at Times Square in New York, USA to celebrate his birthday? The screen displayed the message “Happy 24th Birthday to SK T1 Faker.”
This year, fans in Vietnam have also prepared donation plans to send gifts to the Demon King on time, while global fans are likely plotting something that we will find out tomorrow. While we wait, let’s celebrate Faker’s 25th birthday with 20 interesting facts about him.
1. In South Korea, Faker’s birthday is commonly referred to as Faker Day.
2. Faker’s zodiac sign is Taurus.
3. Faker is the youngest in the family, with only one older brother. Both were mostly raised by their father and grandmother, while Faker’s mother was often absent from their lives.
4. Faker stopped his studies at the age of 17 to join SKT in 2013. “If I retire, I want to go back to school.”
5. Before deciding on the name Faker, his in-game name was 고전파 (Gojeonpa), under which he began his first ranked matches in Season 2012 and quickly reached an ELO of 2536, higher than most professional players in South Korea at that time.
6. Faker is one of the highest-paid esports players in the world. In 2014, his salary was around $260,000 per year, and by 2018, his rumored salary was about $2.5 million per year. However, Faker is incredibly frugal, spending only about $178 a month.
7. Lee, who is soon to trademark his own name, representing brands from national to luxury, recently boldly stated: “Playing games for free is the best; I haven’t even spent a dime on MapleStory.”
8. Faker’s first livestream on Twitch.tv was on December 6, 2017. His stream peaked at over 245,000 concurrent viewers, making it one of the most-watched individual livestreams in Twitch history.
9. Faker has won numerous individual awards and titles since starting his professional gaming career: Pandora.TV Awards, Hot Six Awards, Republic of Korea e-Sports Popularity Award, Grand Prize, Republic of Korea e-sports Legends League Most Valuable Player Award, and World Championship Most Valuable Player.
10. Faker first started gaming at the age of 12. He began his gaming career with Warcraft III, playing maps like Footman Frenzy and DotA. When League of Legends was released in South Korea in 2011, Faker quickly transitioned to this game.
11. Faker has never lost a match using the champion LeBlanc in professional play (until facing EDG in the MSI finals 2015). He has also never lost a match with the champion Ryze at the League of Legends World Championship (until facing SSG in the 2017 World Championship finals).
12. Dustin Beck, Vice President of Riot, once called Faker the “Michael Jordan” of League of Legends during a press conference at Staples Center. Meanwhile, player MakNoon compared him to the “Lionel Messi” of League of Legends.
13. Faker does not like bubble tea.
14. Faker dislikes wearing skins because their effects make it hard for him to focus. To date, Faker has only used skins 9 times. Even in Teamfight Tactics, his champions are all default skins.
15. Faker is one of only four players to successfully defend the World Championship title.
16. When not competing or practicing, Faker enjoys reading books and sleeping.
17. Faker is taught in Chinese textbooks. Specifically, the author of the book introduced and detailed Faker: from how he was an exemplary student in school to today. The essay also pointed out that Faker’s interests completely differ from those of most other professional gamers, and after becoming part of eSports, Faker devoted all his energy and time to gradually achieve his current position.
18. Faker uses a mouse set to “1800 DPI” and clicks about 200 times per minute.
19. Faker has a “super huge” anti-fan, who is Wolf.
20. In 2016 and 2017, Wolf recounted that Faker practiced so intensely that he was always the last to leave the training room, living almost solely for practice. There were times he only slept 5 hours and said he didn’t want to eat, just doing enough to sustain himself. By the time of the competition, he was extremely thin. Now he is aware of his age and no longer over-trains, sleeps well, eats balanced meals, and knows to exercise lightly and have suitable leisure activities.
Lastly, happy birthday, Faker.